Behaviour therapy in some form can be beneficial for all children with disabilities, whether they have specific behaviour problems or not. The therapy would focus on extinguishing challenging behaviours and teaching new adaptive behaviours in the face of challenging behaviours. For children with developmental disabilities without specific behavioural problems, behavioural therapy may be helpful in motivating children toward specific therapeutic goals.
Behavioural therapy is also very helpful for children with behavioural challenges who do not have a developmental disability.
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
There are many forms of specific behavioural therapy. However, applied behavioural analysis is one of the most common types of behavioural therapy used for children with certain developmental disabilities. Applied behaviour analysis, or ABA for short, is characterized by a careful observation and analysis of challenging behaviors as they occur within the child’s natural environment. The analysis is then directly linked to a behaviour intervention plan so as to produce healthy, more adaptive ways of responding to situations. The ABA approach has been used widely with children with autism spectrum disorders and other problems of a developmental nature. ABA techniques can be used to foster development of basic skills such as looking, listening and imitating, as well as complex skills such as reading, conversing and understanding another person’s perspective. These therapeutic approaches might also be used to help a child to handle things such as a change in schedule, changes in their environment or other things that might be difficult for them to manage without support. ABA can reduce the chances that these situations will trigger problem behaviours.
Although there are specific concepts that guide ABA, there is no standard treatment protocol. The concepts are applied to each child based on the child’s skills, abilities, level of functioning and behaviours to tailor a program to individual needs.