ABSTRACT
Behaviour therapy as a generic term is based on a variety of models which place learning theories in a central role as explanations of human behaviours. On children's in-patient units, behaviour therapy techniques are widely used often in combination with other therapeutic frameworks that may provide a framework for diagnosis and hypotheses about maintaining factors. Behaviour therapy is essentially a problem-solving approach to treatment (Yule, 1985). It takes as its starting point the idea that any observed behaviour occurs in an immediate context and leads to certain reactions from those around the child; this then forms the basis for subsequent behaviours. This is a common observation of parents. It leads to a view of disturbances in behaviour as not being due to hidden and inaccessible motives that are inexplicable except by experts, but rather as due to readily observable chains of events that are amenable to change by encouraging or discouraging the production of particular behaviours.
