First published in 1994. This book is a practical guide for those involved in the daily care, education and development of people with learning disabilities and additional behavioural and emotional disturbances. It will assist professional helpers in understanding the nature of an individual’s difficulties and in developing interventions aimed at alleviating them.
Malgré l'utilisation répandue de différentes techniques de modification du comportement auprès de personnes ayant une déficience intellectuelle et ce, dans un but d'apprentissage de nouvelles habiletés ainsi que de la réduction de comportements inadéquats ou excessifs, plusieurs intervenants travaillant sur une base quotidienne auprès de ces personnes rencontrent des difficultés dans l'application systématique de ces techniques. Ce document offre certaines définitions de ce que sont les troubles du comportement pour des individus ayant une déficience intellectuelle et des troubles de l'apprentissage importants et décrit certaines stratégies d'intervention utilisant une combinaison de certaines techniques behaviorales reconnues et de certaines approches écologiques novatrices.
Problem behaviors often compound the already difficult task of improving the lives of persons with severe disabilities. This important volume, representing the culmination of more than a decade of clinical research, presents the first complete description of the procedures used in Functional Communication Training--a positive approach for reducing severe behavior problems. The procedures described in this book have been validated by numerous empirical studies for use with children, adolescents, and adults who display behaviors as diverse as aggression, self-injury, tantrums, and bizarre, psychotic speech. Functional Communication Training involves teaching students how to communicate those basic wants and needs that they have previously sought to have fulfilled via their problem behavior. They are taught to replace their challenging behavior with learned communication skills. This book provides the practitioner with step-by-step instructions for implementing this effective approach. A variety of assessment strategies are reviewed and described to assist in determining appropriate interventions. The Motivation Assessment Scale--one device designed to assess the function of problem behavior--is outlined in detail and is accompanied with guidelines for its administration and interpretation. Communication training is then detailed and illustrated using speech, sign language, and augmentative systems as examples. Numerous case examples throughout illuminate both the assessment and intervention strategies. Providing clear direction for ameliorating complex behavior problems, this book will be valued by psychologists, behavior analysts, special educators, and speech and language therapists. It can be used as a text for advanced undergraduate courses on behavior management in psychology and special education, and also serves as supplementary reading for courses on behavior modification or mental retardation/developmental disabilities.
This is a timely book. The question of how to help people with challenging behaviour -and how to design and manage services so that staff, families and users feel that what should be done is being done - is at the top of the agenda. Failure to deal com petently with the issue results in disaffection, poor quality ser vices and a less than optimal quality of life for service users. Moreover, the credibility of services for all people with learning disabilities is intimately connected with how we cope with chal lenging behaviour, a point made recently by a Department of Health Working Group chaired by Jim Mansell (Department of Health, 1993). The book is welcome because it draws together what is known about the important questions from a British perspective, although, of course, most of the underlying issues have world wide relevance. The contributors, while all having a good deal of experience and authority, do not put forward simple portrayals of the problems, nor glib solutions, and this is one of the book's major strengths. Clarity in the field of challenging behaviour is sometimes elu sive. What is presented here forces the reader to confront argu ments in a rational and logical fashion.
This book reviews clinical models for working with developmental disability and behavioural problems. The first section explores the causes and nature of behaviour problems amongst people with physical, learning, language and sensory disabilities, and some key specific conditions. The second section describes the assessment approaches that clinicians will find most useful in evaluating behaviour. The third section covers treatment approaches emphasising the importance of a broad, eclectic approach. The contributors, all acknowledged experts in their fields of paediatrics, psychology and psychiatry, provide a comprehensive overview of this set of major challenges, emphasising the importance of auditory detection, understanding, measurement and treatment.
