A problem-solving approach to social skills training in employment settings with mentally retarded youth.
Problem-solving BST beats role-play for getting teens with ID to chat on the job, and the skill lasts.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three teens with intellectual disability worked part-time jobs.
The team taught them a six-step problem-solving script.
Steps: spot the social problem, think of fixes, pick one, try it, watch what happens, praise yourself if it worked.
Training used BST: explain, model, practice, give feedback.
Role-play was the comparison condition.
Researchers counted real chats with co-workers and customers on the job.
What they found
All three youths talked more with co-workers and customers after problem-solving training.
Role-play helped a little, but the gains vanished fast.
Problem-solving skills stuck around for eight weeks with no extra coaching.
Parents and bosses said the teens looked more confident at work.
How this fits with other research
Ibrahim et al. (2021) later showed social-cognitive BST lights up the "social brain" in younger kids with autism.
McAuliffe et al. (2017) used the PEERS program with high-schoolers on the spectrum and saw parent-rated gains.
Together the studies form a ladder: problem-solving BST works for older teens with ID, PEERS adapts it for ASD teens, and Karim’s lab work shows the brain is changing.
Briscoe et al. (1975) did the first problem-solving BST, but with adult community-board members; Tallant et al. (1989) moved the same logic into real teen jobs.
Why it matters
If you run job-site training, swap some role-play time for problem-solving scripts.
Teach the six steps in one short session, then let the youth test solutions on the floor.
Track natural chats for ten minutes each shift; you should see a jump in week one and steady use later.
No extra tokens or prompts needed once the skill is fluent.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study examined two approaches to teaching social behaviors to 3 developmentally disabled youths in work contexts. In one approach, a problem-solving procedure was learned and transferred to different materials. Conversational probes monitored interactions between disabled employees and their co-workers and customers. A multiple baseline design demonstrated that the training produced generalization and maintenance of the targeted social behaviors to the work settings: A second approach based on a role-playing intervention produced no substantial generalization in the work setting. A social validation questionnaire administered to co-workers supported the efficacy of the problem-solving training procedure. The efficacy of social problem-solving training was discussed in terms of sufficient exemplars, common stimuli, and self-mediations.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1989 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1989.22-373