An examination of specific communication deficits in adults with profound intellectual disabilities.
Expect receptive skills to outpace expressive and written abilities in adults with profound ID—plan AAC and instruction accordingly.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked adults with profound intellectual disability to complete three tasks. They tested receptive language, expressive language, and written language.
A survey design let them rank each skill from strongest to weakest for every participant.
What they found
Receptive skills came out on top. Expressive skills landed in the middle. Written skills sat at the bottom.
The gaps were large and statistically clear.
How this fits with other research
Chen et al. (2024) looked at minimally verbal autistic youth. They found the opposite pattern: receptive language often falls behind expressive, and the gap widens with age.
The clash disappears when you see the groups differ. Yanru studied kids with autism; C et al. studied adults with profound ID. Different diagnoses and ages flip the hierarchy.
DiStefano et al. (2020) back this up. Their review warns that standard tests floor-out for severe-profound ID. Adapted tasks are needed to catch the receptive edge shown here.
Why it matters
Assume receptive beats expressive in adults with profound ID. Start AAC plans with visual or auditory comprehension checks, not speech demands. Place written goals last. This order saves trial time and reduces client frustration tomorrow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research has shown that adults with intellectual disability (ID) evince communication deficits. These communication problems can be divided into problems with receptive, expressive, and written domains. While much research has been devoted to investigating communication deficits in ID in general, scant research has been conducted on communication skills in specific levels of ID. This study examined 204 adults with profound ID residing in two large supports and services centers in the southeastern region of the United States. Data was collected on these individuals' receptive, expressive, and written communication skills using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Three dependent t-tests were conducted comparing the proportion of items endorsed by informants on each of the three communication subdomains (receptive, expressive, and written) with one another. Participants displayed a significantly larger proportion of receptive subdomain items than expressive subdomain items, t(203) = 20.00, p < 0.01, and written subdomain items, t(203) = 20.53, p < 0.01. Additionally, it was found that the individuals exhibited a significantly larger proportion of expressive subdomain items than written subdomain items, t(203) = 10.80, p < 0.01. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.10.019