A Meta-Analysis of Safety Skills Interventions for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

This study provides the results of a meta-analysis of 31 single-case design studies on safety skills interventions for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). Results indicate that individuals who have mild to moderate ID, in particular school-age children, have benefited most from the safety skills interventions. In addition, the interventions have demonstrated small-to-large effect sizes across safety skills (e.g., abduction prevention, fire safety, first aids, daily living safety, pedestrian safety skills). The behavioral skills training (BST) with and without additional components was the most commonly used safety skills intervention for individuals with ID; BST alone demonstrated a larger effect than BST with additional components, and video modeling had the largest treatment effect of all intervention types. Outcomes for abduction prevention skills were larger than those of other safety skills. Implications for practice and future research are discussed in the following areas: implementer, dose of intervention, treatment fidelity, and social validity.