ABSTRACT
Since the early descriptions by Kanner (1949), Bender (1947) and Mahler (1952), childhood schizophrenia has become an increasingly fascinating area of investigation…. Characteristically, schizophrenic children are difficult to teach. This fact is borne out by the frequent parental reports of the child’s negativism and by Anthony (1958) who found them very hard to condition. Goldfarb (1965), though not a behavior therapist, states, “the schizophrenic child needs to experience people who are different from himself, and who will respond to each of his actions by predictable approval and disapproval, by reward and punishment.” Other authors see the schizophrenic child’s behavior as explainable through learning theory. Thus operant conditioning would seem a logical therapeutic tool… (and) there is… need for a controlled study to determine how successful operant conditioning really is.
