Effectiveness of Token Economy on Temper Tantrum among Intellectually Disabled Individuals.

Background: In 2008 the prevalence of mental disability in Udupi was found to be 2.3%. The behaviour modification approach like token economy is one of a number of ways to reduce temper tantrum behaviour in which structure can be introduced. Aim: The purpose of the study is to enable the intellectually disabled to develop the skills of adaptive coping towards tantrum. Settings and Design: A quasi experimental control group pre-test post-test design was adopted to conduct study in a vocational rehabilitation centre Udupi. Materials and Methods: Individuals with mild and moderate intellectual disability 12 from division A as experimental group and 12 from division B as control group were enrolled to the study, by simple random selection from primary classes A, B, C, D. Instructions were given followed by a pre-test on both groups by on day zero using temper tantrum check list. The token economy for 21 days was given to experimental group leaving control group received with no intervention. From day 21 to day 42 there was no intervention in order to see for any decline in the results, which was followed by Follow up observation on day 42. Results: There was no significant improvement in Temper tantrum after intervention in experimental group (p= 0.054) as compared to control group. Conclusions: Present study found that token economy was not effective in reducing Temper tantrum among individuals with mild or moderate intellectual disability in 21 days duration.