Moderate Intellectual Disabilities and Technology

Educators of students with more severe intellectual§disabilities face a significant challenge in§preparing their students while in school to function,§acquire, and maintain skills that would facilitate§successful performance and transition to the§workforce. This research investigated§effectiveness/efficiency of three schedules in skill§acquisition and generalization of two-way radio usage§to report task completion by students with moderate§intellectual disabilities. The schedules§were:community-based instruction(CBI),community based§instruction plus simulated instruction in the§classroom(CBISC)and simulated instruction in the§classroom(SICO). Nine students with moderate§intellectual disabilities were taught to use a§two-way radio. The results revealed that CBI schedule§was the overall most efficient schedule for skill§acquisition. The second most efficient was the CBISC§and the least efficient was SICO. Based on Mean§scores, learning efficiency appeared to be greater§for the CBI and CBISC participants. For§generalization, the CBISC appeared to be the most§effective followed by SICO. CBI schedule appeared to §be the least effective for skill generalization.