Andrea Caoili, LCSW, EdD; Dan Baker, PhD
It takes an interdisciplinary treatment village to promote wellness. Psychotherapy is a powerful tool for enhancing wellness, emotional wellbeing, and mastery while enhancing life skills. In this appendix is a list of evidence-based, frequently used therapeutic modalities and resources regarding the efficacy of the modalities for persons with IDD.
The following are considerations for adapting psychotherapy and other intervention methods during treatment involving persons with IDD:
- Speed: Adaptations of speed refer to providing intervention at a slower pace and allowing the additional time to process the content and respond. This adaptation is commonly used in providing accommodations for academic testing when learners are given additional time during exams.
- Number: This accommodation refers to providing either more or less exemplars to the patient. Either of these might be appropriate for a patient depending on the learning abilities and profiles they have. If the patient requires additional practice for acquiring a skill or concept, the adaptation would be to increase the number of exemplars used. If the patient has difficulty generating responses, fewer responses could be required.
- Abstraction: Adaptation based on abstractness involves reducing the level of abstraction and improving content concreteness. This is accomplished by using objects, drawings, and role play rather than lecture, discussion, or reading materials.
- Complexity: These adaptations generally involve breaking content down into smaller chunks or units. This is familiar to special educators in the instructional technique of task analysis.
