Building choice opportunities within occupational programmes for persons with profound developmental disabilities

Choice opportunities were arranged within the occupational programmes of two subjects with profound developmental disabilities. The subject participating in Experiment 1 was already familiar with a computer-aided programme aimed at promoting independent occupation. That programme was now extended to allow him to choose activities and reinforcers. He was also exposed to a control programme involving the use of folders with drawings. The subject participating in Experiment 2 had no previous experience with special programmes. For this subject, two versions of a computer-aided programme were used: one to teach occupational engagement without choice; and the other occupational engagement with choice. The results have shown that the first subject was very successful in combining choice behaviour and constructive activity with the computer-aided programme, but not with the control programme. The second subject learned very rapidly independent activity engagement, but required relatively long time to develop 'meaningful' choice behaviour. General implications of the findings are discussed.