Identifying work preferences among individuals with severe multiple disabilities prior to beginning supported work.

Adults with severe intellectual disability tried two job tasks at a table. Staff held up one pair at a time and asked each adult to point to the task they wanted.

The whole test took five minutes. Later the adults started real jobs at a publishing company. Staff watched to see if the quick test had picked the tasks they really liked.

The five-minute test matched what the workers chose on the job. Tasks picked in the test were the same tasks the adults stayed with and enjoyed at work.

Hamilton et al. (1978) ran almost the same paired-choice test twenty years earlier. Their test used prevocational puzzles, not real jobs. Willemsen-Swinkels et al. (1998) moved the idea into an actual workplace and still got clear results.

Frank-Crawford et al. (2018) later showed that high-preference items can lose power when work gets hard. Their warning makes the pre-work check in Willemsen-Swinkels et al. (1998) even more useful: test before the real shift starts.

Carter et al. (2020) found that typical kids’ stated likes do not always work as reinforcers. Willemsen-Swinkels et al. (1998) gives a way to double-check: run the quick test, then watch the worker on the job to be sure.

You can now give a five-minute paired-choice test before any new vocational task. If the worker picks folding towels over stuffing envelopes, start them on towels. You save training time and the worker stays happier. Keep an eye on the first day; if effort drops, run the test again.