Intellectual Disabilities

Recent research suggests that person centred planning (PCP) can have a positive impact on the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. This article presents data from open-ended comments collected during research on the impact of PCP on the life experiences of 65 people with intellectual disabilities living in England. These comments addressed the goals set prior to and during PCP, and the main benefits of PCP for participants. The results suggest that PCP led to increased goal setting in a range of goal categories. This was reflected in the most common main benefit of PCP of ;increased activities and opportunities' reported for 57 percent of participants. For 48 percent of participants, a main benefit of PCP was that they felt better in themselves, in terms of happiness or self-esteem. This must surely be the ultimate aim of those seeking to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities.

A recent report by the Social Protection Committee on the social dimension in the EU 2020 strategy, stated that greater emphasis must be put on innovating the training of human capital to be responsible for improving the quality of life for vulnerable people throughout Europe, including persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Education plays a pivotal role in this process and presents many challenges, especially with regard to the practice learning. However, arranging practice learning for students carries the challenge of finding qualified mentors/practice assessors, finding sufficient numbers of placements for all students, and addressing the risks associated with the safety and well-being of students and trainees. An innovative approach to experiencing practice learning is through simulation- and game-based education where students engage in an imitation of a real-world scenario in playful ways. An immediate advantage of interactive simulations and games is the provision of risk-free environments in cases where consequences are too costly or hazardous in real life; with a simulated practice game there are no consequences outside the boundaries of the game environment. Responding to the above challenges, the Play2Do project (http://www.play2do.eu) develops a 3D gaming environment that provides a safe and readily accessible environment where students studying to become teachers of people with intellectual disabilities can learn by interacting with non-player characters in a simulation of real world scenarios. The approach uses a more modern, constructivist approach to education and represents an example of innovative education in a digital era, particularly a computer-games era. The core constituent of the gaming/simulation environment are the real-world scenarios. In our work, we engaged special education experts from the UK, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Cyprus and created first a sound understanding of what exact needs are addressed by the simulation environment and second a set of six well-defined scenarios. For instance, dealing with a case in the autism spectrum, the player faces certain behaviour patterns in a simulation setting and finds his/her way through the scenes by interpreting the situation and responding appropriately. A key research finding is that gaming and virtual simulations in practice learning may be better used as a tool to give teachers a certain level of confidence and knowledge but not as a replacement of actual practice.

Employability skills are necessary for youth with Intellectual Disabilities (IDs) to successfully navigate their transition from educational settings to autonomous adult life. Most importantly, research evidence has shown that individuals with IDs appear to perform adequately on job tasks, yet they frequently face inadequacies in the social aspects of work life. Although much of the existing employability research has focused on social skills training related to employability for individuals with other disabilities, people with IDs are underrepresented in the literature. Thus, this review aimed to provide insight into the existing social skills interventions that promote employability in transition-age youth with IDs. Results indicated that although there is a limited number of studies regarding intervention programs on improving social skills related to employment for individuals with IDs, the majority of them positively impacted target behaviors, thus highlighting the need for further empirical research.

Research evidence has shown that employment is crucial and purposeful for people with intellectual disabilities, promoting positive effects associated with independent living and social inclusion. Notwithstanding, people with intellectual disabilities find it particularly difficult to accomplish successful employment. They face discrimination, and they are considered to lack work capacity. The extremely marginal position of people with intellectual disabilities in the labor market appears to prevail across national settings. Over the last 35 years, there has been an improvement in the vocational inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities in Greece, with the legislation embracing the human rights-based approach to disability. Nevertheless, the challenge of accomplishing full participation and equality in employment for people with intellectual disabilities still remains huge in Greece. Their participation rates in the Greek labour market are significantly lower than in the rest of the European Union. This article illustrates the employment provisions for individuals with intellectual disabilities in Greece. Additionally, it presents the current implemented models of their occupational inclusion while critically discussing the convention's pursuance on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Greek context.

Objective: In this study, we planned to investigate the effectiveness of life skills training on the social skills of students with intellectual disabilities. Methods: In this experimental study, with pretest and posttest design and control group, an equal number of participants was randomly assigned to experimental and control group. Life skills training were provided to experimental group (n=20) in nine sessions, whereas control group was in neutral state. The teacher completed the pretest and posttest Social Skills Rating Scale (Teacher Form) for the participants. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS software. Results: The results of MANCOVA revealed a significant difference between total social skills and subscales of the test (cooperation, assertiveness, and self-control) in the experimental group (P<0.005), whereas there was no significant difference in the control group. It is important that educators and parents reinforce learning of social skills through direct and indirect life skills training procedure. Conclusion: The results of this study support the effectiveness of life skills training including cooperation, assertion, and self-control on social skills of high school students with intellectual disabilities.

Resumen: integrarse al ámbito laboral puede ser un gran objetivo para todas las personas, pues es la culminación de una etapa formativa o de estudios y el comienzo de otros aspectos como la independencia económica o la experimentación de diferentes vivencias. En el caso de las personas con discapacidad intelectual (DI), esta meta se ve interferida por la falta de oportunidades para ingresar al ámbito laboral, razón por la cual han surgido metodologías como el Empleo con Apoyo (ECA) como una forma de paliar dicha situación; sin embargo, toda metodología conlleva aspectos clave a la hora de hablar de éxito en su implantación y desarrollo, como en este caso lo es el seguimiento de los trabajadores con discapacidad y la prestación de los apoyos necesarios para su desenvolvimiento en un puesto de trabajo. Palabras clave: empleo con apoyo, discapacidad intelectual y preparador laboral Abstract: join the workplace can be a great goal for everyone, because it is the culmination of a study or training period and the beginning of other aspects such as economic independence or experimentation of different experiences. For people with intellectual disabilities (ID), this goal is interfered with by the lack of opportunities to enter the workplace, that's why new methodologies have emerged as Supported Employment (SE) as a way to solve this situation; however, any methodology involves key issues when speaking of success in implementation and development , and in this case it is the monitoring of workers with disabilities and providing the necessary support for their development in a job.

Few studies have been conducted in Greece focusing on the education of conversational skills of individuals with developmental disabilities. The aim of this qualitative research was to educate seven individuals with developmental disabilities, who are living in an intensive treatment residential facility, in social exchanges and particularly in conversational skills. The participants were formed into a group and were given images to discuss among themselves using questions and answers. The results of the study showed that all participants who started from a zero level gained the ability to participate in conversation according to their potential. The training content and the structure provided for this intervention increased the number of exchanges and afforded the opportunity and the means to socialize. In conclusion, as a result of this intervention, it turns out that people with developmental disabilities clearly demonstrated that they are able to learn conversational skills in a group setting.