Suchergebnisse

AbstractA 43‐year‐old man with mild intellectual disabilities was referred after several contacts with the law when he had been seen in the street talking to children who were unknown to him. Some staff members feared that he had a sexual interest in children. Other colleagues considered that the behaviour was innocent, reflecting his friendly nature, but that it was a behaviour which was misinterpreted by others. The present paper charts the assessment of this man's difficulties and abilities over a wide range of relevant areas, and a reassessment following an intensive period of one‐to‐one training on age‐recognition skills. Although the training was unsuccessful, the measures used assisted in making a detailed assessment and providing clear instructions to care staff, all of which was to the subject's long‐term benefit. The present paper also illustrates the way in which difficulties of this nature can be assessed and uses allied assessment measures which may be helpful in looking at the whole picture of any person with such problems. It also considers how these areas may then be addressed. Although, in this case, the subject was unable to learn to discriminate specific age groups despite intensive training, he was consequently able to be advised in a manner which should keep him from getting into trouble in the future and the now detailed knowledge of his abilities in all these areas is valuable for his long‐term support in the community.

AbstractThe ability of children to classify accurately their own ages and the ages of others has been the subject of very limited research. However, the literature is largely in agreement on there being progressive increases in skill with chronological age, although there is disagreement on the age at which this ability becomes well developed. The processes look similar in the field of intellectual disabilities, although this area is extremely under‐researched. Key factors may include age, the amount of time spent in institutions (e.g. long‐term hospitals for people with intellectual disabilities), developmental level and IQ. The present paper provides a review of the relevant literature and an exploratory study investigating the age recognition of self and colleagues in a group of 20 adults with intellectual disability, some from within what has been a major hospital for people with intellectual disabilities and some from the wider community. Measures of age recognition using photographs, as well as standardized measures of intellectual ability and social adaptive behaviour, were administered, and correlations were found between the ability to recognize age in others and developmental age, and also IQ. Success on the task of age discrimination appears to be more likely if the IQ of the individual is around 60–65 or above, and if the person shows social adaptive behaviour equivalent to 8 or 9 years of age and over. Also included in the study was a task in which only the discrimination of whether the photographs were of adults or children was required, and this proved to be a simpler process for the participants. The present study also demonstrates some of the discriminative stimuli used by adults with intellectual disabilities to ascertain the approximate age of a person.