Teaching supported employees with severe mental retardation to solve problems

Area of Science:

• Vocational Rehabilitation
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Intellectual Disability Research

Background:

• Individuals with severe intellectual disability often require job support.
• Developing independent problem-solving skills is crucial for supported employment.
• Traditional training methods may not always generalize to diverse work tasks.

Observation:

• Two employees with severe intellectual disability were trained on work-related problem-solving.
• A combination of self-instruction and multiple exemplar training was employed.
• The training focused on enhancing independent task completion.

Findings:

• The combined strategy led to the generalization of training effects.
• Trained problem-solving skills transferred to novel, untrained work problems.
• Supported employees demonstrated increased independent performance.

Implications:

• Self-instruction and multiple exemplar training can effectively enhance vocational skills.
• This approach promotes greater autonomy for supported employees.
• The findings support the use of combined strategies in supported employment settings.