Treatment of a Down’s Syndrome Child with Multiple Behaviour Problems in a Ward Setting

The shock rod controversy

“…Included were 120 recent professional articles many of which reported shock or other painful aversives: lemon juice or hot sauce squirted into the mouth or aromatic ammonia held to the child's nose causing choking and retching. But there was also an ample variety of other recommendations for which in each case success was claimed: semantic therapy (Meichenbaum, 1974), social punishment (Doleys, et al, 1976), modeling (Karapetian, 1974, biofeedback (Kalb, 1978), manual guidance (Jones, 1977), paced instruction (Plummer, Baer, & LeBlanc, 1977), and removal from a harsh chaotic environment (Rigdon, 1977). One therapist offered as a reward for improved verbalization the opportunity to indulge in self-stimulation (Hung, 1978) although most therapists consider self-stimulation the major problem.…”