ABSTRACT

People who have learning disabilities and in addition have challenging behaviour continue to challenge the services and are saying - often wordlessly - something very important. The link between challenging behaviour and communication will then be considered, and finally the role of the speech and language clinician will be addressed in terms of assessment and intervention. ‘Challenging behaviour’ is generally used to describe behaviour which significantly impairs the person’s quality of life and the ability of the service to meet that person’s needs. Challenging behaviours are by their nature complicated and difficult to understand, and will always present a continuing challenge to those who work and live with people with learning disabilities. Challenging behaviour is often seen to decrease if the activity schedules of people with learning disabilities are increased. Triggers are the signals or stimuli that are present in a situation and which ‘set off’ specific actions.