The Language of Change Among Individuals With Mild Intellectual Disability or Borderline Intellectual Functioning: Client Responses to Therapist Motivational Interviewing Skills

BACKGROUND: The link between a therapist's motivational interviewing skills and the subsequent response of individuals with mild intellectual disabilities to borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) is unknown. This study examines this sequential relationship and describes change talk (CT) in individuals with MID-BIF during substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. METHOD: In this study, 35 treatment sessions were sequentially coded using the Motivational Interviewing Sequential Code for Observing Process Exchanges. Observed and expected frequencies of transitions, transitional probabilities, odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated in Generalized Sequential Querier software. Furthermore, frequencies of CT in IBM SPSS statistics were calculated. RESULTS: Questions and reflections of CT and two-sided questions were followed by CT. Questions and reflections of counter change talk (CCT) and two-sided questions were followed by CCT. Individuals expressed all kinds of CT utterances. CONCLUSIONS: Questions and reflections of CT are powerful skills in evoking CT in individuals with MID-BIF during SUD treatment.