The power of behavioural approaches – we need a revival
Sue Buckley
Behavioural approaches can be used very effectively to teach new skills and to change behaviours that are challenging and not socially adaptive. They have gone out of fashion but should be revived, as the studies discussed here indicate.
doi:10.3104/updates/2038
When I trained as a clinical psychologist in the UK some
years ago, behaviour modification was considered a very powerful approach for
changing the lives of individuals with learning difficulties for the better and
we were expected to be very competent at applying the approach to both teaching
new skills and to changing unwanted behaviours[1,2].
At the time, I worked in large institutions caring for
children and adults with learning disabilities and, using behavioural
modification approaches, staff were demonstrating that many of the residents
could learn a whole range of practical skills that had previously been thought
to be too difficult for them. For example, adult residents were learning to
dress themselves, use the toilet independently, make simple meals, and work at a
variety of tasks in sheltered workshops when previously they had sat in wards
doing very little.
Researchers in the field were also realising that many skills
which typically developing children seem to pick up spontaneously with minimum
teaching from parents by the time they are five years old, could be learned by
children with significant levels of learning disabilities if the skills were
broken down into small steps and taught using behavioural principles.
In addition, behavioural principles could be applied
effectively to change unwanted and challenging behaviours. It was a time of
excitement and optimism in the field but somehow, behavioural approaches went
out of favour or perhaps new generations of staff did not receive the necessary
training. The approach did carry on in the field of autism and then underwent
something of a revival as applied behaviour analysis[3].
The behaviour modification approach – now called applied
behaviour analysis – is based on the assumption that all behaviours are learned,
both the useful ones (new skills) and the ones that are not so useful
(challenging or difficult behaviours). We all continue to use behaviours that we
find helpful – so children usually enjoy learning new skills which increase
their independence and autonomy – these skills or behaviours are intrinsically
rewarding. Behaviour modification research demonstrated that behaviours that are
rewarded (or 'reinforced') are learned and become used more frequently than
behaviours that do not provide a reward for the individual.
This principle can also be applied to understanding difficult
behaviours. These behaviours, which are distressing for parents, teachers and
carers, are likely to be serving a positive function for the person engaging in
these behaviours. Some of the most likely benefits are gaining attention and
avoiding doing something the person does not want to do. It is not always easy
to get parents and teachers to see that they are, in fact, rewarding children's
difficult behaviours and that is why they persist. Persuading teachers, parents
and carers who complain about a child's behaviour that, if they want to change
it, then it is the adult behaviour that has to change first, is not always an
easy message to sell!
Maybe the greatest strength of the behavioural approach is
that it is scientific, with measurable outcomes. If the behavioural approach is
applied correctly, then the starting point is to find out what a child is doing
at the time. This may be an observation of his or her current feeding or
dressing or counting skills or it may be an observation of his or her particular
difficult behaviour such as running away or throwing objects. The observation
stage involves measurement – a record of what the child can already do if we are
teaching a new skill or a record of how often and when a difficult behaviour
occurs. This baseline information means that when we start a programme to teach
a new behaviour or to change one we do not want, we will know if things are
changing – we will be able to measure improvement. Improvement will be new
skills if we are teaching a child or a reduction in the unwanted behaviour if
that is the goal.
The proof of the benefit of a behavioural approach is
measurable change. Despite the power of the approach, there are very few
published studies of its use with children with Down syndrome and most recent
books and training programmes focus on the use of behavioural approaches with
children with autism. Therefore, I welcome the publication of two papers in this
issue from Kathleen Feeley and Emily Jones demonstrating both the strengths of
the approach for children with Down syndrome. One paper provides
an example of
using the behavioural approach to teach new skills[4]
and the other paper demonstrates the power of the approach for changing unwanted
behaviours[5].
In the paper which focuses on new skills[4], it
is communication skills that are taught using the behavioural approach. The
paper reports a case study and illustrates the effectiveness of the approach in
increasing the spontaneous comments made by a young boy with Down syndrome who
is 3 years and 9 months of age at the time of the study. The target comments
were chosen by his parents based on observations of comments used by children of
his age in preschool ('coming' when someone gestured 'come here, 'bless you'
when someone sneezed and ' Uh oh' when someone dropped something). The article
describes the methods used in detail and the interventions were carried out by
his teacher and teaching assistant – both already trained in behavioural
methods. The child's progress was measured in detail and the plots of these data
illustrate how quickly the intervention worked. In the past, a criticism of
behavioural teaching strategies has been that they work in the situation in
which they are taught but the child is not always able to transfer the learning
to new situations (known as generalising the behaviour). In this case, the child
did generalise what he had learned in school to home and to other situations.
