Empirically Supported Strategies for Teaching Personal Hygiene Skills to People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Personal hygiene and grooming involve a variety of behaviors that should be performed regularly to support physical health and social inclusion. Sufficient personal hygiene and grooming practices can be difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to attain due to deficits in motor, communication, and cognitive abilities. This chapter outlines evidence-based approaches to teaching a variety of grooming and hygiene practices, including dressing, oral hygiene, menstrual care, handwashing, bathing, grooming, and toileting. The chapter begins by describing general evidence-based approaches, commonly implemented in the teaching of personal hygiene tasks and concludes by summarizing the available evidence supporting their effectiveness for use across specific personal hygiene activities with people with intellectual disabilities.