The impact of emotional development in people with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual developmental disability.
Three SED-S domains spot ASD inside ID populations without extra testing.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kovačič et al. (2020) gave the SED-S scale to adults with both autism and intellectual disability. They also gave it to adults who had only intellectual disability. The goal was to see which parts of the scale best spot the added autism.
The team looked at six emotion domains. They kept the three that showed the clearest gap between the two groups.
What they found
Adults with ID plus ASD scored lower on every key domain. The biggest gaps were in Relating-to-Peers, Differentiating-Emotions, and Regulating-Affect. These three areas alone helped flag who had ASD.
The ID-only group did better even when both groups had similar IQ scores.
How this fits with other research
Wilkins et al. (2009) saw the same split in kids. Children with ID plus ASD could name emotions yet failed when the feelings got tricky. T et al. now show the pattern lasts into adulthood and can be caught with a short scale.
Andrés-Roqueta et al. (2021) found wide emotion-understanding gaps in adults with Down syndrome. Their data line up with the low SED-S scores seen here, hinting that specific developmental profiles repeat across genetic sub-types.
Leaf et al. (2012) showed teens with ASD could read non-verbal cues but could not send them. T et al.’s Regulating-Affect domain captures that exact expressive gap in adults with ID plus ASD.
Why it matters
You now have three quick SED-S items that help decide if an adult with ID also has ASD. No extra IQ tests or long checklists are needed. Add these items to your intake packet. If the client scores low on peer relating, emotion naming, or affect control, probe further for ASD and tailor social-skills goals to those exact weak spots.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Intellectual developmental disabilities (IDDs) and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are developmental conditions, which may also be associated with impairments in emotional development (ED). ED can be assessed using the Scale of Emotional Development - Short (SED-S), a five-stage model consisting of eight domains, which allows to study the relationship between ASD and ED in people with IDD. METHODS: In this retrospective study, the level of ED was compared in 327 adults with IDD with [n = 83; mean age 38.3 years; level of IDD: mild (6), moderate (21), severe (45) and profound (11)] and without [n = 244, mean age 36.9 years; level of IDD: mild (67), moderate (73), severe (68) and profound (36)] ASD. The discriminative ability of the SED-S was determined by a regression in a training and a validation sample. RESULTS: The level of ED correlated with the severity of IDD (rs = -.654) and the presence of ASD (rs = -.316). People with additional ASD showed lower levels of ED compared with those with IDD only (mean reference ages 7-18 vs 19-36 months). The developmental profiles were equally balanced in ASD and IDD-only. A regression analysis revealed three domains ('Relating-to-Peers', 'Differentiating-Emotions', and 'Regulating-Affect') to be useful for ASD assignment (AUC > 0.70, sensitivity 0.76-0.80, specificity 0.62-0.63). CONCLUSIONS: In people with IDD, additional ASD was associated with delays in ED, which may be considered in diagnostics, treatment and care.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2020 · doi:10.1111/jir.12785