Social Skills Training for Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities: A School-Based Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Special Education
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID) often exhibit social functioning deficits.
• These social skill impairments become more pronounced during adolescence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the Superheroes Social Skills program for adolescents with ID.
• To assess the program's impact on the accurate demonstration of specific social skills.

Main Methods:

• A 3-week intervention using behavioral skills training and video modeling.
• A multiple baseline across skills design was employed.
• Four adolescents with intellectual disabilities participated.

Main Results:

• Participants showed significant improvements in demonstrating target social skills.
• Skill accuracy increased in both training and generalization settings.
• Teacher ratings indicated generalization of social skills to non-training environments.

Conclusions:

• The Superheroes Social Skills program is effective in enhancing social skills for adolescents with ID.
• The combination of behavioral skills training and video modeling facilitates skill acquisition and generalization.