Читать книгу Functional Behavior Assessment for People with Autism - Beth Glasberg - Страница 7

Historically, behavior interventions did not take into account the possible causes for a behavior. Instead, they focused on the question, “What is she doing?” Based on what a behavior looked like and what body parts were involved, a punishment was chosen. For example, if a boy swore, his mother might wash his mouth out with soap. If a girl hit someone, her teacher might hold her arms down at her side for thirty seconds. Through a trial-and-error process using this strategy, caregivers looked for an effective punishment. In fact, a punishment-based approach is often the first intervention strategy that many nonprofessionals try even today.

There are numerous problems with this approach. First of all, when we use this type of punishment, we never find out what the individual has been gaining from performing the problem behavior. The fact that she did it at all tells us that she was getting something out of it. Therefore, even if our punishment works, meaning that it gets rid of the behavior, the individual still has no appropriate way to get what she wants. This makes it likely that she will find a new way to meet her need—and we may not like it any better than the old way. For example, if a boy is punished for hitting his teacher whenever he is asked to do his schoolwork, he may indeed stop hitting her, but then start swiping work materials off of his desk instead. Either behavior will have the equivalent effect of postponing his schoolwork.

Secondly, if we take action without knowing what the child has been getting out of a behavior, we may inadvertently reward it. Let’s revisit the boy who was hitting his teacher. For this example, let’s imagine that this behavior persisted because it helped him avoid his work. If we punish him by sending him to the principal’s office (away from his work), we are inadvertently rewarding his behavior and increasing the chances that he will hit again.

A final problem with this type of punishment is that an individual may “habituate,” or get used to, a certain level of punishment over time (e.g., Ratner, 1970). This requires the person doing the intervention to gradually increase the intensity of the punishment in order to maintain its effectiveness. For example, the first time that you want your son to stop poking his sister, you may be able to deter him with a stern voice. Over time, you may need to raise your voice a bit. Soon, you may find yourself actually yelling, and so on. Eventually, you may arrive at some level of punishment that you are not comfortable with. When you consider escalation of other forms of punishment, from putting something that tastes bad into a child’s mouth up through spanking, you can see how the need for increased intensity becomes more and more problematic.