Behavioral Therapy & Brain - Click for Larger Image

Behavior therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to treat depression, phobias, anxiety disorders and other forms of psychopathology. The therapy is important for individuals with disabilities, specially developmentally disabled children, as it will help break unwanted behaviors that exist as a result of their physical and mental condition. 

Behavior therapy is based upon the behavior modification principles of classical conditioning. Behavior modification is used as treatment in most cases. It is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to improve or change behavior, such as altering an individuals’ behaviors and reactions through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of maladaptive behavior.

Social skills training is also an important part of the therapy. It teaches patients skills to access reinforcers and lessen the unacceptable behaviors. Operant conditioning procedures in meta-analysis had the largest effect size for training social skills, followed by modeling, coaching, and social cognitive techniques, in that order.