The Effect of a Self-Monitoring Shopping Intervention for Adults With Intellectual Disability Secondary to Down Syndrome

Adults with intellectual disability secondary to Down syndrome often have difficulty performing complex activities of daily living, such as shopping. These difficulties may, in part, be influenced by deficits in metacognitive abilities, which include self-monitoring of one's performance. There is evidence that interventions which target self-monitoring skills can improve functional performance in adults and adolescents with traumatic brain injury.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on adults with Down syndrome have demonstrated impairments in metacognitive abilities, resulting from significant volume reduction in the frontal lobes and anterior cingulate cortex. These deficits likely contribute to the difficulties experienced by this population when performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), such as shopping. Although metacognitive-focused interventions that address self-monitoring skills have been used to improve functional performance in adults and adolescents with traumatic brain injury, these techniques have not yet been used to improve IADL performance in adults with intellectual disability secondary to Down syndrome.

This 16-week study is a single-subject ABA design across ten participants to determine the effectiveness of a self-monitoring intervention on shopping performance in adults with intellectual disability secondary to Down syndrome. The intervention will span 8 weeks and will include weekly sessions that are delivered in an alternating group-individual format. Sessions will provide participants the opportunity to practice and apply self-monitoring techniques across a variety of shopping tasks and settings to promote generalization and transfer of learning. This study has the potential to provide preliminary information on the effectiveness of a self-monitoring intervention, provided in community-based settings, to increase observable shopping skills in adults with intellectual disability secondary to Down syndrome.