The Effects of Working at Gaining Employment Skills on the Social and Vocational Skills of Adolescents With Disabilities

Abstract

The current investigation was designed to evaluate the effects of the Working at Gaining Employment Skills (WAGES) curriculum on the social and occupational skills of adolescents with disabilities. Adolescents with disabilities were assigned to either an intervention or control condition. Youth in the intervention group were exposed to the WAGES curriculum for approximately 4.5 months, whereas students in the control group received “business-as-usual” within special education settings. Students and teachers completed brief measures pertaining to prevocational/occupational skills as well as measures pertaining to students’ social skills prior to and following the intervention. Results indicated that after controlling for pretest differences on outcome variables, students participating in the intervention had greater vocational outcome expectations, greater occupational skills, and greater social skills (i.e., empathy, cooperation, and assertiveness) than did students with disabilities in the control condition following the intervention. These findings provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the WAGES curriculum.

Keywords

adolescents with disabilities transition social skills instruction intervention research

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