Teach Effectively!

Nearly 20 years ago, the Association for Behavior Analysis published a statement about an individual’s right to effective treatment. I’m wondering whether there shouldn’t be some sort of comparable statement about people receiving education.

We propose that individuals who are recipients or potential recipients of treatment designed to change their behavior have the right to a therapeutic environment, services whose overriding goal is personal welfare, treatment by a competent behavior analyst, programs that teach functional skills, behavioral assessments and ongoing evalutation, and the most effective treatments procedures available.

Van Houten, R., Axelrod, S., Bailey, J. S., Favell, J. E., Foxx, R. M., Iwata, B. A., & Lovaas, O. I. (1988). The right to effective behavioral treatment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 21, 381-384.

Link to a complete copy of the Van Houten et al. publication via PubMed.