Social problem-solving and mild intellectual disabilities: relations with externalizing behavior and therapeutic context.

The team gave a survey to children with mild intellectual disability.

They compared kids living in residential care with kids living at home.

The survey asked how the children solve social problems and how much they act out.

Kids in residential care showed more hitting, yelling, and rule-breaking.

These kids could name calm, assertive solutions, but still picked aggressive ones.

Knowing the right answer did not stop the bad behavior.

Davison et al. (1991) already showed that teaching both assertiveness and problem-solving helps adults with mild ID. Their work proves the skills can be taught.

Dickson et al. (2005) first looked like they disagreed; they found more anti-social behavior in teens with ID. But the extra behavior vanished when they accounted for poverty and mental-health issues. The clash disappears once life conditions are held equal.

Marsack et al. (2017) extended the story to adolescents. They found that simply enrolling in social-skills class predicted fewer risky acts, hinting that practice, not just knowledge, matters.

Your client may already tell you the “nice way” to handle teasing, yet still throw a chair. Use role-play and in-the-moment coaching to bridge the knowing-doing gap. Add parent stress screens from Busch et al. (2010) and watch for hidden depression per Myrbakk et al. (2008) to round out your treatment plan.