Vocational Social Skills Training for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Pilot Study

Social deficits often impede the ability of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to obtain and maintain employment (Barnard et al., Barnard et al., Inclusion and autism: Is it working? 1000 examples of inclusion in education and adult life from the National Autistic Society's members, National Autistic Society, 2000; Elksnin & Elksnin, Elksnin and Elksnin, Exceptionality 9:91-105, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to evaluate a social skills intervention including behavioral skills training, video modeling, and self-monitoring on the acquisition of discrete vocational social skills in young adults with IDD. Participants included high school students in special education that were part of a work internship program. A multiple baseline design across skills with concurrent replication across participants was used to evaluate the effects of the packaged intervention on target skill accuracy. Results indicate that the packaged intervention was effective in promoting social skill acquisition for all participants. Further, high levels of skill acquisition were observed during the maintenance phase.