Sit & Watch: A Better Alternative to Time Out
My wife and I went to undergraduate and graduate school together. We obtained advanced degrees in Behavior Analysis and Child Development. After we graduated we married and had our first child. Soon we needed childcare. We visited a number of preschools but few served 1-year-old toddlers and we had one.
We read “The Toddler Center” by Marion O’Brian, Emily Herbert Jackson, and Todd Risley from the University of Kansas. It was a blueprint for how to own and operate a childcare center. Todd Risley and others published a number of studies in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis on various teaching and organizational strategies that they used to develop The Toddler Center. For example, they divided the toddler center into centers: construction toys, push-pull toys, table activities (art), calendar, and diaper changes. Children walked around the centers as they wished. When they entered one a teacher greeted them and prompted them to participate in push-pull toys. When the child tired of the activity he or she walked toward a different center another teacher greeted them and prompted them to participate in that center’s art activity. They found that this Zone defense was superior to the Man-On-Man defense where a teacher supervised the same group of children all day.
We were impressed with the book and the research. We decided to open our own child care center and modeled our center after theirs. It’s a great book, unfortunately, it is out of print and hard to find. In that book we learned about sit & watch.
Sit & Watch at School. (2-9 years old)
Imagine four children sitting around a kidney-shaped table making paper bunnies for an art activity. The teacher is actively talking up to children who are participating with specific praise. Suddenly, Billy grabs Mary’s bunny and throws it on the floor. The teacher steps in. She says, “Don’t grab Mary’s bunny”. “I want you to sit and watch until you are ready to color your bunny without touching Mary’s. Then the teacher moves the child’s seat a couple of feet away from the desk, out of reach. The teacher waits until the child is calm for 30 seconds. During that time the teacher praises the children who are working on their bunny, “John I like the way you colored your bunny, he has a nice yellow collar, and Ann I love the ears on your bunny, so yellow!!” Then once the Billy is calm, the teacher says, “Are you ready to color your bunny without grabbing Mary’s? The teacher waits for a response, Yes, No, a nod of the head, a smile. If Billy says no have him sit for another 30 seconds. If Billy responds affirmatively, the teacher re-directs the child back to the table, prompts the child to participate, and praises the child once he is engaged, “Oh Billy, your bunny is looking great, green is his color!.”
The technique is not limited to table activities. It can be used in almost any group setting with children.
Here are the steps:
Use Sit & Watch whenever there is a disruption.
Explain what the child did, and what you want to teach the child to do instead.
Have the child Sit & Watch slightly away from the table (as above) or on a nearby carpet square, or some other safe place, until they are calm for 30-60 seconds. It’s ok to hand a toddler a stuffed animal while in sit & watch if that helps. Ask the child what to watch for, “…I want you to sit and watch the other kids play without fighting, or sit and watch the other kids play without screaming” and so on. “Sit here till you’re ready”. Don’t have long explanations, don’t require the child to say “Sorry”.
Praise the other children for behaving well. Be specific in your praise.
Invite the original child back, “Are you reading to play without screaming?”
Get an answer. If the child is affirmative (nods, says yes, smiles) prompt her back into the activity.
Praise the child as soon as they participate appropriately. Never be harsh or mean when a child misbehaves.
Sit and Watch Home Version (ages 2-9)
I used Sit and Watch to help teach my children to follow instructions, which increased compliance and resulted in fewer behavior problems at home. Technically, it is not sit and watch if there are no other well behaved children present for the misbehaved child to watch. We wanted to use a similar procedure at home and at school. Here is the procedure we followed:
Tell the child what you want them to do, don’t ask unless you are providing a choice.
Wait for them to comply.
If they begin to comply praise, then praise again once the child complies.
If they do not comply repeat the instruction and use a mild physical or gestural prompt to ensure compliance.
If they still do not comply say, “I want you to sit & watch until you are ready to put your toys away in the box like I told you to”; until you are ready to play without throwing toys; until you are ready to put your shoes on before we go outside.” And so on.
Escort the child to a place in the same room where they can sit and be calm safely for about 30 seconds to a minute. Stand near them if necessary to keep them near the spot you picked. Don’t worry about them sitting correctly, close is good enough. Ignore them until they are calm for 30 seconds. Some people use the bottom step of a staircase.
If there are other children in the house praise them for behaving appropriately, “John I can see you are playing without throwing your toys, good for you”, “Mary you are eating nicely without kicking your brother.” If there are no other children present skip this step.
When the child is calm for about 30 seconds say, “Are you ready to ______ like I asked you to?
Obtain a response, a yes, nod, or smile is good enough. If they say No! You say calmly, “OK, sit there until you are ready to do what I asked you to do”. Wait 30 seconds. Repeat.
When the child is ready redirect the child to the original situation and repeat the instruction: “Ok, climb into your carseat”.
Praise compliance.
I recommend parents use sit & watch at age 2-3 years old. Most children who are noncompliant and have tantrums at this age can be managed by using sit and watch and praise for good behavior. However, if your child has more severe tantrums in various noncompliance situations you may decide to use Time Out as a backup (If you do obtain professional help).
However, I do not recommend a time out room for typical children who are 2 or 3 years old. Sit & watch should be effective enough to handle most behavior problems.
The technical term for sit and watch is “contingent observation”.
You may notice the references for sit and watch are from the 1970s. I write about it today because I’ve noticed quite a bit of conversation about timeout in the media, is it good, bad? Few psychologists behavioral or otherwise talk about sit & watch. Timeout gets all the press, sit & watch is a much better procedure. I’ve taught many parents how to use it. It works.
A previous post of this article had several errors now corrected.
References
O’brien, M., Herbert-Jackson, E., & Risely, T. (1979) The Toddler Center
University Park Press.
LeLaurin, K., Risley T., The Organization of Day-Care Environments: Zone versus Man-To-Man staff Assignments (1972) Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 5 225.