Teaching Community Survival Skills To Mentally Retarded Adults: A Review and Analysis

A revolution in providing residential alternatives for mentally retarded (MR) individuals has made in vivo training a part of the deinstitutionalization process. The literature indicates that institutional teaching programs may not be as effective as in vivo community training. MR adults can acquire a variety of community survival skills — the skills curriculum developers must address when they devise new and innovative community integration experiences. This paper reviews the training procedures and results of studies in 10 community survival skills: travel, money management, meal preparation, clothing and personal care, telephone use, housekeeping, self-medication, leisure, social skills, and conversation. Several suggestions are made for future research into training MR citizens for community living.

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