Changes in social impairment for people with intellectual disabilities: a follow-up of the Camberwell cohort.

Julie and her team tracked the adults with severe intellectual disability or autism. They used the Camberwell cohort, a group first counted in the 1980s.

Ten years later the researchers scored each person again on social skills. They asked: did anyone move from ‘aloof’ to ‘social’ or the other way around?

Only 7 out of 245 people changed social groups. The rest stayed exactly where they were.

Among the most isolated, two-thirds became even more aloof. Social skill level was frozen in place.

Friman (2014) followed students with mild ID after graduation and saw the same freeze in work, school, and daily-living skills. Together the papers show stability is not just a ‘severe ID’ issue; it hits the whole spectrum.

Matson et al. (2009) pooled 23 studies and found adults with ID have tiny social networks and little paid work. Julie’s a large share shift explains why those numbers stay flat year after year.

Chung et al. (2019) watched high-schoolers with IDD in inclusive classes. Even there the students talked to peers only a large share of the time. The new data say this low rate is unlikely to budge without help.

If social skills rarely change on their own, waiting for ‘maturity’ wastes time. Start teaching interaction early and keep the program running. Use peer-mediated groups, structured leisure, and job coaching across the lifespan. Plan long-term supports instead of short-term fixes.