Using behavioural approaches to improve communication skills
has not yet been widely promoted for children with Down syndrome but this paper
suggests that it should be further explored. We all communicate to get a message
across and even at the early babbling stages, babies like to get a reaction and
to be imitated when they make a sound. For babies and young children with Down
syndrome, although their non-verbal communication skills in smiling, making
eye-contact and using gestures are often strengths, all aspects of learning to
make sounds and to talk clearly are harder for them and need to be encouraged.
Training is required to use a behavioural approach to full benefit. It is not
difficult to learn but takes time and practice in order to be fully competent.
However, in the absence of available training, simply remembering to respond to
all the communicative attempts that children make is a practical start –
rewarding them by imitating what they do and then providing them with sounds,
words and gestures that they can copy, during natural everyday exchanges at
home, in nursery and at school.
In the paper on changing behaviours that are not helpful,
Feeley and Jones present 5 case studies – each one illustrating a different
application of the behavioural approach and, together, provide the reader with a
fuller understanding of the approach[5].
While the principle that behaviours persist or increase because they are
providing the child with a reward applies in all situations, a variety of other
factors need to be considered. The authors point out that while careful
observation of a child during the day in the situations in which difficult
behaviours occur is always the starting point, background factors need to be
investigated also.
In a baseline assessment, it should become clear how often a
particular behaviour occurs (frequency), what happened just before it occurs
(antecedent events) and what happens straight after it occurs (consequences or
reinforcing events). All these need to be known as the first step towards
developing and effective intervention plan but in addition, it is important to
find out if the child has slept the night before, or has been unwell, or had an
upsetting experience such as a parent being in hospital to deal with (setting
events). When a child is experiencing other difficulties in his or her life,
behaviour difficulties may occur more frequently and, rather than focusing too
heavily on changing the behaviour, changing the setting event, for example,
sorting out sleep problems, may be the first thing to tackle. When the setting
event cannot easily be changed, then those around the child can be sensitive to
using preventative strategies to reduce the likelihood of difficult behaviours.
All these issues are discussed in the article and a range of
effective strategies are illustrated in the case studies. The five case studies
describe how to address non-compliant behaviour such as dropping to the floor
when asked to do something, how to teach a child not to hug unfamiliar adults,
how to stop a toddler from throwing materials or turning away and refusing to
join in early intervention activities, how to reduce 'tongue protrusion' and
accompanying 'mouth noises' and how to support change for a child with sleep
disturbance. Many parents and teachers will recognise the types of behaviours
described as they are all quite common among children with Down syndrome.
In fact, research studies show that children with Down
syndrome are less likely to show difficult behaviours when compared with other
children with similar levels of learning difficulties but not having Down
syndrome [see Ref 6 for a review]. The behaviour difficulties that they engage in
tend to be similar to younger typically developing children matched for mental
age and therefore may be considered 'developmentally appropriate'. The behaviour
difficulties of the majority of children also improve with age – they grow out
of them. While all this information is reassuring, children with Down syndrome
do show more difficult behaviours than typically developing children of the same
age and this will matter if they are to be fully included in school, preschool
and the community. Therefore, in my view, parents and teachers need to encourage
age-appropriate behaviour as far as possible and not simply wait for things to
improve.
The Feeley and Jones papers demonstrate that change can take
place quickly if behavioural approaches are used and that the change will last.
More research studies and case studies are needed to extend the work that they
report and the biggest challenge is to develop accessible training in
behavioural methods for teachers and parents.
Sue Buckley is at Down Syndrome Education International,
Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK..
e-mail: sue.buckley@downsed.org
doi:10.3014/updates.2038
Published online: 30 April 2008
References
- Yule W, Carr J. Behaviour modification for the
mentally handicapped. London: Croom Helm; 1980.
- Kiernan C. Behaviour modification. In: Clarke AM, Clarke
ADB. Mental deficiency: The
changing outlook. London: Methuen. 1988; p
465-511.
- Maurice C, Green G, Luce SC. Behavioral intervention for young
children with autism: a manual for parents and professionals.
Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed; 1996.
- Feeley K, Jones E. Teaching spontaneous responses to a
young child with Down syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice.
2008;12(2). [Open
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- Feeley K, Jones E. Strategies to address challenging
behaviour in young children with Down syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice.
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- Buckley S, Bird G, Sacks B. Social development for individuals with Down syndrome – An overview.
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