Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities: A Cautionary Note

Background Social skills training is increasingly used to help adolescents with intellectual disabilities to adapt to life after school. Methods This paper describes a training course for a group of students in their final year at school. Teacher and student self‐evaluation measures were used to assess the course. Results The teacher's scores showed that the students had improved significantly; however, the students saw themselves as significantly less skilled after training. Conclusions The present authors conclude that the two measures assess different aspects of the training and that both should be used in its assessment. Self‐assessment appears to have limitations as a measure of progress, but may be used to monitor the students' responses to training, and the extent to which they require individual support and attention during it.