The Effects Of Shaping Classes On Academic Skills, Self Care Skills and On-ward Behavior with Persons Who Are Cognitively Impaired and Chronic Psychiatric Inpatients

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Abstract
Within the field of psychiatric rehabilitation, a growing body of evidence suggests the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia can exert a significant impact on an individual's rehabilitative potential. In this report we describe two studies centering around improvements in cognitive skills with multiply-impaired individuals with psychiatric disabilities residing in a rehabilitation program based on Paul and Lentz' (1977) social learning approach. In the first study, we compared improvements in reading and mathematics skills of two groups of inpatients over a nine-month period; one group was of lower functioning individuals seen in academically-oriented shaping classes, the other was a higher functioning group seen in more traditional academic classes. This study found subjects in shaping classes to demonstrate significant improvements in both basic reading and mathematics skills, while participants in the traditional classes made modest gain in reading skills only. In the second study, we investigated the relationship between academic skills, self-care skills and on-ward behavior of a group of individuals with pervasive psychiatric disabilities, who received six to eight academically-oriented shaping classes per week, over a twenty month period. We found these individuals to demonstrate continued improvements in both reading and mathematics skills, while showing a more gradual reduction of problematic behaviors. Improved self-care skills, once attained, were exhibited at a relatively steady rate over the twenty month period. Correlations found no significant relationships between improved academic skills, self-care skills and on-ward behavior. These results support the conclusion that persons with multiple impairments can benefit from learning-based procedures.