ABSTRACT
Having decided that target behaviours are in repertoire to some degree, the therapist must look next to the factors in the environment that are failing to elicit and maintain these behaviours or that are eliciting and maintaining maladaptive responses in competition with them; that is, at the mechanics of behaviour and reinforcement. This may be just a question of coming up with a rearrangement of existing contingencies – as in a case known to me of a young man with Downs Syndrome who was a casual absconder from foster care. Given that normally there were no problems in the placement, it was suggested that staff should occasionally supply the interesting car rides he was known to enjoy, but which he currently had only when being returned by his carers or under police escort (so reinforcing his running away and ‘giving himself up’). These were to be given pro rata for behaving well and (impulsivity was another of his difficulties) not running away. The police were also asked not to make a joke of his appearance at the station which, though good-naturedly, they often did.
