Foxx, R. M. & Mendl, J. (2007). The long term successful treatment of the aggressive/destructive behaviors of a preadolescent with autism. Behavioral Interventions, 22, 83-97.
A 13- year boy with autism was successfully treated with a program including a high density of reinforcement, choice making, response cost, overcorrection and physical restraint. The aggression was reduced to near zero levels and time spent on academic behavior increased. Key to the program success was trained ABA professionals who provided oversight and participated daily. Restitutional overcorrection was used when the boy turned over or threw an object in the room, which he was then required to restore the object and all of the tables and chairs in the classroom. Positive practice overcorrection was applied for inappropriate behaviors that “lent” themselves to this procedure. An example of an overcorrection used, was talking loudly or yelling in the hallway, he was required to walk quietly up and down the hall several times. Overcorrection procedures were recycled if the subject repeated the inappropriate behavior at any time during the procedure. Several other techniques were implemented in combination with overcorrection. The first day of the treatment, a strict and consistent crisis management using restraint was used 9 times totaling 180 minutes. By day 4 there was no restraint needed and his average 102 aggressive incidents reduced to 5. The dramatic improvements are likely not the result of overcorrection alone, but were part of the successful treatment combination.
Henderson, H.L., French, R., Fritsch, R., & Lerner, B. (2000). Time-out and overcorrection: A comparison of their application in physical education. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 71 (3), 31-36.
This article included a discussion and comparison of the use of time-out and overcorrection in the P.E. setting. The authors addressed the fact that overcorrection is particularly useful in eliminating or decreasing undesirable behaviors, but has been rarely addressed in the literature specific to behavioral techniques used in physical education publications, (Auxter, pyfer, & Huettig, 1997; Lavay, French, & Henderson, 1997; Foxx, & Azrin, 1973). An advantage of overcorrection over time-out is that it provides an educational component. In overcorrection, the student is told what to do, as opposed to being told what not to do in time-out. The two accepted types of overcorrection are restitutional and positive-practice. In restitutional, it is hoped that the student will learn not to engage in inappropriate behavior by “experiencing the inconvenience of restoring the environment.” In positive-practice the students repeatedly practice the appropriate response. Overcorrection reduces undesired behaviors faster and for longer periods of time than other forms of punishment and is less likely to produce excessive negative student responses. Direct supervision during positive-practice is critical to producing long-lasting behavior change. However, this can be difficult in the P.E. setting where there are very large classes and overcorrection requires one-to-one oversight form an adult. Time to do the correction can also be a problem, as some corrections may take longer. The research does support the efficacy of short interventions, which can be implemented.
Luiselli, J. K. (1980). Programming overcorrection with children: What do the data indicate? Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 9 (3), 224-228.
Overcorrection has been shown to be an effective response-inhibitory technique. This paper is a review of the research relevant to the procedural guidelines regarding such parameters as topographical similarity between overcorrection and misbehavior, and the immediacy, duration and intensity of application. It was attempted to ascertain whether intervention effectiveness of overcorrection is dependent on guideline adherence. The results indicated that strict adherence did not preclude effectiveness and that altering procedures could lead to a valuable saving of time. The evidence also indicates that overcorrection behaviors do not have to be topographically related to the target misbehavior for response reduction to occur. The advantages for practitioners is that when they have a subject with multiple behavior problems, only one overcorrection activity or intervention can be applied and still affect a desired response and outcome. This can save considerable time both in application of intervention and in the training of practitioners. Review of studies also revealed that the application of overcorrection has success in both immediate and delayed (during recess) situations. This can be helpful in situations where immediate overcorrection after the misbehavior is difficult or impossible, such as in classrooms. There were limited studies to review, and none were with mentally impaired subjects who may have difficulty with associating the delayed overcorrection with their misbehavior. Intensity of overcorrection and frequency of overcorrection had few studies to review. It is assumed that intense overcorrection activity and the overcorrection of every behavior (frequency) would produce the most effective results. However, the data was not sufficient to support these suppositions.