Over the past few years, people with developmental disabilities have had an increasing number of opportunities to make choices and have control over their lives. There has also been a considerable amount of experimental research conducted on the effects of providing opportunities to make choices or to exercise control. The results of this research strongly suggest that providing opportunities for choice and control over events can affect the degree to which people participate in activities, the types of behaviors displayed during the participation, and people's perceptions about the situation. This article reviews this experimental research, discusses traditional views and current perspectives regarding choice and control for people with developmental disabilities, and presents ways of increasing the amount of choice and control available to people with developmental disabilities.
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Harchik et al. (1993) studied this question.
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