Adults With Intellectual Disabilities in a Day Program Setting Using Activity Schedules

Often we require calendars and or electronic devices, to remind us to get started on something. Individuals with intellectual disabilities are no different, in terms of needing a reminder to begin a task. However, the reminders that individuals with disabilities receive often come from another person thus making it more difficult for individuals with disabilities to independently complete tasks. In addition, it can be exhaustive of the other person’s time and resources that is constantly having to prompt the individual to complete tasks. However, if individuals with disabilities can learn to complete a schedule that prompts them through each step of a task, the schedule then acts as a reminder rather than a person, thus increasing independence and decreasing dependence on others. The present study showed that adults with intellectual disabilities completing task steps independently increased when the activity schedule was present. Moreover, independent completion of task steps increased even more when the activity schedule was present and the prompting procedure was used