How does a behavior modification program begin?
The health professional begins by taking a complete history of the child’s problems at home and school and during social activities. Most of this information comes from parents and teachers. The therapist also meets with the child to get a sense of what the child is like. This evaluation should end with a list of target behaviors for treatment. Target behaviors are ones that need to be changed so the child gets better. They can be either behaviors that need to stop or new skills that need to be learned. The areas targeted for treatment may not be the symptoms of AD/HD (such as being much too active, not paying attention, and doing rash or sudden things without thinking). Instead, they may address the problems that those symptoms cause in daily life, such as playing well with brothers and sisters, or obeying parent’s requests. Similar behavioral treatments are used both at home and at school. Parents and teachers carefully watch the child’s response to the treatment. The treatment chang
