Preventing HIV: Interactive Program for special Ed Youth

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this project is to create an interactive program designed to prevent HIV/AIDS among intellectually disabled (ID) adolescents. The specific focus is on those adolescents with cognitive limitations that fall into the categories of "borderline intellectual functioning" (IQ range generally 71-84), "mild mental retardation" (IQ range generally 50-55 to 70) and "moderate mental retardation" (IQ range generally 35-40 to 50-55). Young people with ID are frequently ill informed about HIV/AIDS and transmission. Despite this lack of information, many adolescents with IDs are sexually active, and likely to engage in high-risk behaviors that could result in the transmission of HIV/AIDS. This project will develop two stand-alone gender-specific CD-ROM HIV/AIDS prevention programs for youth with IDs at the middle school and high school age levels who fall into three categories of intellectual functioning. Within each program, decision-making, and behavioral skills will be taught using an interactive text-free program incorporating graphics, animation, and video components. Direct Instruction (DI) methodology will be employed to facilitate mastery of program content for all program users. The program will be evaluated by 350 individuals with intellectual disabilities in a randomized clinical trial. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE