Mastering the Alpha Command

A Psychoeducation for Teachers Skill-Building Guide

1. Mastering the Alpha Command A Psychoeducation for Teachers Skill-Building Guide

2. Part 1: Kinds of Commands

3. In the classroom, the three most common types of commands that teachers give are the initiating command, the terminating command, and the mixed command. With an initiating command , we start behavior; with the terminating command , we end behavior. A mixed command , on the other hand, includes elements of both an initiating and a terminating command. I like to call this third kind of command the “stop… and…” command, because it generally resembles that sentence pattern. “Rebecca and Frankie, distribute the protractors and graph paper” and “When we get to the library make sure that you sit within your reading group” are examples of initiating commands .

4. Examples of terminating and mixed commands can be... Terminating Commands Mixed Commands Hector, you and Ryan stop talking! Camille, stop daydreaming! Gregory, stop pushing in line! William, stop wasting time ! Hector, you and Ryan stop talking and get back to work! Camille, stop daydreaming and pay attention! Gregory, stop pushing and get back in line! William, stop wasting time and finish your work !

5. Notice how each terminating and mixed command end with an exclamation mark. This is so because, in spoken language, to communicate our intention (what we want), teachers generally accentuate the last two kinds of commands by either speaking louder, faster, and/or both. This is known as the intention of the communication in linguistic theory. Simply put, with both the terminating and the mixed command our objective or communicative intention is not only to get the child’s compliance, but also to get the child’s compliance fast . By experience, we all know that although we may succeed in achieving our communicative intention (getting the child to comply quickly), chances are that compliance with that particular command will not only be fast but also short-lived . That is, the child or children may comply for one minute or two, and then, they happily go back to what they were doing originally.

6. A second factor that we need to take into account is the fact that, when we deliver a directive with a louder and/or a faster tone of voice, we sound angrier than when we deliver the directive using a neutral and business-like tone of voice. Perception is reality, when we sound angry (even if we are not feeling that way), we may get a counter-reaction from the part of the child, especially if the child exhibits habitually disruptive behaviors and/or oppositional behaviors. Because they sense anger, our terminating and mixed commands mostly trigger resentment and resistance in these children. A combination of resentment with resistance is a well-known recipe for children’s noncompliance, which is why terminating and/or mixed commands have the well-deserved reputation of reducing compliance , that is, at the end, they accomplish the opposite of what we intended to accomplish .

7. A third key factor in influencing compliance is that both the terminating command and the mixed command focus on misbehavior , or what we believe students are doing wrong, instead of narrowing on those things that we like and appreciate about them, or what children do well. A familiar principle in child discipline and compliance is that, by bringing attention to misbehavior, we reinforce misbehavior with our attention . Following this principle in child discipline, teachers can improve the overall classroom atmosphere and get better compliance by simply keeping students focused in their strengths, positive behaviors, and best qualities while either minimizing or ignoring negative behaviors .

8. A common attribute of mixed commands is the fact that they always contain two or more directives in the same statement, most specifically, one directive that intends to terminate behavior, and a second directive that intends to start a new behavior. This by itself may represent a problem to a very young child, to children with weak receptive skills (weak listening skills), and to children with poor attention. Sometimes, the demarcation line between what the child needs to stop doing and what he or she needs to start doing is even less clear; that may happen when we deliver directives at the same time that we are lecturing or reprimanding the child. In child discipline literature, a command with excessive verbalization and unclear directives is known as a beta command , a kind of command with the infamous reputation of having a very low compliance ratio. In contrast, its stronger and wiser twin, the alpha command contains no extra verbalization and includes only one task to do for each command.

9. Here is a quick checklist in how to deliver commands that are more effective … Use more “start” or initiating commands and less “stop” or terminating commands. Try to keep a ratio of 5:1, or five initiating commands for each ending command. Make sure that you tell the child what you want him or her to do (e.g., “Please raise your hand to talk”) instead of what you do not want the child to do (e.g., “Stop calling out!”). When deliver your command, say the child’s name and make eye contact with the child. Do not deliver the command at a distance, instead, come closer to the child’s desk and talk to the child in close proximity. Regulate your voice volume, lowering your voice instead of raising the voice .

10. Make sure to include only one directive (task) in each command. Use the one-sentence rule , that is, deliver your command in only one sentence or one phrase. Anything more than that is extra verbalization that neither the child nor you need. Do not repeat the same command in the same way. An easy command-giving technique is to state the command, wait ten seconds for compliance, and then if necessary, say, “You need to ___ (state the directive). If not, you will _____ (state an unwanted consequence).” For example, you would say, “You need to return to your desk. If not, you will lose five minutes of computer time.” Then, count down from ten-to-one (or five-to-one), to give the child a few seconds to comply. If the child still does not comply, enforce the unwanted consequence .

11. Finally, let us change our terminating commands into more effective initiating commands. With practice, this becomes easier and easier to do .

12. For example … Terminating Command : Hector, you and Ryan stop talking! Initiating Command : Hector, you and Ryan sit with your reading group. Terminating Command : Camille, stop daydreaming! Initiating Command : Camille, open your math workbook on page 184. Terminating Command : Gregory, stop pushing in line! Initiating Command : Gregory, you need to keep an arm’s length distance in the line. Terminating Command : William, stop wasting time! Initiating Command : William, pair up with your math partner .

13. Part 2: Meet the Alpha Command

14. On part 1, we learned about the three most common kinds of commands: the initiating command, the terminating command, and the mixed command. With an initiating command , we start behavior; with the terminating command , we end behavior. The mixed command aims at, first, terminating the behavior that we do not want, and then start a new behavior, or initiating the specific behavior that we want. Another way in which we can analyze commands is in terms of both their efficiency and compliance rate; most specifically, distinguishing between the beta command and the alpha command . Details of each kind of command follow .

