Using Pretask Requests to Increase the Probability of Compliance for Students with Severe Disabilities

This article describes a nonaversive procedure to increase the probability that students with moderate and severe handicapping conditions will follow a directive to begin to work. Pretask requesting was evaluated using an ABA and BAB reversal design across four students with moderate and severe handicaps. The study suggests that familiar, rapidly paced, verbal directions with reinforcement can effectively mediate transitions from one activity to another. The theoretical implications of the procedure for a nonaversive technology of preemptive behavioral treatment are discussed.