Peer-Mediated Interventions to Enhance Conversation Skills of Young Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities on a University Campus

• Published in: Journal of developmental and physical disabilities Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 1091 - 1120
• Main Authors: Bross, Leslie Ann, Wall, Emily, Pinczynski, Monique, Anderson, Ashley, Williams, Thai, Wood, Charles L., Spooner, Fred
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Campuses; Child and School Psychology; Coaching; Coaching (Performance); Colleges & universities; Communication skills; Developmental disabilities; Exit interviews; Experiments; Goal Orientation; Goal setting; Intellectual Disability; Intervention; Original Article; Pediatrics; Peer tutoring; Peers; Psychology; Public Health; Social participation; Social skills; Verbal communication; Young adults; Conversation; Peer-mediated intervention; Social skills; Intellectual and developmental disability
• ISSN: 1056-263X; 1573-3580
• DOI: 10.1007/s10882-024-09979-z

Young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) on college campuses are vulnerable to exclusion and a lack of social participation. However, peers can provide meaningful supports to young adults with IDD in the area of social/communication skills. The purpose of this study was to enhance the conversation skills of four young adults with IDD (ages 22–23) during their regular lunch breaks on a university campus. The dependent variable was percent of conversational engagement during 10-min audio recorded sessions as measured using partial interval recording procedures. Typically developing peers served as peer coaches and provided structured or natural supports. Experiment 1 used an alternating treatments design to compare the effects of peer coaching alone vs. peer coaching + goal setting with two adjacent baseline conditions and a final student-choice condition. Results for Experiment 1 indicated peer coaching alone and the additive effects of goal setting was more effective than natural supports only. Experiment 2 used a withdrawal design to compare the effects of young adults with IDD speaking with fellow classmates with disabilities vs. peers without disabilities. Participants in Experiment 2 demonstrated higher levels of conversational engagement when speaking with peers without disabilities in a natural manner. Social validity of the different peer-mediated interventions was overall high for all participant types as reported on questionnaires and exit interviews. We provide implications for practice and suggestions for future research related to peer-mediated interventions for young adults with IDD on college and university campuses.