Teaching adults with severe and profound retardation to exit their homes upon hearing the fire alarm.

Three nonverbal adults with severe or profound intellectual disability lived in a group home.

Staff used prompting, modeling, and the clients’ favorite snacks or music to teach them to walk outside when the fire alarm sounded.

Training happened in short daily sessions. Researchers ran surprise drills to check if the skill stuck.

All three adults learned to leave the house within two minutes every time the alarm rang.

They also exited quickly from rooms that had never been used for training.

The skill stayed strong with no extra teaching.

Kurt et al. (2024) later showed autistic children could learn earthquake and evacuation skills by simply watching short videos. Their video-only method worked, but Northup et al. (1991) proves that hands-on prompting plus client-chosen rewards is still needed for adults with more severe disabilities.

Barnes et al. (1990) used a similar package—prompts, feedback, and reinforcers—to boost janitorial work productivity in adults with ID. Together the two studies show the same low-tech tools can build both job and life-saving skills.

Lancioni et al. (2008) paired peer modeling with praise to keep kids with ID on a treadmill. The shared pieces—modeling and differential reinforcement—add evidence that these simple tactics travel across ages, settings, and goals.

If you support adults with severe ID, add a two-minute fire-drill routine to your behavior plan. Use the client’s favorite snack or song as the reward. Practice daily, then test with unannounced alarms. The 1991 package is cheap, fast, and could save lives next week.