Increasing Compliance and Task Completion in a Child with Borderline Intellectual Functioning: An Application of the Behavior Modification Principle

Abstract

Behavior modification has been proven to increase the probability of desirable behavior in various settings. Although a lot of research has shown this method of intervention to be effective, few studies have been conducted with participants who have borderline intellectual functioning (BIF). The current case study aims to evaluate whether the application of the behavior modification principle; specifically, positive reinforcement, would result in an increased percentage of compliance and task completion in a 7 yearold child with BIF. Types of reinforcement used were consumable and social. A multiple-baseline across the behavior design was used to evaluate the intervention. While the intervention for compliance was being introduced, the task completion was still at the baseline phase for nine more trials. All sessions were conducted in the participant's house. Data collected indicate that delivering consumable and social reinforcing feedback to the participant resulted in an increase of 40.6% compliance over baseline, exceeding the initial target. The participant also showed an increased percentage of task completion of 26.9% over baseline, using the same kinds of reinforcement. The intervention produced similar positive results on both behaviors, even though the task completion was intervened in later than the compliance. These results also suggest that the application of positive reinforcement is successful in increasing compliance and task completion ability in a child with BIF.

Effectiveness of Positive Reinforcement to Improve Discipline through Caregiver

“…Behavior modification is a technique to increase and shape a desirable behavior in a structured environment (Miltenberger, 2016). Some researchers have investigated behavior modification to increase desirable behaviors such as on-task behavior (Nasa, Pudjiati, & Tjakrawiralaksana, 2018) and compliance (Kusumah & Pudjiati, 2017) with or without specific disorders (Carter, 2010). One behavior modification technique is positive reinforcement.…”