Teaching Small Talk: Increasing On-Topic Conversational Exchanges in College Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Using Remote Audio Coaching

Abstract

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have deficits in interpersonal skills due to limited social-communication opportunities. Knowing how to engage in “small talk” or simple social conversational exchanges can be beneficial in postsecondary schooling, employment sites, community environments, and social gatherings. Recently, covert audio coaching (CAC) showed a positive impact on increasing conversational exchanges. As the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for remote delivery tools, we explored the effectiveness of remote audio coaching (RAC) to teach this skill to college students with IDD. We used a multiple baseline design across participants to examine whether RAC might increase on-topic, small talk conversational exchanges. Results demonstrated that RAC effectively increased small talk skills between participants and a confederate. Upon removal of RAC, all participants still performed above their baselines, with two participants maintaining near mastery levels 2 weeks after the intervention was removed. Limitations and future research are discussed.

Telehealth Interventions to Promote Health and Behavior-Related Outcomes in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Two studies were pretest–posttest single-group designs (Backman et al, 2018 ; Wentz et al, 2012 ). Three studies used a single-subject design that include a multiple-baseline design as a control, which was considered to have a low risk of bias (Bross et al, 2020 ; Ford et al, 2020 ; Joseph et al, 2021 ). No study used blinding of participants and personnel, but three studies blinded the outcome assessors.…”

“…The first six sessions focus on psychoeducational aspects of anxiety; second six on reducing interference of anxiety and supporting the youth’s ability to cope with small amounts of physiological and cognitive distress Entered a waitlist •Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders in Children (Birmaher et al., 1999 ) •Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Johnston & Mash, 1989 ) Hardware: Any available device with webcam and headset or built-in microphones Software: OoVoo videoconferencing platform Joseph et al. ( 2021 ) US N = 2 (with ASD, of the 3 participants); age 20, 24 years Increasing on-topic small-talk exchanges in social-conversations Remote audio coaching to teach skills of engaging in small talk or simple social conversational exchanges. Coach suggested a specific topic for the student to talk about.…”

“…Some intervention outcomes aimed at increasing quality of life (Hatfield et al, 2017 ; Sehlin et al, 2020 ; Wentz et al, 2012 ). Others focused on promoting social skills (Bross et al, 2020 ; Joseph et al, 2021 ; Tang et al, 2021 ) or acquiring or promoting employment/job skills (Hatfield et al, 2017 ; Hayes et al, 2015 ; Strickland et al, 2013 ). Only one study’s outcome measure focused on the promotion of daily living skills (Ford et al, 2020 ).…”

Psychosocial and Behavioural Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children with Autism and their Families: A Systematic Review and Initial Data from a Multinational Online Survey

“…This adaptation improved social skills and problem behaviour in the treatment group (N=35) compared to a control group (N=35) without training. A remote audio coaching for young adults with intellectual disabilities (N = 3) seemed to effectively teach small talk skills [52] .…”

“What ELSE about this job?” Teaching Job Decision-Making to College Students With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

“…CAC is a form of performance feedback that involves an instructor providing coaching statements linked to a participant's performance (Bennett et al, 2010). Remote Audio Coaching is a technology-assisted application of CAC (Joseph et al, 2021), in which coaching and instruction is delivered remotely using web-based applications (apps) such as Zoom or WebEx. RAC emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a modification of CAC, when educators discovered a need to implement virtual interventions.…”