Interspersed Requests: a Nonaversive Procedure for Reducing Aggression and Self-Injury During Instruction

This report presents 2 assessments of the effect of interspersed requests, simple commands that are interspersed among instructional trials. Participants were individuals with severe mental retardation who used aggression & self-injury to avoid difficult instructional situations. Results suggest that interspersed requests were effective at increasing the responsiveness of the learners to instructions & reducing levels of aggression & self-injury. (40 refs.)