Using personal goal setting to promote the social inclusion of people with intellectual disability living in supported accommodation.
Letting adults with ID choose their own social goals—and giving steady staff support—doubles community participation compared with standard lessons.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Adults with intellectual disability picked their own social goals. Staff helped them work on these goals for nine months.
Goals were things like joining a club, seeing friends, or going to community events. The study tracked how many people reached at least one goal.
The same process was repeated for a second nine-month round to see if results held up.
What they found
More than half of the adults reached at least one self-chosen social goal in each nine-month block.
People who got more one-on-one staff hours had the best luck meeting goals.
Success happened in both rounds, showing the approach is sturdy.
How this fits with other research
Devlin (2011) used the same self-set goal idea at work. Four employees with ID beat supervisor expectations after they set and tracked their own job goals. The 2010 study moves the same engine from the workplace back to home life.
O'Dwyer et al. (2018) tested personal goals with disabled children in sports. About one third met their physical-activity goal, a lower hit rate than the 2010 adult social goals. Kids and sports may need extra supports.
UMoya et al. (2022) pooled dozens of social-skills studies for people with ID and found only small gains overall. That sounds gloomy, but most pooled studies used trainer-set lessons, not participant-chosen goals. Letting the person pick the target appears to double the success rate.
Why it matters
You can add a quick goal-setting step to any adult program. Ask the client what social thing they want most, write it in plain words, then schedule weekly check-ins. Give more staff time to people who need it. This cheap tweak can turn half your caseload into active community members within a school year.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The social exclusion of persons with intellectual disability is more marked in congregated than in individualised supported accommodation. Goal setting was used as a means of increasing individuals' choices and engaging support staff in personalised planning. Method People living in four different housing and support options were invited to identify up to three 'social inclusion' goals they wanted to achieve in the coming months. Nine months later, a review was undertaken to see if their goals had been attained and also to identify what had helped or hindered individuals in doing this. The goal selection was then repeated and reviewed again after a further 9 months. Results The most commonly chosen goals were around social activities with other people and over half the participants were reported to have attained at least one of their goals within 9 months, particularly those in supported living arrangements that had greater hours of individual staff support. In the second 9-month period, fewer people chose goals, although the same proportion as before were successful. The main reason given for goal attainment was the information and support provided by staff. Conclusions Goal setting seems a suitable way of promoting social inclusion as it can be tailored to the needs and aspirations of individuals, although extra efforts may be needed to implement and sustain it with staff across all accommodation options.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2010 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2009.01224.x