Simulated and community-based instruction involving persons with mild and moderate mental retardation.
Simulation gives mild-ID adults a head start, but strong real-world practice closes the gap for moderate-ID learners.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers worked with the adults who had mild or moderate intellectual disability.
They taught four daily living skills: using an ATM, buying food, crossing streets, and ordering at a restaurant.
Half the group learned each skill first in a classroom with fake props and role-play. The other half went straight to real stores and streets.
Then everyone practiced in the real community to see who kept the skills.
What they found
People with mild disability did better in both fake and real settings.
The fake classroom gave them a head start, but only if their disability was mild.
For people with moderate disability, jumping straight to real places worked just as well.
After real practice, the fake-classroom advantage disappeared for everyone.
How this fits with other research
Rojahn et al. (2012) later showed that a single computer lesson can teach HIV and condom skills to women with mild-moderate ID. This matches E et al.'s finding that simulation helps mild ID more than moderate ID.
Park et al. (2020) reviewed 22 studies and found prompting keeps math skills strong in people with ID. Their work supports E et al.'s point that real-world practice is key to keeping skills.
Stancliffe et al. (2007) moved training into the community for sex-offender management. This extends E et al.'s idea that community training alone can work as well as simulation for some learners.
Gilroy et al. (2023) compared high-tech and low-tech AAC for autistic kids with ID. Like E et al., they found the setting matters more than the fancy tools.
Why it matters
If you teach adults with mild ID, start with role-play or computer lessons to build confidence. For adults with moderate ID, skip the fake stuff and go straight to the real store or street. Either way, give lots of real practice to lock in the skill.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study of simulated instruction and/or community training of four functional living tasks was compared across groups of adolescents and young adults with mild and moderate retardation. Forty individuals participated in the assessment and training activities of this study, including 20 participants with mild retardation and 20 individuals with moderate retardation. A mixed factorial design was used to evaluate differences associated with level of mental retardation, simulated versus community-based instruction, and assessments in school and community settings. Participants with mild retardation performed better than their counterparts with moderate retardation on the simulated tasks and in the community settings. Participants with mild retardation were more successful in generalizing from the simulated instructional experiences to the community settings than were their counterparts with moderate retardation. However, in many of the situations, community training was sufficiently powerful to eliminate any advantage associated with some of the participants having experienced prior simulated instruction. Results are discussed in relation to the need to more closely examine the design and delivery of functional living skills instruction involving individuals with different levels of mental retardation. Specifically, the effectiveness of instructional simulations for teaching functional living skills does not appear to be uniform across level of retardation and targeted tasks. The highest priority question no longer appears to be whether or not simulated versus community-based instruction is more efficacious. Future research might more productively focus on the quality of different instructional simulations in combination with community assessment and/or training opportunities for teaching functional living skills to persons who experience different levels of mental retardation.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2001 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(01)00060-9