Evaluating the performance diagnostic checklist-human services to address performance issues of adults with intellectual disabilities

ABSTRACT

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS) is an informant-based tool used to assess performance issues in human service settings by identifying performance barriers and suggest matched interventions. There are few applications of the PDC-HS assessing performance in populations with intellectual disabilities. We used the PDC-HS to assess inaccurate book-shelf cleaning by three participants with intellectual disabilities in supported employment services at a library. We identified insufficient training and prompting as barriers to accurate and timely performance. We evaluated behavioral skills training, video modeling with voice-over instruction, and prompting on accuracy for all participants and timeliness for one participant. All participants exhibited increased accuracy on the shelf-cleaning task. One participant showed an increase in timeliness of completion, and one participant maintained and generalized performance after the training phase. Participants indicated positive experiences with the intervention. We discuss limitations and future directions of using the performance diagnostic checklists with individuals with intellectual disabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Integrated employment
• intellectual disability
• performance assessment
• performance diagnostic checklist – human services
• performance management

Author Note

Brian H. Hess

Seth G. Walker https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3215-7670

Tyra P. Sellers https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8072-8856

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Thomas Higbee, Anne Larson, and Monica Hess for their assistance with this project.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, SGW, upon reasonable request.

Ethical Approval

This study and its procedures were approved by the Utah State University Institutional Review Board.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).