Why Behavior Modification Important for Intellectual disability?

According to AAIDD, Intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills. The impairment in adaptive behavior may be either a deficit behavior or as excess behavior.

Persons with intellectual disability may lack adaptive behavior. These may be poor speech development, inability to attend bowel and bladder need without assistance, inability to attend to one activity for a long time, inability to eat by oneself etc. these are called behavior Deficits.  They have to be learnt or the deficit has to be made up for effective functioning. Behavior modification programmes should be implemented to correct the impairment in the adaptive behavior.

Behavior modification programmes follow a self-correcting approach. The problems are clearly defined, the data is gathered before and during the treatment programme, the evaluation of the treatment is made and in cases of failure, the treatment procedures are modified.