Behavioural Skills Training (BST) for Teaching Sexual Abuse Prevention Skills for Children With Intellectual Disabilities

The main goal of the study was to see if Behavioural Skills Training (BST) could improve knowledge about sexual abuse and the ability to resist it among children with intellectual disabilities. This study also evaluated any negative effects of the programme on children with intellectual disabilities. There were two groups, one group received a training programme which was delivered as three one-hour sessions in a week over 12 weeks. The Behavioral Skills Training (BST) module was structured into ten lessons, each conveyed through engaging stories and corresponding illustrations. The training commenced with teaching children general safety topics such as poison, fire, pedestrian, and vehicle safety. This served as an initial step to establish comfort. Subsequently, the module transitioned to imparting knowledge on body safety rules. This included educating children on stranger safety and private parts, understanding appropriate and inappropriate touches, and teaching them self-protection skills. Videos were used to show appropriate and inappropriate situations effectively, and training sessions involved role-playing scenarios. Another group received the usual sex education offered by teachers at school. After completing training students were assessed for their knowledge regarding sexual abuse and their self-protection skills (ability to say no, remove themselves from the situation, identify a person to whom the incident can be reported and report the incident and identify the offender. This was assessed based on the situations presented in a video. Children were tested one week after the training, at one-month, three-month and six-month intervals to see whether they could retain the information and skill. Their knowledge and self-protection skills improved after attending the programme and it was retained for six months. Participation in the programme did not cause any negative effects among children with intellectual disabilities.