Treatment Selection in Behaviour Reduction: Gentle Teaching Versus the Least Intrusive Treatment Model

Gentle Teaching,a philosophy of treatment selection in reducing the maladaptive behaviours of mentally retarded people, has recently received considerable publicity in New Zealand. Gentle Teaching suggests methods to reduce or eliminate problem behaviours of mentally retarded people which do not involve the use of punishment procedures. A comparison with current ‘mainstream’ behaviour analysis is presented to assist evaluation and critical review of the prescriptions and empirical validity of Gentle Teaching an analysis of the rationale and data presented as evidence for excluding punishment procedures suggests that the rationale is flawed and die current evidence is meagre. It is concluded that recommendation for the adoption of this philosophy is premature. At this stage, it seems wise not to abandon the Least Intrusive Treatment model for selecting strategies to reduce problem behaviour.