Professional Development

(1) Normalization
For peope with intellectual disabilities, a true-to-sense rehabilitation is to lead the life of a normal person, able to perform the tasks of daily living, have a job, friends and own interests, and get in touch with the real world. Good assessment and training are needed to achieve this. Of course, the level of intellectual disability has a relation with the degree of normalization.

(2) Behaviour modification
In helping people with intellectual disabilities improve their emotional and behavioural problems, behaviour modification has proved to be an effective method. It is based on the principle that the result of a behaviour largely determines the chances of its reoccurrence: a good result increases the chances and a bad result decreases them. The former includes the gain of something good (i.e. reward in common language) and the avoidance of something bad. The latter includes the imposition of something bad (i.e. punishment in common language) and the loss of something good. The effective use of the method requires an application schedule tailored to the conditions of the recipient. It also requires systematic observation and recording of the target behavior, which provide the necessary data for evaluation and adaptation of the schedule.