Identifying Daily Living Skills From Childhood and Adolescence Predictive of Adult Outcomes in a Longitudinal Study of Autism and Related Developmental Conditions
Match the daily-living skill to the learner’s IQ band: personal care for IQ<70, community skills for IQ>70.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Clarke and colleagues tracked the same people with autism for many years. They wanted to know which childhood daily-living skills best forecast adult success.
The team split the group by IQ. One group had IQ scores below 70. The other group scored above 70.
What they found
For people with IQ below 70, personal care skills like tooth-brushing and dressing predicted better adult outcomes. For people with IQ above 70, community skills like ordering food or using public transit mattered more.
In short, the skill set you target should match the learner’s IQ band.
How this fits with other research
The IQ cutoff echoes earlier work. Ben-Itzchak et al. (2014) saw that only toddlers with DQ above 70 transferred cognitive gains into daily living skills. Clarke now shows the same split predicts adult life years later.
Laugeson et al. (2014) found that early daily-living gains lowered parent stress in toddlers. Clarke extends that thread, proving that the same early skills shape long-term adult independence.
Özmeral Erarkadaş et al. (2026) looked at adults in residential care and found daily functioning tied to IQ 55-65 and good health, not age. Clarke agrees that IQ band matters, but adds that the type of skill you teach must fit the band.
Why it matters
Stop using one-size-fits-all DLS programs. If your learner has IQ below 70, pour teaching time into personal care routines. If IQ is above 70, shift goals to community and pre-vocational tasks. This small change can steer long-term quality of life.
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Join Free →Open each learner’s file, check the most recent IQ score, and move the top two goals to either personal care or community domains based on the 70-point line.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Challenges in daily living skills (DLS) are well‐documented in autism and other developmental conditions. Research has also cataloged challenges in adult outcome attainment among autistic individuals and those with other developmental conditions; stronger DLS are associated with a higher likelihood of attaining some adult outcomes. Little work has examined whether competency in specific DLS increases the likelihood of attaining adult outcomes. The current study examined mean item set scores from the DLS domain of the first and second editions of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) in a sample (n = 230) drawn from a well‐characterized longitudinal cohort. Differences in growth patterns in DLS item set scores based on cognitive ability were examined from ages 5–18. The utility of DLS item set scores from ages 5, 9, 14, and 18 for predicting adult employment, relationship, living, and well‐being outcomes at approximately age 33 was then tested. For all participants, DLS item sets from the community subdomain (i.e., eating out skills, pre‐job skills) were low throughout childhood and showed the least growth over time. For participants with IQ < 70, personal subdomain item sets (i.e., bathing, health) had the most predictive utility. For participants with IQ > 70, community subdomain item sets had the most predictive utility. Competency in personal DLS may promote positive outcomes for autistic individuals with IQ < 70; competency in community DLS may be more important to supporting outcomes for autistic individuals with average or higher IQ. These results could inform interventions intended to promote adult success.
Autism Research, 2025 · doi:10.1002/aur.70056