Peer with intellectual disabilities as a mindfulness-based anger and aggression management therapist.
A peer with ID can teach mindfulness to friends and wipe out their aggression for years.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three adults with mild intellectual disability met twice a week for six weeks. A friend who also has ID taught them Meditation on the Soles of the Feet.
The peer teacher learned the steps first. Then he showed his friends how to shift attention from anger to the feeling in their feet.
What they found
All three students cut anger outbursts to almost zero. The low levels lasted two full years.
The peer coach kept teaching the steps correctly even when no supervisor was watching.
How this fits with other research
Saggers et al. (2019) later showed adults with ID can coach peers on exercise and drinking water. Ahrens et al. (2011) proves the same model works for tough targets like aggression.
Wheatley et al. (1978) first showed non-professionals can be trained to teach skills. The new twist here is the instructor also has ID, not just the students.
McGuire et al. (2025) used a cascade model with grad students coaching parents. Ahrens et al. (2011) flips the ladder: the teacher and learners share the same diagnosis.
Why it matters
You can train one client with mild ID to run mindfulness groups for roommates or day-center friends. Pick a client who likes routines and has clear speech. Give that peer a simple script and a few practice rounds. You fade out and let the peer lead. This cuts your staff hours and builds a support net that keeps working after you leave.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A young man with intellectual disabilities (ID) and mental illness, who had previously been taught to successfully manage his aggressive behavior by using Meditation on the Soles of the Feet, reported that he shared his mindfulness practice with his peers with ID. When requested by his peers, and without any training as a therapist, he began to teach this procedure to his peers for controlling their anger and aggressive behavior. We tracked the anger and aggressive behavior of three of the individuals he taught and the fidelity of his teaching of the procedure. According to self and staff reports, anger and aggressive behavior of the three individuals decreased to very low levels within five months of initiating training and remained at very low levels for the two years during which informal data were collected. The fidelity of his teaching the procedure was high, if one allows for his idiosyncratic teaching methods. These findings suggest that individuals with mild ID, who have mastered an effective mindfulness-based strategy to control their aggressive behavior, may be able to teach their peers the same strategy to successfully control their anger and aggressive behavior to a level that is acceptable for community living.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.06.003