How to Do Behavior Modification with Add Children

Behavior therapy or behavior modification has emerged as the treatment for ADD with greatest promise as an alternative to medication. Given its promise as an alternative treatment, it is somewhat surprising that very few ADD children have been treated with behavioral techniques. In one recent survey, 90 percent of the ADD children in one community had received treatment with a psychostimulant medication, but only 10 percent had been treated with behavior modification. Although many early studies demonstrated that behavioral procedures substantially improved the classroom behavior of children with a variety of problematic behaviors,2 with few exce~tions,~ the approaches were not applied with children specifically diagnosed as hyperactive or ADD untiI the mid-1970~.~.~ Since then a number of studies have shown that behavior modification is an effective treatment for ADD in classroom and home settings. Compared to the volume of research on psychostimulants, however, less is known about behavioral interventions in ADD. For example, there is only sparse information available regarding the effects of behavior modification on learning or achievement in ADD children, and no information exists regarding long-term effects. This discussion of the effects of behavior therapy is thus less extensive than that regarding medication effects. A relatively larger portion of this discussion is devoted to practical issues in the implementation of behavior therapy with ADD children.6 The rationale for using behavior modification with ADD children is the same as the rationale for its application to other problems