Interactive Behaviour Imbalance

WARWICK DYER'S APPROACH
Warwick believes that chronic bad behaviour creates what he has termed an "interactive behaviour imbalance" (www.ibi.org.uk). He does not see "bad behaviour" as the child's problem at all but an interactional problem between child and parent, which the child is incapable of changing.   Warwick therefore works exclusively with the parents, through their accounts of what is happening, and does not see or interact with the children themselves.

Theoretical Position
Looking at responses that actually work Warwick has for many years been attempting to define and clarify the principles that form the basis of the changes he achieves

Warwick's approach is mainly behavioural
There are four reasons why, in Warwick's view, the behavioural approach is the best suited for use with children who are badly behaved.   The behavioural approach: -

1. Does not require the child to have reached any particular level of conceptual development and

2. Enables the parents to stay the agents of change and the initiative to stay with them. This means that they can make changes without a loss of leadership or the child being made too aware that an outside agency is involved.

3. The parents can then be trained change their own behaviour and to focus on the interactive nature of the problem.

4. All parents already use an intuitive version of the Behavioural Approach - they use rewards and punishments instinctively.   However, lack of precision in their use is always, in Warwick's view, one of the main reasons for the problems they experience.   Warwick has found it essential to train parents to use rewards and sanctions effectively.

Influences of the other approaches

Person Centred
Although he works exclusively with parents Warwick sees the child's perception of what the parents think of them as central.   Through exclusively Behavioural methods, he trains parents to maintain a positive approach and reduce discrepancies between how the child would like to view themselves and the view they see reflected from their parents.

Cognitive Behavioural
An intuitive version of this third view is also often found in use by parents.   They are very often engaged in continuous attempts to change what their children appear to think.   This often just adds to their problems and they need clear strategies to avoid this trap. When working with badly behaved children, Warwick does not view their apparent maladaptive, erroneous or unrealistic processing as a problem associated with thinking at all - but rather one generated by a lack of training to accept consequences.

He believes problems stem from an emotional need to suspend logic rather than a lack of logical thinking ability. He finds that the unhelpful or unrealistic ways that children appear to think are effectively changed by careful use of a combination of techniques linking rewards and sanctions consistently and positively applied.

The Problem with many Behaviour Interventions
Warwick believes that taking too little account of the interactive nature of "bad behaviour" handicaps many interventions. "Bad behaviour" is always, in his view, part of an interactional problem. Warwick believes that it is vital for professionals not to work too far away from these interactions.   For him, the parents' response to behaviour is always the key factor.   Professional contact with them once a month, once a fortnight, or even once a week will often not do.   He believes professionals need to put themselves on the line and suffer constant feedback from the results of their advice.

Don't blame Parents
Warwick believes it makes no sense to blame parents for the bad behaviour of their children, in his experience the vast majority have always done their best and have often found it difficult to find effective help.

My parents could not help me

The Need for Research
The following conclusions are all intuitively based but present some interesting and concise areas for future research.

Position on Behaviour Disorders
Warwick believes that since many diagnoses of behaviour disorders do not come with any comprehensive advice on behaviour management it is probably best to assume, unless the professionals specifically say otherwise, that the techniques that work with "chronic bad behaviour" will still be needed.   Although there is currently no research to back it up Warwick inclines to the belief that many behaviour disorders merely predispose the child and the parent to have problems interacting rather than make it inevitable that the child will behave badly.   Interactive behaviour techniques may not alter the underlying behaviour disorder, ADHD, for instance, but may dramatically change the trauma of living with it.