T21MOM - EPISODE 15 : Susan Fawcett Director of Therapy, Behaviour, and Family Support Services – DSRF

Mary talks at length with Susan about 10 strategies for dealing with behavior challenges, including the dreaded “drop and flop”.

Down Syndrome Resource Foundation https://www.dsrf.org/

10 Positive Behavior Support Strategies

1) Down syndrome-specific setting event strategies.
2) Environment-specific setting event strategies.
3) Effective requests.
4) Offering choices.
5) Visual supports for behavioural expectations and predictability.
6) Incorporating preferences.
7) Safety signals.
8) Functional communication training.
9) Positive reinforcement of desired behaviour via praise and other rewards.
10) Actively ignore and positively redirect minor problem behaviour - Stone Face.

Here is the article Susan talked about:
Patel, L., Wolter-Warmerdam, K., Leifer, N., & Hickey, F. (2018). Behavioral characteristics of individuals with Down syndrome. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 11(3), 221-246.
Google scholar link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19315864.2018.1481473