The Truth About Consequences 79verbal praise, hugs, and the like) every time she com-
plied. Then she and her parents identified a variety of
meaningful rewards that could be earned in exchange for
compliance, and the parents were helped to design a
“currency” system—in her case, a point system—as a way
of keeping track of the percentage of times Amy com-
plied with their requests. The points were to be ex-
changed periodically for the rewards, each of which had
a price tag. Then the parents began implementing the
time-out procedure when Amy did not comply. So Amy
was receiving a specified number of points every time
she complied with a parental request and was confined
to time-out and lost points when she did not comply.
Amy was now, most assuredly, very motivated to comply
(assuming, of course, that she wasn’t motivated in the
first place).
The following scenario ensued. The parents would
give directions. Amy, whose skills at shifting cognitive set
were not outstanding and who didn’t have the linguistic
skills to let people know that, wouldn’t comply. The par-
ents would repeat their directive. Amy, still at a loss for
words, would become frustrated, for she wasn’t enthusi-
astic about losing points or ending up in time-out. The
parents would remind her of the consequences for not
obeying and of the necessity for immediate compliance.
Rather than helping Amy immediately access the file in
her brain that contained the critical information (“If you