ABSTRACT
Deconditioning procedures have enjoyed considerable success in the treatment of phobic reactions in adults. However, with a few exceptions, their application to the treatment of children's fears has been limited. The paucity of research on the treatment of children's phobias may indicate that children have fewer such problems than adults, but other explanations seem more likely. First, a child's report of fears is likely to be taken more lightly than an adult's report, and thus, fewer child phobics than adult phobics may appear for treatment. Second, deconditioning procedures may be more difficult to implement in children than in adults. Certainly, a complex deconditioning procedure would place strains on the child's memory and motivation, and could create more problems than it would solve. This chapter presents a study in which an in-home, automated, direct deconditioning procedure for the treatment of a childhood phobia is examined.
