The power of behavioural approaches – we need a revival

Effectiveness of Responsive Teaching With Children With Down Syndrome

“…The second implication is that findings from this study call to question assumptions that children with DS need structured and directive early intervention procedures to offset the effects of DS on their social and learning skills (Buckley, 2008;Feeley et al, 2011). Research reporting that parents of children with DS are more directive than parents of typically developing children have been interpreted as indicating that mothers of children with DS accommodate to deficiencies in their children's interactive behavior by becoming more controlling (e.g., Landry, Garner, et al, 1994;Marfo, 1992;Spiker, Boyce, & Boyce, 2002).…”

“…This approach to developmental intervention is derived from parenting studies that indicate parental responsiveness is one of the major social environmental influences on the development of young children. This research has been reported for diverse groups of children ranging from typically developing children (Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 1997; Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, & Baumwell, 2001), to children at risk due to prematurity (Beckwith & Rodning, 1996;Landry, Smith, Swank, Assel, & Vellet, 2001), social environmental disadvantage (Landry, Smith, Miller-Loncar, & Swank, 1997), or adoption (Stams, Juffer, & van Ijzendoorn, 2002;van Londen, Juffer, & van Ijzendoorn, 2007), as well as children with significant developmental disabilities (Yoder & Warren, 1999) including autism (Siller & Sigman, 2002, 2008 and Down syndrome (Mahoney, Finger, & Powell, 1985).…”

“…In fact, there is considerable skepticism about the likelihood of RF interventions being effective for children with DS, especially among those who maintain that children with DS require developmental interventions that provide more structure and direction than they might receive in RF interventions (e.g., Buckley, 2008;Feeley, Jones, Blackburn, & Bauer, 2011;Spiker, Boyce, & Boyce, 2002). This skepticism is based upon two lines of evidence.…”

Teaching Responses to Questions to Young Children With Down Syndrome

“…Despite the demonstration of interventions similar to that used in this study with children with a range of disabilities (e.g., autism), there is relatively little empirical research of behavior analytic interventions applied to the communicative needs of children with Down syndrome (Buckley, ). In the present study, we extended our previous research, teaching simple communication skills such as verbal imitation, requesting, and spontaneous language to children with Down syndrome, and addressed question answering, an intraverbal function of communication.…”

Communication intervention for individuals with Down syndrome: Systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The neglect of this approach is so far-reaching in both research and practice that Buckley 34 even calls for a "revival" of intensive, behavioural approaches, specifically for individuals with Down syndrome.…”