Teaching Social/Vocational Skills to Retarded Adults With a Modified Table Game: An Analysis of Generalization

Abstract

In this study, a social skills training program for institutionalized mildly or moderately retarded adults was extended to include skills relevant to vocational settings. Target behaviors involving a verbal action or reaction within six skill areas were taught using a commercially available board game, Sorny, and a specially designed card deck. The training program featured response specific feedback, self-monitoring, individualized reinforcers, and individualized performance criterion levels. Using a multiple baseline across two groups (n = 3 per group), the game contingencies increased social/vocational skills in all targeted areas. Generalization was assessed in two settings: a simulated workshop in which pre and post measures were taken and in the institutional workshop where the residents worked. The posttraining simulated workshop results revealed that the residents' newly learned skills had generalized. However, repeated generalization measures of the residents' social interactions in the institutional workshop were equivocal as were measures of their productivity.

The Effect of Group Intervention on the Relationships of Parents with Intellectual Disabilities

“…Social skills training for parents with intellectual disabilities has been taught successfully in previous studies using the group format, although the materials were limited in the complexity of adult-adult scenarios and depiction of parent-child situations (Foxx et al 1983(Foxx et al , 1984Fantuzzo et al 1986). Whilst training focused on raising social awareness and contextual relationship issues, this did not involve observable, discrete measures of change in parents' social skills.…”

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

“…For example, Foxx et al [19] adapted a commercially available board game to train social and vocational skills to developmentally delayed adults. The game contingencies increased social/vocational skills in all targeted areas.…”

Teaching social skills to emotionally disturbed adolescent inpatients

“…* Each card contained a situation designed to elicit a verbal response before a subject's game piece could be moved and a number that indicated the number of spaces that could be moved. The situations were either adapted from those used in our previous studies (38 situations) Foxx et al, 1984a; 'Acopy of the 48 situation items and sample correct responses can be obtained by writing the senior author. Storey, & Rogers, 1984b) or designed specially for adolescents (10 situations).…”

“…and categories (i.e., acting and reacting) were initially developed for use with mentally retarded individuals, our research with psychiatric inpatients suggested that they covered a wide range of social situations that occur in any interactional group. In fact, Foxx, McMorrow, and Mennemeier (1984a) and Foxx, McMorrow, Bittle, and Ness (1986) demonstrated that the component areas and categories could be used to analyze freely occurring verbalizations in undisturbed and ongoing group interactional situations. This was accomplished by separating individual responses into one of the component areas (e.g., criticism) and categories (i.e., actor, reactor) and utilizing scoring criteria (see Table 1) that were relevant to that class of verbal behaviors.…”