'Leef je in!'

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the social cognitive skills intervention Leef je in!. The effectiveness of the intervention will be tested in a randomized controlled trial with two parallel conditions: an intervention condition and a control condition. Measurements take place at baseline (0 months), posttest (3 months) and follow-up after 6 months and 9 months.



The aim of the intervention is to improve two social cognitive skills of children with MBID: 1) emotion recognition and 2) perspective taking. Children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities show deficits in these social cognitive skills, that is a reason why they experience more behavior problems. We expect that the intervention will be beneficial to the prosocial behavior of the children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities, because they have a better understanding of what is happening in social situations. In addition, we expect that the children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities can benefit more from the treatment in the residential treatment centre, because they have developed the basic social cognitive skills, which are required to participate in many other interventions. Because of that, we expect that on the long term the children will show less behavior problems.



The intervention ‘Leef je in!’ is suitable for (almost) all children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities who are living in a residential treatment centre, because most children with MBID who live in residential treatment centres show deficits in their social cognitive skills. The intervention ‘Leef je in!’ is developed together with the target group, group workers and scientists. The group intervention for 4 children is protocol-driven and is given by two trainers (group workers).

It is hypothesized that a training in the two social cognitive skills, emotion recognition and perspective taking, will improve the prosocial behavior of the children with mild to borderline intellectual disablilities (MBID), because they have a better understanding of what is happening in social situations. In addition, we expect that the children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities can benefit more from the treatment in the residential treatment centre, because they have developed the basic social cognitive skills which are required to participate in many other interventions. Because of that, we expect that on the long term the children will show less behavior problems.

Baseline

3 months

6 months

9 months

The intervention ‘Leef je in!’ is developed together with the target group, group workers and scientists. The protocol-driven group intervention for children is guided by two trainers (group workers). The intervention consists of 16 one hour meetings and takes 11 weeks. The intervention uses several methods, such as elements of the cognitive behavioral therapy. Furthermore, the intervention uses many active assignments, like role-play and playing games. Finally, an important method of the intervention is generalization. Generalization means that what has been learnt by the children during the intervention can also be shown in situations outside the intervention. This generalization is been done in several ways; at first the intervention is given by group workers of the treatment group where participants live, so they can remind the children of what they have learnt, also outside the training. The intervention takes place in the living room of the treatment group. Furthermore, the participants make homework assignments. The themes used in the intervention are selected with the target group and group workers. Lastly, the whole team of group workers (not just the trainers) will be trained in giving the intervention.