Teaching Cooking Skills to Young Women with Mild Intellectual Disability: The Effectiveness of Internet Websites

Abstract

The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using streaming video websites to improve, maintain, and generalize the cooking (meal-making) skills of four young women (18-22 years old) diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. A pre-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based multimedia program. Instruction consisted of supported viewing and imitation of cooking videos available online, with students searching for a video of the desired recipe, viewing it, and then imitating the video’s sequence of steps to complete the cooking task. Results were assessed by means of a questionnaire administered to each participant’s primary caregivers, and indicated that the structured use of the websites was effective in improving students’ meal-making skills. Implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Keywords

• cooking
• video modeling
• intellectual disabilities
• websites
• life skills