Reflexiones sobre el apoyo conductual positivo

Abstract

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a scientific movement that unites two lines of work, one under the Applied Behavioral Analysis and the other of a more theorical type, that collects concepts described and developed in the field of intellectual disabilities. In the beginning it was an intervention addressed to challenging behavior with positive procedures as opposed to the abuse of negative practices (aversive). Step by step, it was found that the positive techniques needed to be applied preventively and proactively to educate and reinforce skills whose functional equivalence is the same as that which motivated the problem behaviors. Finally, keys from a theorical line and context were introduced, such as quality standards, values, and so on. Today PBS has transcended its first task and has become a way to work in any service, regardless of whether or not there are challenging behaviors, furthermore, it's being implemented in school, court and seniors contexts. However, PBS has many challenges, including the operational definition of concepts that fall under the theorical side and it's discriminative development. Moreover, for some, the abuse of speech in relation to the lack of operational realization and use of indisputable concepts (which no one would doubt, such as positive) presents a danger to the scientific credibility of PBS.