The role of cognition and adaptive behavior in employment of people with mental retardation.
Attention, memory, verbal skills, visual skills, and daily living skills together predict who with ID will keep a job.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Su et al. (2008) compared adults with intellectual disability who had jobs to those who did not.
They tested attention, memory, verbal skills, visual skills, and daily living skills in both groups.
A math model picked which skills best told the groups apart.
What they found
The working group scored higher on every skill area.
The model could sort people into employed or not with about three out of four correct guesses.
Memory and daily living skills were the strongest clues.
How this fits with other research
Rutherford et al. (2007) saw the flip side: adults with autism who entered supported work gained better executive skills over time. Together, the two studies show a two-way street: stronger skills help you get work, and work can sharpen your skills.
Doughty et al. (2002) warned that memory scores in adults with ID change when tasks use familiar words. Chwen-Yng et al. used everyday work tasks, so their memory link to jobs may look stronger than it would with abstract tests.
Eldevik et al. (2010) showed that behavioral programs raise adaptive behavior in preschoolers. Chwen-Yng et al. show those same daily skills still matter for job success in adulthood.
Why it matters
If you assess adults with ID for work, do not stop at IQ. Add quick checks of attention, memory, and daily living skills. These scores tell you who is ready for competitive jobs and who needs more teaching. Use real-world tasks, not just puzzles, so your data match the job site.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Few studies have specifically investigated the cognitive correlates of employment for persons with mental retardation. To evaluate the relationship of cognitive and adaptive functioning to work status, 56 competitively employed and 55 unemployed individuals with mental retardation underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological and adaptive behavioral evaluation. Results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed significant group differences in cognitive and adaptive behavioral domains controlling for gender and severity of mental retardation. Follow-up ANCOVAs showed that the employed group performed significantly better than the unemployed group on measures of attention, memory, verbal comprehension, visual perception, and adaptive behavior. Using discriminant function analysis, 73.2 percent of the employed and 76.4 percent of the unemployed people were predicted correctly. These results suggest that adaptive behavior and specific aspects of cognitive functioning are significant predictors of successful employment for persons with mental retardation.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2008 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2006.12.001