Abstract:
Teaching Interaction Procedure (TIP) is a relatively recent intervention that has demonstrated success in social skills training among children with autistic spectrum disorders (Leaf et al., 2012). However, the effects of TIP on adults have not been thoroughly investigated, nor has the success of TIP been replicated by independent research groups. Thus, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of TIP in enhancing the engagement of pro-social behaviours during a social gathering among adults with intellectual disabilities. The social gatherings were set up so the participants would take turns being the host of the session. The intervention composed of TIP conducted in three phases: TIP, TIP with Reminder and TIP with Prompting. Results demonstrated that TIP and TIP with Reminder did not successfully increase the percentage of intervals the participants engaged in the target behaviours. However, following TIP with Prompting, 3 of the 4 participants demonstrated improvements in pro-social behaviours. Moreover, the results indicated that even without training, being the host of the session resulted in elevated levels of engagement in pro-social behaviours. The clinical implications of these results are discussed.
