Behavior Disorders Clinic

The Behavior Disorders Clinic at the Child Study Center provides treatment to children with developmental disabilities who display difficult behaviors such as noncompliance, tantrums, property destruction, self-injury, aggression, and food refusal. The primary focus of the Behavior Disorders Clinic is to train parents how to actively manage problem behavior more effectively. This program is not a good fit for parents who want to use traditional counseling with a therapist as the primary method of improving their child's behavior. This program involves parents actively implementing the prescribed treatment procedures at home and tracking their child’s progress.

This free program is generously funded by Masonic Children & Family Services of Texas.  It is currently restricted to children with a diagnosis of autism.

Treatment typically involves weekly sessions during which parents are trained to:

• Deliver behavior-specific praise
• Ignore non-dangerous problem behavior
• Give clear instructions
• Follow through with instructions when the child is noncompliant
• Effectively implement timeout

Parents are required to track their child's progress by:

• Filling out a data sheet at least once every 30 minutes (more often is better)
• Recording detailed descriptions of all problem-behavior episodes
• Length of treatment is variable, with severe cases lasting longer