Daily living skills in children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability: A comparative study from Turkey

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Highlights

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    The ASD group scored lower than the ID group in total daily living skills (DLS).

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    Their scores were lower in personal hygiene, dressing, safety and interpersonal skills.

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    Household income was an independent correlate of DLS in both groups.

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    Speech level correlated with DLS only in the ASD group.

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    Age, intellectual level and parent-reported autistic behaviour correlated with DLS only in the ID group.

Abstract

Background

Better daily living skills (DLS) are associated with increased independence and positive functional outcomes in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Method

The present study aimed to investigate daily living skills (DLS) and the associated factors in 51 children with ASD and intellectual disability (ASD group) and 51 age- and gender-matched controls with intellectual disability (ID group). The severity of the autistic symptoms was measured with the clinician-rated Childhood Autism Rating Scale and the parent-reported Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) in all children. The mothers also completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and the Basic DLS Questionnaire.

Results

The ASD group scored lower than the comparison group in the total DLS score, personal hygiene, dressing, safety and interpersonal skills, despite being comparable in the parent-reported quality of life. Regression analysis of the whole sample demonstrated that the child’s age, intellectual level, speech level, autism symptom severity and the monthly household income were independent correlates of the total DLS. Exploratory analyses for each group revealed differential effects of these variables: in the ASD group; a higher speech level and monthly income, while in the ID group; an older age, a higher intellectual level and monthly income and a lower ABC score emerged as significant predictors of higher DLS.

Conclusions

Deficient DLS in Turkish children with ASD, given their IQ, suggest that lower level of adaptive skills is inherent in ASD, rather than culture-specific to US and Western Europe.

Section snippets

What this paper adds

Research on adaptive functioning and daily living skills in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have predominantly been undertaken in USA and other western countries, and very few is known for other parts of the world, including Turkey. The aims of the present study was to investigate the levels, and demographic and clinical correlates of daily living skills (DLS) in children with ASD in comparison to an age-, gender- and intellectual level- matched group of children with intellectual disability

Participants

The participants in this study were 51 children with ASD and 51 age- and gender-matched controls with ID, who were being followed in the outpatient clinic of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. The inclusion criteria of the study were: a) children aged between 6–18 years old, b) children having a confirmed diagnosis of a mild, moderate or severe ID, c) parents giving informed consent for their child to participate in the study d) parents being able to

Demographic and clinical variables

The groups did not differ in terms of the average child and parental ages, parental education, or in monthly family income (Table 1). However, the number of children in the house was significantly lower in the ASD group (p = 0.036). Spearman correlation analyses revealed significant correlations of number of children with maternal age (r = 0.20, p = 0.05), and maternal education in years (r = −0.25, p = 0.014). All the children, except one child in the ASD group, were living in two-parent

Discussion

The present study investigated the levels and correlates of basic DLS in a clinical population of children with ASD and ID. The ASD group scored lower in several DLS domains in comparison to children at similar intellectual levels. The age, intellectual level and speech level of the child, as well as the autism symptom severity and the monthly income of the household, were identified as independent correlates of DLS.

In this study, children with ASD scored lower than the ID group in personal

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of interests

None.

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