CIO can properly be described as a continuum between “unmodified extinction,” in which the parent refuses to respond regardless of how long the crying continues (researchers don’t recommend this), and “camping out” or “fading,” in which the parent is close but spends less and less time by the child’s crib providing assurance. In the middle of the continuum, we find “graduated extinction.” The parent does respond to the child’s nighttime cries, but on a strict schedule. The amount of time a child is allowed to cry gradually lengthens. The delays are deliberately timed and incremental, hence the
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