Intervention strategies in residential immersive life skills programs for youth with disabilities: a study of active ingredients and program fidelity

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine intervention strategy use in residential immersive life skills (RILS) programs.

Methods: The Service Provider Strategies-Checklist was used to record the strategies used in 100 activity settings across two summers at three RILS program sites. Activity settings were categorized by activity type and session format. Relative occurrence of the strategies was examined using percentages.

Results: Socially mediated strategies (listening, engaging youth) and teaching/learning techniques (verbal cues, verbal instruction) were used in over 75% of the settings. Strategy use was highly contextualized, with different strategy patterns observed for different types of activity settings.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that RILS programs be characterized by their use of socially mediated strategies and teaching/learning techniques, with socially mediated and non-intrusive strategies appearing to be program hallmarks. Strategy use was aligned with the types of sessions offered, providing evidence of program fidelity and indicating that RILS programs are complex in their formats, activities, and strategy use.

KEYWORDS:

• Activity settings
• intervention
• life skills
• service provider strategies
• transition
• youth

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the contributions of other members of the Ontario Independence Program Research Team, and thank the three participating service organizations and staff members of the involved RILS programs for their support. We also thank Madhu Pinto, Alanna Rudzik, Jesiqua Rapley, Donya Mosley, and Eric Smart for their assistance with data collection.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Gillian King holds the Canada Research Chair in Optimal Care for Children with Disabilities, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. This chair is supported by matching funds from the Kimel Family Opportunities Fund through the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation. Jan Willem Gorter holds the Scotiabank Chair in Child Health Research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.