The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of referential communication training on
perspective-taking abilities of students with intellectual disabilities. In order to accomplish such
purpose, the research questions were established as follows. First, what are the effects of
referential communication training on intended perspective-taking abilities of students with
intellectual disabilities? Second, what are the effects of referential communication training on
thought perspective taking abilities of students with intellectual disabilities? Third, what are the
effects of referential communication training on affective perspective taking ability of students
with intellectual disabilities? For this study, referential communication program was constructed
based on the precedented researches, being revised and supplemented with the expertise from
special education. In addition, a perspective taking ability test from former studies was adopted
as a measuring tool for this study. This study administered the perspective-taking ability
measurement test as a pre and a post test to each group, consequently mean and standard
deviation being calculated and the difference in the effect verified through analysis of
covariance(ANCOVA). The results of this study are as follows. First, the experimental group,
which was trained by the referential communication program, was proven to have better scores
on their intended perspective-taking abilities than the control group. Second, the experimental
group showed higher scores on their thought perspective-taking abilities than the control group.
Third, opposed to the findings above, the experimental and control group did not show
significant differences on the affective perspective-taking abilities, proving that referentail
communication training do not influence affective perspective taking abilities of intellectually
disabled students.
As above, with the referential communication program intellectually disabled students
achieved better both on the intended and thought perspective-taking abilities, while it failed to
improve their thought perspective-taking abilities. These findings suggest that other approaches
rather than referential communication training are necessary to enhance affective
perspective-taking abilities.