Listening to the voices of adolescents with intellectual disabilities: Exploring perception of post-school transition.
Adolescents with intellectual disability see themselves as less ready for adult life-skills than peers with other disabilities—especially girls and those in daycare settings.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Brugnaro et al. (2024) asked adolescents with intellectual disability to rate their own life-skills readiness. They used a survey to compare these self-ratings to those of peers with other disabilities.
The team also looked at whether gender or spending the day in a daycare program changed the scores.
What they found
Teens with intellectual disability scored themselves far lower on cooking, budgeting, travel, and other daily skills. Girls and youth who attended daycare gave the lowest ratings of all.
The gap was big enough that the authors labeled the overall finding as negative.
How this fits with other research
Wu et al. (2024) asked a similar question the same year. Their large survey also found low expectations for life after high school among youth with IDD and their parents. Together the two studies form a clear signal: students themselves see big holes in their readiness.
Hong et al. (2021) looks like a contradiction at first. They report that college-based transition services raise self-determination scores for students with IDD. The difference is setting: H et al. sampled typical daycare and school programs, while S et al. tested an enriched college program. Same kids, different supports, different outcomes.
Golubović et al. (2013) foreshadowed this work. They showed that teens with ID and their parents already disagree on quality-of-life ratings. H et al. extend that idea to life-skills ratings, again showing that adult guesses can’t replace student voice.
Why it matters
If you write transition goals, start by handing the student a simple life-skills checklist and ask them to rate each item. Expect low scores from girls and from youth in segregated daycare; these groups may need extra practice and confidence building. Use the ratings to pick real daily tasks—laundry, bus training, money math—and embed them in the IEP. Re-check the student’s own rating each quarter; self-perception can improve when instruction is tied to what they say they need.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Life skills play a key role in the transition of a child with intellectual disabilities into a young adult. According to previous research, students with intellectual disabilities often lack such skills. However, most studies on this topic have been conducted on teachers or parents. Limited studies are available on adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Therefore, this study investigates how adolescents with disabilities perceive their competence in life skills post-school. METHOD: The sample consisted of 201 adolescents with disabilities (67 % with mild intellectual disabilities and 33 % with other disabilities). RESULTS: The results revealed that adolescents with intellectual disabilities' perception of their life skills in all areas (independent living, personal money management, community involvement and usage, leisure activities, health, and social/interpersonal relationships) was significantly lower compared to adolescents with other disabilities. In four out of the six sub-scales, female respondents reported that their competence level in life skills was lower compared to males. In addition, adolescents with disabilities in daycare centers stated that they could establish better social and personal relationships when compared to adolescents from other schools.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2024 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104770