2017 Volume 43 Issue 2 Pages 147-157
The present study reports a behavior therapy intervention for a patient with neurocognitive dysfunction who had difficulty transferring to a wheelchair in daily life and with his learning behavior. The participant was a male in his thirties. He had unilateral space neglect and impaired attention because of a right hemisphere cerebral infarction. After 1 month of training, there was a dissociation between his daily ability and his maximum ability to transfer to his wheelchair. This difficulty in learning behavior appeared to be caused by his neurocognitive dysfunction. Behavior therapy was then used to train preparation for transferring to his wheelchair. The intervention design was multiple baseline across behaviors, with the target behavior separated into 4 parts. The intervention period was also separated into 4 parts by target behavior. The ward staff, except for the intervention therapist, evaluated the participant's behavior using error counts. Using 3 types of prompts, the prompts were gradually decreased after a certain period. About 5 weeks later, the participant was able to transfer to the wheelchair, and achieved self-reliance. These results suggest that behavior therapy might useful in the rehabilitation of patients who have had neurocognitive dysfunction. The procedures can be applied widely.
