Psychosocial Interventions for Individuals With Intellectual Disability

Abstract

People with intellectual disabilities are prone to various challenges in relation to self-care, emotional regulation, and decision making. Sometimes due to their cognitive and adaptive skill limitations, they display challenging behavior that further impacts on their quality of life. This chapter presents the concept of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and a discussion on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) in prevention and treatment of challenging behaviors of individuals with intellectual disability. Functional behavior analysis (FBA) and its stages are described with examples for the future practitioners. As ABA has a major contribution in the treatment of challenging behaviors in individuals with intellectual disability, research supported treatment strategies are presented. This chapter also explained strategies for improving the adaptive behaviors of individuals with intellectual disability.