Systematic desensitization, muscle relaxation and visual imagery in the counterconditioning of four-year-old phobic child

A four-year-old boy with a severe phobia for loud sudden noises was successfully treated with behavior modification utilizing muscle relaxation and in vivo conditioning in six sessions.

Abstract

A four-year-old boy with a severe phobia for loud sudden noises was successfully treated with behavior modification utilizing muscle relaxation and in vivo conditioning in six sessions. The question of theoretical importance was whether muscle relaxation and systematic desensitization by imagining feared stimuli could successfully be employed to treat a phobia in a child this young. The literature does not, to the author's knowledge, contain any reports of the combined use of muscle relaxation and imagination of fear-producing stimuli for treating phobic children of such a young age.