Teaching Adults with Intellectual Disabilities to Evacuate a Building and Call Emergency Services During a Fire Drill

Abstract House fires can result in loss of life and property and cause serious physical harm. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) should have fire safety skills, such as exiting a building safely and calling emergency services. Although some studies have targeted evacuation skills using behavioral skills training (BST), few have also targeted the skill of contacting emergency services and reporting the fire. In a small-N design study, we used BST with additional rehearsal and feedback to teach adults with IDD to exit a building and call emergency services. Although the participants acquired the skills, we found that they only performed some components consistently. We also found that all participants’ ability to evacuate increased after one exposure to the scenario before the training (i.e., under baseline conditions), suggesting that they already had some of the skills, but did not have experience responding under emergency circumstances. Between 7 and 10 weeks post-training, participants retained the skills, and participants and staff reported the training to be appropriate, efficient, and effective. We discuss methods to promote the generalization and maintenance of fire safety skills and suggest further research.