Almost every intervention you write starts with words. You tell a learner what to do, post classroom expectations, hand caregivers a written plan, and give staff a protocol. Instructions and rules are among the cheapest and fastest behavior-change tools you have, but only when you design them well and back them with real consequences.
Why it matters
A well-built instruction can get correct behavior on the first try. A poorly built one gets ignored and repeated until it ends in a power struggle. The same is true for adults: a protocol that looks perfect on paper can drift within a week if nothing happens when staff follow it.
For this task, be ready to pick the best-worded rule or instruction, explain why a rule stopped working, and decide when instructions alone are not enough.
Key ideas
- Instructions are antecedents. An instruction such as "Put your shoes on" specifies a response. It evokes that response only if following similar instructions has been reinforced in the learner's history. For many learners, an instruction works as a verbal prompt that you will later fade so natural cues take over.
- Rules describe contingencies. A rule states, fully or in part, that in some situation a behavior leads to a consequence: "If you finish your checklist, you can pick the music."
- Following instructions and rules is operant behavior. People learn to follow them because doing so has paid off. If following a rule never produces anything, or if competing consequences are stronger, rule-following weakens.
- The listener has to be able to respond. Instructions work only for a learner who already responds to those words. Saying "Wash your hands" louder will not help. Pair it with a model or physical prompt, reinforce the response, and fade the prompt.
- Rules are most useful when direct consequences are weak teachers. Outcomes that are delayed, small on any single occasion, improbable, or dangerous to contact do not shape behavior well. Rules help there, and they are part of why contingency contracts and self-management plans can work.
- Rules can reduce sensitivity to change. Behavior under rule control may continue after the actual contingencies shift. Make sure your rules describe the contingencies people will really contact. When an old rule keeps someone from contacting a new contingency, give an accurate rule for the new setting and reinforce the behavior it names.
Definitions
- Instruction: a verbal antecedent that specifies a response to make, such as a directive or a step in a written protocol.
- Rule: a verbal description of a contingency that links a situation, a behavior, and its consequence; also called a contingency-specifying stimulus.
- Instruction following: responding as an instruction or rule specifies, a repertoire built and maintained by a history of reinforcement.
- Insensitivity to contingencies: the tendency of rule-governed behavior to keep going when the actual contingencies change or conflict with the rule.
Guidelines for effective instructions
- Get the learner's attention first, then give one instruction at a time.
- State it briefly, specifically, and as a directive ("Coat on, please"), not as a question the learner can decline ("Do you want to put your coat on?").
- Wait a few seconds for a response instead of repeating it.
- Reinforce compliance, especially while the repertoire is new.
Guidelines for effective rules
- Keep the list short and age-appropriate.
- Describe observable behavior and state what to do, not only what to avoid.
- Name the consequence when that helps, and make sure it really follows.
- Teach the rules, post them where they apply, and review them often.
Examples from a session
Instructions and rules across settings
- Home: Ava, 6, ignores "Can you clean up?" while watching a show. Her RBT pauses the show, waits until Ava looks over or turns toward her, says "Blocks in the bin," waits five seconds, and praises the first block that goes in.
- School: Mr. Okafor replaces "Don't be disruptive" with three posted rules: "Raise your hand to talk," "Stay in your area during work time," and "Keep hands and feet to yourself." He praises students by name when he sees the rules followed.
- Vocational: Dana, an adult learning to restock shelves, follows a picture-and-text checklist. Her job coach reinforces checklist use, then gradually removes items as the shelves themselves start cueing each step.
- Staff training: A BCBA gives clinic staff a written data protocol. Accuracy is high for a week and then drifts. The fix is not a longer document but feedback on data samples and praise for accurate entries, so following the protocol produces consequences.
Instructions are also the first step of behavioral skills training: you describe the skill, then model it, have the person rehearse, and give feedback. The description alone rarely produces fluent performance.
Common mistakes / exam traps
- Repeating instructions. Repetition teaches the learner that the first few times do not count.
- Writing "don't" rules only. "No running" says what to stop but not what to do. "Walk in the hallway" gives a behavior you can reinforce.
- Vague rules. "Be good" or "Show respect" cannot be reliably taught, followed, or reinforced because no one agrees on what they look like.
- Rules that do not match reality. If tablet time is supposed to follow homework but also follows whining, the rule stops controlling behavior.
- Assuming rules work without consequences. Rule-following is maintained by its outcomes, like any other operant.
Exam trap
When a stem says a rule or protocol "worked at first, then faded," look for a missing or competing consequence. The best answer usually adds feedback or reinforcement for following the rule, not a longer or louder version of the rule.
Exam trap
Skill deficit or outdated rule? If the learner cannot yet do what the words ask, more telling will not help: add a model or prompt, reinforce, and fade. If the learner already does the behavior elsewhere but follows an old rule that does not fit this setting, state an accurate rule for the new setting and reinforce the behavior it names. The deciding feature is whether the behavior already occurs under other conditions.
Quick check
A middle-school teacher asks you to help rewrite one of her classroom rules. Which version follows recommended practice best?