Leisure provision for persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: quality time or killing time?
Adults with profound ID receive less than four hours of mostly passive leisure each weekend—far below any quality benchmark—but simple staff prompts or visual tools can flip the ratio to active, chosen play.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors visited 160 adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. They timed every leisure activity offered during two weekends.
Staff recorded what each resident did and for how long. The goal was to see if weekend life looked like quality time or just killing time.
What they found
Across the whole sample, the average person got only 3.8 hours of leisure for the entire weekend. Most of that time was passive TV or videos.
Older residents received even less variety and fewer activities. The numbers fall far short of any reasonable quality-of-life standard.
How this fits with other research
Hake et al. (1983) showed the problem is solvable. Their reversal study lifted purposeful play from 10 % to 70 % simply by training staff to prompt and keep toys within reach.
Austin et al. (2015) and Shan et al. (2024) extend this line. Both used light tech—micro-switches or visual schedules—to let people with severe disabilities pick and run their own leisure. Their participants stayed engaged without extra treats.
Frisch et al. (2025) seems to contradict the 2005 gloom, but the settings differ. The 2025 paper found kids with ID still got less hands-on iPad time in inclusive classrooms. Both studies flag the same access gap; one happens at school, the other in group homes.
Why it matters
You now have hard numbers to show administrators that weekend programming is thin. Use the 3.8-hour figure when you request more staff hours or a leisure budget. Pair that slide with the easy wins from F et al. and the visual-schedule recipe from Ge et al. to prove the fix is cheap and evidence-based.
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Join Free →Post a visual choice board with three preferred leisure icons near the living-room table and prompt each resident to pick before the TV goes on.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Information on the duration, frequency and content of leisure activities for persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) in residential facilities during weekends was not available. METHOD: The project was carried out in 2003 and included seven facilities. Interviews were held with direct support professionals of 112 living units. Consequently, the actual leisure provision of 160 persons with PIMD was recorded over a period of four weekends. This study also investigated the relationship between setting characteristics and the distribution of the content, frequency and duration of leisure activities. Age and gender of persons with PIMD were under investigation. RESULTS: A total mean of 3.8 h of leisure activities is provided for during the full weekend, almost half of which includes watching television or listening to music. Leisure activities are almost exclusively offered by professionals. Parents or volunteers only provide a minimum of activities during weekends. The results suggest that the leisure provision for persons with PIMD is severely restricted and not bound to any service provider in particular. Generally, with increasing age the leisure provision for persons with PIMD declines in number and in variety. No effect was found for gender. CONCLUSIONS: Leisure time for persons with PIMD contains more empty hours than quality time.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00689.x