Applied behaviour analysis and intellectual disability: A long-term relationship?

Abstract

Although theoretically-oriented behaviour analysts have always claimed that operant psychology offers a framework for understanding all aspects of human behaviour, their practically-minded colleagues have tended to focus their efforts on helping people with long-term and often intransigent difficulties. Thus behaviour analysis and the remediation of people with intellectual disability go back a long way together. As with any long-term relationship, there have been both peaks and troughs, times of great harmony and periods of misunderstanding and conflict. The aim of this evaluative review is to describe the history of the alliance between caregivers and educators of people with intellectual disability on the one hand, and researchers and interventionists with a behaviour analytic orientation on the other. The review considers both the strengths and weaknesses of applied behaviour analysis in this context, highlighting areas where further growth and development can still be expected. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that behaviour analysis can continue to provide valuable insights into the education and treatment of people with intellectual disability by drawing on a unique conceptual stance and an ever-expanding collection of relevant experimental research.