Tolerance Training in ABA: Teaching Kids to Wait

Tolerance training teaches a person to wait or hear "no" and stay calm. In the real world, rewards do not always come right away. A break may be a few minutes off. A favorite toy may not be free yet. Tolerance training builds the skill to handle that gap without a meltdown.

This skill matters for BCBAs, RBTs, teachers, and parents. Life is full of small delays and small denials. A child who can wait a bit does better at school and home. So we teach waiting on purpose, the same way we teach any skill.

Why every plan needs it#

Dr. Shane Spiker calls tolerance one of the core skills to build. He puts it in a "big four" list for treatment plans. His reason is plain. All of us have to wait sometimes, and we all need this.

Tolerance responses are so incredibly important. We all need them, right? From the talk. Dr. Shane Spiker

He gives an everyday example that any adult knows. The thing you want is not ready the second you want it.

there are going to be times where reinforcers are not available. Your break is not quite there yet... You're going to have to tolerate that it's not open yet. From the talk. Dr. Shane Spiker

A reinforcer is just a reward that makes a behavior grow. When it is not there yet, waiting is the skill in play. Spiker shares more of this thinking in Crisis Management is a Crisis in Behavior Analysis.

Start small, then stretch the wait#

Good tolerance training grows slowly. You start with a wait so short it is easy. Then you make the wait a little longer each time. A visual timer helps the child see the delay shrink to zero.

John Stavitz used this with a student named Lewis. Lewis did not use spoken words to ask. His team built his waiting skill step by step with a timer.

We methodically built Lewis's tolerance to delays by signaling progressively longer delays with a visual timer. From the talk. John Stavitz

The goal was not a huge wait. Stavitz notes that Lewis needed to tolerate delays of about 30 to 45 seconds. That was enough for the classroom plan to follow his lead. It was a wait long enough to work in class.

That small target made a big difference for Lewis. It let his classroom plan finally work for him. Waiting was the missing piece all along.

How it fits with communication training#

Tolerance training often comes after we teach asking. First we teach a functional communication response, or FCR. That is a clear, safe way to ask for what you want. Once the child can ask, we start to delay or deny that request.

Matt Harrington walks through this order in his work. First the ask gets denied. Then the waiting and accepting get trained.

This was just testing out if they didn't have that initial reinforcer, that initial my way FCR request be denied... And then the denial and tolerance training that came after that. From the talk — Matt Harrington

When the asking drops, that is okay#

Here is a point that surprises new BCBAs. As waits get longer, the child asks less often. That looks scary at first, like the plan is failing. But it is a normal part of the process.

Matt Harrington explains why this dip shows up. The child is being asked to wait more and more. So the rate of asking naturally falls over time.

the amount of time that the child is being denied from their reinforcer is increasing and increasing... that's what this graph is starting to show, the decrease of FCR as the denial intervals start to increase. From the talk — Matt Harrington

This is a sign of growth, not a lost skill. The child is learning to wait through the gap. That is exactly what we set out to teach.

Keep the wait clear and doable#

A few habits make tolerance training go smoother. Keep the first wait short and easy to win. Use a timer or picture so the wait is clear. Praise the calm waiting, not just the reward at the end.

Only stretch the wait once the child is steady. If problem behavior pops up, drop back a step. A wait the child can win keeps the skill growing. Slow and steady beats a big jump that fails.

What the research says#

Tolerance training works across many settings and needs. In one study, a child with Smith-Magenis syndrome learned to wait in a real classroom. A simple protocol grew the wait from about 32 seconds to five minutes. Teachers then used the same steps across the school day (DeFreitas, M., Womack, T., Choy, T., & Ricciardi, J. N. (2024). Teaching delay tolerance to a child with Smith-Magenis syndrome in a classroom using a simplified approach. Behavioral Interventions, 39(4)).

It also works when parents run it from home. In one study, therapists coached parents over telehealth, which means live video visits. Five children learned to wait for their reward. Problem behavior dropped by more than 90 percent from the start (Edelstein, M. L., Becraft, J. L., Gould, K., & Sullivan, A. (2022). Evaluation of a delay and denial tolerance program to increase appropriate waiting trained via telehealth. Behavioral Interventions, 37(2), 383-396).

This approach is popular among clinicians too. In a survey of 129 behavior analysts, delay-and-denial tolerance training was the most used and most preferred way to stretch a reward schedule (Mitteer, D. R., Boyle, M. A., & Craig, A. R. (2024). Reinforcement-schedule thinning practices during functional communication training: A survey of behavior analysts. Behavioral Interventions, 39(3)). Related work has even built effort tolerance in general education math lessons (Kim, J. Y., Fienup, D. M., Geiger, H. M., & Jahromi, L. B. (2024). Effects of an online group-based intervention on effort tolerance in general education. Behavioral Interventions, 39(4)).

FAQ#

What is tolerance training in ABA? It is teaching a person to wait for or accept a "no" without problem behavior. You start with a very short delay. Then you slowly make the wait longer over time. The person learns to stay calm through the gap.

When do you start tolerance training? It usually comes after you teach a clear way to ask. First the child learns a safe request, called an FCR. Then you begin to delay or deny that request in small steps. This builds waiting on a strong base.

Why does asking go down during tolerance training? Longer waits mean the child asks a bit less often. This dip is normal and expected, not a failure. It shows the child is learning to wait through the delay. The plan is working the way it should.