‘Key skills' building in schools as a possible approach to reducing and preventing challenging behaviour

Heather Armstrong, Claire McDowell, Gerard Leavey, Louise Denne

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Abstract

Background
Building ‘key skills’ may help prevent the development of challenging behaviour in children with an intellectual disability. The aim of this paper was to extend the current limited evidence in this area.

Method
We undertook two studies with children with an intellectual disability in school settings: (1) a cross-sectional replication study exploring the relationship between ‘key skills’ and challenging behaviour. (2) a longitudinal study follow-up exploring change in ‘key skill’ levels and challenging behaviour.

Results
The replication study recruited 74 participants, those scoring lowest in ‘key skill’ had a 94% chance of having challenging behaviour; those with the highest scores had a 6% chance. The follow-up study recruited 39 participants, we found a significant increase in children’s ‘key skill’ level (p < .001) and a decrease in their challenging behaviour ((p = 0.046).

Conclusion
Building ‘key skills’ in children with an intellectual disability may help reduce or prevent challenging behaviour.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberJAR13268
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities
Volume37
Issue number5
Early online date27 Jun 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 1 Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Data Access Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the
corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Keywords

  • challenging behaviour
  • intellectual disability
  • prevention
  • risk marker
  • skills development

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