Positive Relationship Development and the Acquisition of Communication and Task Compliance for Individuals with Profound Intellectual Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Staff members who provide care for people with severe intellectual disabilities often face a number of obstacles because the people they serve may have few communicative skills, may not engage in appropriate behaviors, and frequently display challenging behaviors such as self-stimulation, self-injury, and aggression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a "relationship development" procedure in teaching three participants diagnosed with profound intellectual disabilities to approach a teacher, to use manual signs to gain access to highly preferred consequences, and then to follow simple instructions in order to gain access to the highly preferred consequences. The procedures were effective in teaching all three participants all three skills. Although the participants' challenging behaviors such as self-injury and aggression were not directly addressed, the frequency of the participants' challenging behavior decreased substantially.