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Interbehavior Analysis of Developmental Retardation

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Abstract

Statistical-intelligence, organic, and learning theories all treat retardation as a symptom of a deficiency in some hypothetical construct such as intelligence, the brain, or learning ability. In contrast, interbehavior analysis regards retardation as levels of interactions with the environment which have evolved through development. Development consists of progressive changes in interaction between a total functioning biological individual and the environment. Interactional changes occur at different rates—usually categorized as accelerated, normal and retarded—depending on the biomedical and sociocultural conditions of development. These conditions are conceptualized, functionally, in terms of whether they readily facilitate, normally facilitate, or hamper progressive changes. According to this view, a retarded individual is one who has a limited behavioral repertoire because of the hampering effects of biomedical impairment or handicapping sociocultural conditions, or both. Biomedical impairment, whether originating in genetic processes or in the prenatal, perinatal, or postnatal stage of growth, restricts an individual’s development if it includes injury to any one or any combination of the following: the response equipment, the internal sources of stimulation (proprio-and interoceptors), and the external sources of stimulation, as when a physically stigmatized child is treated as chronically ill, peculiar, or undesirable. Handicapping sociocultural conditions that limit development include inadequate living conditions, limited educational and recreational materials, negative parental practices that do not support academic and intellectual achievement, and parental behaviors that may be described as indifferent or abusive.

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  1. Department of Special Education, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Sidney W. Bijou & Eric Dunitz-Johnson

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Bijou, S.W., Dunitz-Johnson, E. Interbehavior Analysis of Developmental Retardation. Psychol Rec 31, 305–329 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394745

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