Self-management of instruction cues for occupation: review of studies with people with severe and profound developmental disabilities.

Helping people with severe and profound developmental disabilities acquire and maintain constructive occupation is an objective of great practical importance. During the last 15-20 years, studies directed at this goal have largely relied on five strategies of self-management of instruction cues. Those strategies consist of the use of (1) picture cues presented on sets of cards, (2) picture cues stored in computer-aided systems, (3) object cues attached to cards, (4) verbal cues stored in audio recording devices, and (5) self-verbalizations. This paper reviews the aforementioned strategies and discusses their overall effectiveness and their suitability (practicality). The paper also points out some relevant issues for future research.