Increasing Physical Activity in Young Adults with an Intellectual Disability via a Classroom-wide Treatment Package
Choice, modeling, and tokens in one classroom bundle lift daily steps and engagement in young adults with intellectual disability.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rotta et al. (2022) worked with six young adults who have an intellectual disability.
The class picked either dance or strength training each day.
They watched live and video models, then earned tokens for moving.
Staff tracked steps and calories during school hours.
What they found
Every student took more steps and burned more calories.
Classroom focus also went up.
When staff later ran the plan alone, gains held for most students.
How this fits with other research
Li et al. (2019) used a daily lottery to reward step goals in a similar group.
Their lottery worked, but Rotta added student choice and modeling, giving teachers more tools.
Galbraith et al. (2017) ran a recess step contest with typical grade-school kids.
Both studies show group games plus tokens boost walking, so the idea crosses ages and ability levels.
Macadangdang et al. (2022) taught ball skills with behavioral skills training in a classroom for students with ID.
Together these papers say: package modeling, practice, and tokens, and motor behavior improves at school.
Why it matters
You can copy this package Monday.
Let students pick the activity, show a quick video model, hand a token for every five minutes of movement, and watch step counters rise.
No extra staff or gear is needed, and the same plan can run during any classroom break.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The World Health Organization estimates that only 25% of adults meet the current recommendations for weekly exercise. Adults with an intellectual disability are less likely to meet these standards than other people. In the present study, a classroom-wide treatment package that arranged individualized daily choice (between dancing and strength training), modeling (live, followed by video), and token reinforcement, was used to: (a) increase the number of steps taken and calories burned by six participants, two from each of three classrooms, and (b) increase the percentage of students in those classrooms who were consistently engaged in exercise during designated sessions. All six participants took more steps and burned more calories during both phases of the intervention (live and video model) than during baseline. The percentage of students who were consistently engaged in exercise also increased during both phases of the intervention, compared to baseline, across all three classrooms. Limited maintenance data indicated that the increased step counts and calories burned sustained when school staff implemented the video model intervention without researcher involvement. Because the procedure we used was relatively easy to implement and produced promising results, it appears to merit further investigation.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-022-00691-y