On the Spot Behavior Intervention Techniques Applied to Common Behavior Problems Manifested by Children with Special Needs

Abstract

The first use of the term behavior modification appears in Edward Thorndike's article. Provision laws of acquired behavior or learning makes frequent use of the term "modifying behavior" (1911). Researchers in the 1940s and the 1950s used the same term to refer mainly to techniques for increasing adaptive behavior through reinforcement and decreasing maladaptive behavior through punishment. Since techniques derived from behavioral psychology tend to be the most effective in altering behavior, most practitioners consider behavior modification along with behavior therapy and applied behavior analysis to be founded in behaviorism. While behavior modification encompasses applied behavior analysis and typically uses interventions based on the same behavioral principles, many behavior modifiers who are not applied behavior analysts tend to use packages of interventions and do not conduct functional assessment before intervening.