Using Independence Training to Teach Independent Living Skills to Children and Young Men with Visual Impairments

Abstract

Two groups of students with visual impairments were taught various independent living skills. Of the 7 students, 5 also had a diagnosis of mental retardation. One group (3 first graders) was taught the tasks of folding a shirt, making an emergency telephone call, and spreading soft foods with a knife. The other group (4 young men) was taught to increase leisure skills through three different leather-work tasks. Independence training was conducted in a group format and included social learning components (e.g., self-evaluation, peer evaluation and reinforcement) in addition to traditional operant procedures (e.g., modeling, prompting). However, because of the presence of visual impairments, a physical and verbal modification of modeling was used, whereby the subject was physically guided through the steps and simultaneously provided with a narration of the steps. A multiple baseline design across behaviors demonstrated the efficacy of the comprehensive training package in training various independent living skills to the two groups of visually impaired and mentally retarded students. Social validity measures demon-strated the clinical significance of the subsequent changes in behavioral skills. Follow-up data collected 10 months after the completion of training indicated a good degree of maintenance. The current positive results show that training procedures used exclusively with persons with mental retardation can be modified and be effective with a different and younger population, while targeting different independent living skills.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barlow, D. H. , & Hersen, M. (1984). Single case experimental designs: Strategies for studying behavior change (2nd ed.). Oxford: Pergamon.

Brown, D. E. , Simmons, V. , & Methvin, J. (1979). The Oregon projectfor visually impaired and blind preschool children (rev. ed). Medford, OR: Jackson County Education Service District.

Kazdin, A. E. (1980). Behavior modification in applied settings (rev. ed.). Homewood, IL: Dorsey.

Kazdin, A. E. (1982). Methodological strategies in behavior-therapy research. In G. T. Wilson & C. M. Franks (Eds.), Contemporary behavior therapy: Conceptual and empiricalfoundations. New York: Guilford.

Matson, J. L. (1980). A controlled group study of pedestrian-skill training for the mentally retarded. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 18, 99-106.

Matson, J. L. (1981). Use of independence training to teach shopping skills to mildly mentally retarded adults. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 86, 178-183.

Matson, J. L. (1982). Independence training vs modeling procedures for teaching phone conversation skills to the mentally retarded. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 20, 505-511.

Matson, J. L. (Ed.). (1990). Handbook of behavior modification with the mentally retarded (2nd ed.). New York: Plenum.

Matson, J. L. , DiLorenzo, T. M. , Esveldt-Dawson, K. (1981). Independence training as a method of enhancing self-help skills acquisition of the mentally retarded. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 19, 399-405.

10.

Matson, J. L. , & Long, S. (1986). Teaching computation/shopping skills to mentally retarded adults. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 91, 98-101.

11.

Matson, J. L. , & Marchetti, A. (1980). A comparison of leisure skills training procedures for the mentally retarded. Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 1, 113-122.

12.

Matson, J. L. , Marchetti, A. , & Adkins, J. A. (1980). Comparison of operant-and independence-training procedures for mentally retarded adults. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 84,487-494.

13.

Matson, J. L. , Ollendick, T. H. , & Adkins, J. A. (1980). A comprehensive dining program for mentally retarded adults. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 18, 107-112.

14.

Scott, E. P. , Jan, J. E. , & Freeman, R. G. (1977). Can'tyour child see? Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.

15.

Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw- Hill.

16.

Sisson, L. A. , Kilwein, M. L. , & Van Hasselt, V. B. (1988). A graduated guidance procedure for teaching self-dressing skills to multihandicapped children. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 9, 419-432.

17.

Van Hasselt, V. B. (1983). Visual impairment. In M. Hersen , V. B. Van Hasselt , & J. L. Matson (Eds.), Behavior therapy for the developmentally and physically disabled. New York: Academic Press.

18.

Van Hasselt, V. B. (1987). Behavior therapy for visually handicapped persons. In M. Hersen , P. M. Millen & R. M. Eisler (Eds.), Progress in behavior modification (Vol 21, pp. 13-44). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

19.

Van Hasselt, V. B. , Ammerman, R. T. , & Sisson, L. A. (1988). Sensory and physical handicaps. In J. L. Matson (Ed.), Handbook of treatment approaches in childhood psychopathology. New York: Plenum.

20.

Van Hasselt, V. B. , & Sisson, L. A. (1987). Visual impairment. In C. L. Frame & J. L. Matson (Eds.), Handbook of assessment in childhood psychopathology: Applied issues in differential diagnosis and treatment evaluation. New York: Plenum.