Challenging behaviour and mental workload at residential homes for people with cognitive difficulties

This chapter summarizes the issues and findings from investigations of what is seen as challenging behaviour at residential homes for people with autism and for people with different kinds of dementia. The investigations had the double aim of identifying interplay between challenging behaviour, pedagogical strategies and mental workload. IE was used as a research design because the everyday life and interaction between staff members and residents was the focal point of the study and we further wanted to find out how trans-local relations such as hegemonic discourses, forms of conduct and organization as well as regulating texts sustained challenging behaviour and mental workloads. The research had a remarkable impact on the pedagogical strategies.