15. Forehand and McMahon developed a list of five beta commands , or commands with lower efficiency and reduced compliance that is still relevant today (As presented on Walker and Walker, 1991)… The Chain Command , or giving multiple commands simultaneously. Because we are giving the child several directives at the same time, the child may get confused, or he may forget one or more steps. An example of a chain command would be, “Open your math workbooks on page 344. Complete exercises 3, 5, and 9, and then, go to page 345 and complete exercises 1 and 2. Make sure that you put your final answers inside a circle, and use graph paper.” There are eight different directives on the above command. Can you find them? They are …

16. Open your math workbook Open your math workbook Open your math workbook on page 344 Complete exercises 3, 5, and 9 Go to page 345 Complete exercises 1 and 2 Put your final answers in a circle Use graph paper

17. As we can see, chain commands can represent an overload of information to some children, in particular, students with attention problems and students with low oral comprehension skills. These children’s difficulties in complying with the chain command aggravate when they must follow specific steps in a specific order; if they skip steps or switch the order of steps, they are not going to be able to perform the task adequately .

18. Vague Commands or commands that are not clear in terms of what the child is supposed to do. Because we are using ambiguous terms, we cannot measure compliance. Examples of vague commands are, “Be nice to Frankie” and “You need to be more careful with your work.” Ambiguous terms like “nice” and “more careful” are subject to different interpretations. Question Commands or commands that sound more like a request. When we give requests , we are no longer telling the child what we want; instead, we ask the child if he can do what we want. Simply put, with requests, we are giving the child the options to comply or to refuse .

19. “Let Us” Commands or commands that imply a joint participation between the child and the adult even when this is not necessarily true. For example, saying, “Let’s try to complete these word problems together.” Commands Followed by a Rationale or a justification. That is, we explain to children why they need to comply with the command (e.g., “We need to line up quickly or we are going to be late for Science ”). The authors do not disagree with giving children a rationale, but they recommend that any rationale included must precede the command, not follow it (e.g., “We are going to be late for Science, so, line up quickly ”). When a rationale follows the command, the rationale tends to obscure the directive, confusing some children.

20. Walker and Walker (1991) expand the list above, adding the most common kind of beta command, which is no other than the command that includes excessive verbalizations . Most commands downgrade into a beta command simply because we cannot resist the temptation of talking too much. From the authors, we get the following example, “Jimmy, your room is such a mess! Why don’t you clean it up instead of waiting for me to do it for you? I get so tired of always picking up after you!” (The phrase in italics is the beta command.) If we replace the word “room” with the word “desk,” we just created the perfect classroom example. In addition of having an excessive amount of words, we can easily spot two other mistakes from this example: (a) presenting the command as a question and (b) using a negation in the question. The question gives the child the option to refuse; the negation projects insecurity about the child’s compliance. A better command to give Jimmy would be, “Jimmy, clean up your desk .”

21. From the example, we can start defining the alpha command as a short statement that uses positive terms to give the child one directive . How short is a short statement? You can follow one of these two rules, whichever works best for you: (1) put the directive in 15 words or less or (2) put the directive in one sentence.

22. Let us continue analyzing the previous command (“Jimmy, clean up your desk”) in terms of the alpha command requirements. We can see that it already meets the three most basic requirements; that is, it is stated in 15 words or less, it is stated positively, and gives only one directive at a time. To upgrade our directive into a more efficient alpha command, we still need to address two important requirements; first, we need to tell Jimmy, clearly and specifically, what we want him to do , and secondly, we need to tell the child when we want it done. Just telling Jimmy to “clean it up” it is not going to do the trick. What exactly we want the child to do? Maybe we want the child to label his notebooks and books, maybe we want all unnecessary books and materials removed from the desk, or maybe, we want the child to do both. Whatever we want Jimmy to do; we need to tell the child using specific and measurable behavioral terms , or observation of behavior. With regard to the second important requirement, we need to give the child the time frame to comply .

23. Now, let us put all five requirements together, so that we can start giving Jimmy alpha commands: “Jimmy, by 2:00 PM, you need to remove all unnecessary books and materials from your desk.” (Pause) (Continue) “ Return any extra book and materials back to the shelves .” So, with the first command, we give Jimmy one directive (removing from his desk), and with the second command, we tell him what to do next (returning to the shelves). Both commands are stated as observations of behavior that we can follow and measure . If we want Jimmy to label his notebooks too, then, we just wait for the child to comply with the first part of the task (removing and storage), and only then, we tell the child the next task using a third alpha command .

24. Guidelines for Giving Alpha Commands Additional guidelines to increase children’s compliance with our commands are: Use commands that describe appropriate behavior instead of inappropriate behavior. For example, replace “Don’t run” with “Walk.” “Starts” are easier to comply than “stops.” Tell the child what to start doing instead of what to stop doing. If you need to give more than one command, make sure that you break each command into a specific action that the child does. Separate different commands; you can either put a brief 3-to-5 seconds pause in between, or you can number the different steps (1, 2, and 3). Then, ask the child to repeat in her own words each step, so that you can clarify .

25. Make sure that you give a clear time limit , for example, “right now” or “before _____.” Do not expect instant compliance; give the child 5-to-10 seconds to comply with the command. If after the ten seconds the child still does not comply, repeat the directive, but this time adding, “You need to…” and giving a mild consequence . For example, you would say, “You need to _____; if not, you have to go to time out for five minutes.” Be consistent in enforcing any consequence that you give the child .

26. Reference (Part 2 ) Walker, H. M., & Walker, J. E. (1991). Coping with noncompliance in the classroom: A positive approach for teachers. Austin: Pro-Ed .

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