title: Using computers to teach people with intellectual disabilities to perform some of the tasks used within cognitive behavioural therapy: A randomised experiment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Training has been shown to improve the ability of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) to perform some cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) tasks. This study used a computerised training paradigm with the aim of improving the ability of people with IDs to: a) discriminate between behaviours, thoughts and feelings, and b) link situations, thoughts and feelings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-five people with mild-to-moderate IDs were randomly assigned to a training or attention-control condition in a single-blind mixed experimental design. Computerised tasks assessed the participants' skills in: (a) discriminating between behaviours, thoughts and feelings (separately and pooled together), and (b) cognitive mediation by selecting appropriate emotions as consequences to given thoughts, and appropriate thoughts as mediators of given emotions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Training significantly improved ability to discriminate between behaviours, thoughts and feelings pooled together, compared to the attention-control condition, even when controlling for baseline scores and IQ. Large within-group improvements in the ability to identify behaviours and feelings were observed for the training condition, but not the attention-control group. There were no significant between-group differences in ability to identify thoughts, or on cognitive mediation skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A single session of computerised training can improve the ability of people with IDs to understand and practise CBT tasks relating to behaviours and feelings. There is potential for computerised training to be used as a "primer" for CBT with people with IDs to improve engagement and outcomes, but further development on a specific computerised cognitive mediation task is needed.
authors.affiliation: University of East Anglia, UK.
authors.forename: Leen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vereenooghe
authors.affiliation: Northumbria University at Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gega
authors.affiliation: University of Reading, UK.
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.affiliation: University of Kent and Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk, UK. Electronic address: P.E.Langdon@kent.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Langdon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013850:Thinking
keywords: Cognitive behavioural therapy; Cognitive mediation; Learning disabilities; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Skills; Training