Using social stories and literacy-based behavioral interventions to improve employment skills in employees with mental retardation

Preparing people with disabilities for employment is an important task. Many of these individuals have difficulty learning and performing new tasks without support or guidance. There are many accessible interventions that can increase the learning and performance of individuals with disabilities, including positive instructional, literacy based behavior interventions.; A social story (Gray, 2000) is one example of a literacy-based behavioral intervention that has been effective for teaching social skills. This type of intervention typically has been used with children with autism. Several studies have used social stories to decrease disruptive behavior or teach self-help skills such as using a napkin or hand washing. Very few of the studies have examined the effects of a social story intervention for individuals with disabilities not on the autism spectrum (Sansosti & Powell-Smith, 2004).; The present study was designed to examine the effects of social stories to improve the job skills of employees with developmental disabilities. Two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment a multiple baseline across subjects was employed to examine the potential of the intervention on employees' requests for materials and supplies, and any resulting improvements in their work engagement. The second experiment employed a multiple baseline across time periods, with an embedded ABAB design to assess whether the intervention would increase independence and improve "on-time" return-to-work. The results showed that employees with developmental disabilities made substantial improvements in employment skills as a result of the social story intervention, and similar improvements were observed in co-workers as well.