Fears and phobias in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities: Assessment and intervention strategies

Abstract

The literature on the fears and phobias of children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities is reviewed. Initially, a differentiation between fears and phobias is made, it being emphasized that excessive fears can create serious obstacles to the integration of children with intellectual disabilities. Many of these excessive fears or phobias meet the criteria for simple or social phobia. Assessment procedures are then examined including the interview, self-reports, parent-rating scales, and behavioural observations. Interventions are drawn from the principles of respondent, operant, and vicarious conditioning. Overall, fear reduction procedures are exposure-based and are invariably used in an integrative fashion. A number of methodological issues are discussed concerning the efficacy of fear reduction strategies with special populations of children.