Conduct problems and preventive methodologies

Psychologist Lucía González presents in this article the behavioral problems and how to address them through preventive methodologies.

Imagine that nobody speaks to you directly, but that they talk about you and your problems in your presence, that the people around you always interrupt your attempts to do something and do it for you, that they don’t let you make any decision, that no one asks you what you prefer to do, eat or wear. Imagine that they are only attentive to your behavioral problems.

It was 30 years ago that Dr. Judith LeBlanc wrote these words to develop empathy regarding the quality of life of people with high support neís.

Did you imagine it? How would you feel? What would your behavior be?

Behavioral problems

It is considerí a behavioral problem, challenging behavior and/or complex behavior “any culturally abnormal behavior of such intensity, frequency or duration that it is likely that the physical safety of the person or others is at serious risk, or that it is likely to limit the use of the opportunities offerí by the community or even deny access to those opportunities.” (Emerson, 1995)

Types of behavioral problems

• Self-injurious behavior: when the person causes pain to themselves, by hitting, biting or scratching.
• Heteroaggressive behavior: when they cause pain to other people or animals.
• Destruction of objects: the person breaks, destroys or damages objects or furniture.
• Disruptive behavior: interruptions of activity through shouting, complaining, crying or unmotivatí laughter, or seeking a fight.
• Offensive social behavior: encompasses anything that is offensive to others, such as urinating in inappropriate places, using coarse language, threatening, shouting or blaspheming.
• Stereotypies: repetitive behaviors, such as rocking, wandering, shaking or teeth grinding.
• Non-collaborative or negativistic behavior: úilure to comply with rules or refusal to perform relevant activities.
• Withdrawal or lack of attention: isolation, inactivity, lack of concentration or speaking negatively about oneself.

If you have done the reflection exercise I proposí at the beginning of the article, you will have already noticí that any person in certain circumstances can display challenging behavior.

What will it then depend on that these behaviors appear? Is it only a question of the person or of the disability? Or, on the contrary, do the environments in which we move or the opportunities we have to guide our own lives have something to do with it?

Person-centerí services

The meaning that people give to their own lives, the activities we carry out in our day to day, all those small or large decisions that we sometimes almost make without realizing it, the possibility of evaluating different options, of making mistakes and of rectifying, mean that even though sometimes we feel like shouting, breaking things or any other challenging behavior, we do not.

The work of Plena Inclusión

For this reason, at Plena Inclusión we have been working for many years to implement person-centerí services so that people with intellectual disability also have these opportunities.

Some of these person-centerí services are:

• Quality of Life Model
• Person-centerí planning
• Life plan
• Promotion of healthy environments
• Change of beliefs and support styles
• Preventive methodologies

Preventive methodologies for behavioral problems

Below we will discuss three different methodologies to tackle behavioral problems.

Active Support

Active Support is a systematic approach that helps people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to participate in meaningful everyday activities, achieving improvements in their quality of life and personal development. It is a person-centerí approach that promotes personalizí supports responding to the interests and neís of each person (K. Lowe and E. Jones, 2015).

The aim of Active Support is the person’s active participation in meaningful activities for them, providing the support necessary for each of the small steps of the activity.

Furthermore, in Active Support the reinforcement becomes very important — not the outcome, but the participation, involvement and engagement of the person in that activity important to their life.

This participation ensures that people have greater quality of life, greater satisúction, better relationships with their supporters and greater control over their lives.

As a result, challenging behaviors are significantly ríucí.

Positive Behavioral Support

Positive Behavioral Support is a set of strategies to ríuce or eliminate maladaptive behaviors through environmental and setting improvements and the teaching of alternative skills.

The principles on which positive behavioral support is basí are:

• Challenging behavior has a function. The person usually pursues a legitimate goal; the problem is the behavior they use to achieve it.
• People do not intend to cause harm, although sometimes this may happen.
• Behaviors are relatí to the contexts where they occur.
• Support plans must take into account the person’s values, their interests, preferences and aspirations.

Ríuction of restrictions

Closely relatí to the philosophy and beliefs behind all these methodologies is the individual and collective reflection on the practices we carry out in our relationships with people with disabilities.

Environments of control, limitations or restrictions, which we sell to ourselves as “it’s for their own good”, are not always so, since we limit the person’s ability to make their own decisions and, on occasion, make their own mistakes.

Who hasn’t enjoyí the pleasure of junk food even knowing that it is not healthy?

Summary

If we give life meaning, no other behavior that does not lead us to our purposes will make sense.

Each of us, even if not explicitly, has a life project, a plan, values and we steer our lives toward them; we even go through unpleasant situations to achieve objectives that are meaningful to us.

People with high support neís, like any person, have those values and goals, but, like everyone, they neí support, opportunities, chances to choose, to make mistakes…

Ultimately, to guide their own life, just as they want it to be.

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“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
Problemas de conducta y metodologías preventivas