Problem behavior includes self-injury, aggression toward others, and property destruction. Untreated or inadequately treated, it increases the probability of more restrictive living and school placements, and increased family or caregiver stress. Current estimates suggest 17% of children and adults with developmental disabilities have problem behavior.
Need: Many children and adolescents with developmental disabilities also have behavior problems that interfere with development or functioning. It is estimated that 17% of U.S. children and adolescents with developmental disabilities have behavior problems that put them at risk for institutionalization, and that fewer than one in five receives needed treatment. Factors that contribute to the development of behavior disorders vary greatly, but typically include environmental and biological causes.
Purpose: We provide comprehensive functional behavioral assessments and care-provider oriented intervention plans. Clinicians follow-up in home, training care providers in the recommended interventions to maximize intervention effectiveness.
Innovations: Care providers and their child first visit the clinic for an initial functional behavioral assessment. During their second visit, care providers work with clinic staff to develop and refine a behavior intervention plan that is individually tailored to the needs of their son or daughter and family. Our clinicians then work with care providers in their home for the next month, teaching the care providers the skills they need to reduce their son or daughter's behavior problems. Our results suggest that the majority of behavior problems are reduced by 90% or greater within one month.
Where: 1810 Edgehill Avenue, Nashville, TN (across from the Vanderbilt Peabody Campus)
Faculty Director: Craig Kennedy, Ph.D., BCBA, Professor of Special Education and Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Investigator.
Contact: Nea Houchins-Juárez, M.A., BCBA at (615) 322-9007 or n.houchins-juarez@vanderbilt.edu.
Community Inclusion Project: Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment for Individuals with Dual Diagnosis
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