The relationship of self-injurious behavior and aggression to social skills in persons with severe and profound learning disability.
Use the Matson social-skills scale to spot missing skills in adults with severe ID who show self-injury or aggression—low scores predict who needs help first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the Matson social-skills scale to the adults with severe or profound ID. Half of the group showed self-injury or aggression; the other half did not.
They wanted to see if lower social-skills scores lined up with these problem behaviors.
What they found
The adults who hit, bit, or slapped themselves earned far lower scores on every social skill. The same held for adults who were aggressive toward others.
The scale could almost perfectly sort who showed problem behavior and who did not.
How this fits with other research
Petrovic et al. (2016) looked at toddlers with DD and found that kids who self-injure also show more pain cues. Together the two studies say: check for both pain and social gaps when you see SIB.
Van Houten et al. (1980) warned that SIB labels carry extra baggage. Garcia et al. (1999) give you a concrete tool—the Matson scale—to turn that warning into numbers you can act on.
Storch et al. (2012) used fancy t-pattern software to show SIB can organize other behaviors. The current study adds that without core social skills, the whole repertoire stays thin.
Why it matters
If your client with severe ID hits himself, do not just look at the ABC data. Run the Matson scale to see which social skills are missing. Target those skills in teaching sessions. As social behaviors grow, problem behaviors often drop. You get a road map instead of a guess.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study, we investigated differences in social skills among four groups of individuals with severe and profound learning disabilities. The comparison groups were composed of individuals engaging in self-injurious behavior, aggression, both behaviors, or neither of the behaviors. We measured social skills using the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Individuals with Severe Retardation, a standardized assessment of social skills in persons with severe or profound learning disability. The results indicated that individuals displaying maladaptive behaviors exhibited a restricted range of social behaviors compared to controls. Also, group membership based on self-injury and aggression was predicted based on profiles of scores on the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Individuals with Severe Retardation. These findings are consistent with reports in other studies that note social skills deficits in aggressive and self-injurious persons with learning disabilities. However, in this case a standardized assessment of these deficits was possible and specific skills problems were identified. Implications of the findings for identification and treatment of self-injury and aggression are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1999 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(99)00024-4