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Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have deficits in interpersonal skills due to limited social-communication opportunities. Knowing how to engage in "small talk" or simple social conversational exchanges can be beneficial in postsecondary schooling, employment sites, community environments, and social gatherings. Recently, covert audio coaching (CAC) showed a positive impact on increasing conversational exchanges. As the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for remote delivery tools, we explored the effectiveness of remote audio coaching (RAC) to teach this skill to college students with IDD. We used a multiple baseline design across participants to examine whether RAC might increase on-topic, small talk conversational exchanges. Results demonstrated that RAC effectively increased small talk skills between participants and a confederate. Upon removal of RAC, all participants still performed above their baselines, with two participants maintaining near mastery levels 2 weeks after the intervention was removed. Limitations and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many adolescents with developmental disabilities do not learn the safety skills needed to maintain physical well-being in domestic and community environments. Literacy-based behavioral interventions (LBBIs) that combine print, pictures, and behavioral rehearsal are effective for promoting acquisition and maintenance of self-care skills, but have not been investigated as safety skill intervention. Also, LBBIs have primarily been implemented by teachers and other professionals. In this study, a peer partner was taught to deliver an LBBI story to students so they would learn to perform a basic first aid routine: cleaning and dressing a wound. Results showed that students’ accuracy with the first aid routine increased after a peer delivered the LBBI instructional package, and maintained after the peer stopped delivering it. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the LBBI instructional package for teaching first aid safety skills, and extends previous research showing the efficacy of peers in delivering this intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]