Promoting classroom adjustment and social skills for students with mental retardation within an experimental and control group design

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the “I Found a Solution” computer‐assisted social skills intervention program on students with mild mental retardation. Teachers randomly divided students from two Israeli special schools (58 males, 29 females; aged 10.6 to 17.11 years) into an experimental and a control group. Teachers trained the experimental group using a social skills package including computerized social conflict scenarios and adventure games, group discussions, and homework tasks. Within the same time frame, teachers trained the control group to use various academic computer software programs. Following the intervention process, the research team collected information on students' self‐reported social skills and teachers' ratings of the students' adaptive classroom behavior. The experimental group performed significantly better than controls on posttest criteria. Teachers rated trained students as demonstrating better task orientation and less aggression and behavior difficulties. On subjective self‐reports, trained students reported more cooperation and assertion than the control group, but self‐control and empathy measures did not differentiate between groups. The use of a naturalistic mini‐environment for experimenting and rehearsing effective social strategies appears promising but requires further exploration.