Assessing the Level of Life Skills Among Children With Mild and Moderate Intellectual Disabilities in the United Arab Emirates
Abstract
The current study aimed to assess the level of life skills among children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in the United Arab Emirates. The study included 80 children, 50 of whom had mild intellectual disabilities and 30 of whom had moderate intellectual disabilities. To achieve the study objective, a life skills scale was constructed and its validity and reliability were verified. To answer the study questions, a descriptive survey approach was used, and arithmetic means, standard deviations, and t-test were used to analyze the data. The results indicated the weakness of life skills possessed by children with intellectual disabilities. The results also revealed that children with moderate intellectual disabilities showed greater weakness than children with mild intellectual disabilities. The study recommended the necessity of conducting a comprehensive assessment of the special needs of children with intellectual disabilities, assessing the levels of need for support, and providing various services according to the nature of the special needs and the various levels of severity of intellectual disability.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adeniyi, Y. C., & Omigbodun, O. O. (2016). Effect of a classroom-based intervention on the social skills of pupils with intellectual disability in Southwest Nigeria. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 10(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-016-0118-3
American Association in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2021) Definition of Intellectual Disability. https://www.aaidd.org/intellectual-disability/definition.
American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). (2025). Defining Criteria for Intellectual Disability. Silver Spring, MD: AAIDD.
Bielecki, J., & Swender, S. L. (2004). The assessment of social functioning in individuals with mental disability: a review. Behavior modification, 28(5), 694–708. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445503259828
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2023). Data and Statistics on Intellectual disability.
Dean, E. E., Fisher, K. W., Shogren, K. A., & Wehmeyer, M. L. (2016). Participation and Intellectual Disability: A Review of the Literature. Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 54(6), 427–439. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-54.6.427
DiStefano, C., Sadhwani, A., & Wheeler, A. C. (2020). Comprehensive assessment of individuals with significant levels of intellectual disability: Challenges, strategies, and future directions. American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 125(6), 434–448. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-125.6.434
Dučić, B., Gligorović, M., & Kaljača, S. (2018). Relation between working memory and self-regulation capacities and the level of social skills acquisition in people with moderate intellectual disability. Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID, 31(2), 296–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12385
El-Zraigat, I. (2015). Teaching methods in special education. Amman: Dar Wael for publishing.
El-Zraigat, I. (2012). Down Syndrome: Characteristics and rehabilitative considerations. Amman: Dar Wael for publishing.
Greenspan, S., & Woods, G. W. (2014). Intellectual disability as a disorder of reasoning and judgement: the gradual move away from intelligence quotient-ceilings. Current opinion in psychiatry, 27(2), 110–116. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000037
Katz, G., & Lazcano-Ponce, E. (2008). Intellectual disability: definition, etiological factors, classification, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Salud publica de Mexico, 50 Suppl 2, s132–s141. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0036-36342008000800005
King, M., Shields, N., Imms, C., Black, M., & Ardern, C. (2013). Participation of children with intellectual disability compared with typically developing children. Research in developmental disabilities, 34(5), 1854–1862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2013.02.029
Louw, J. S., Kirkpatrick, B., & Leader, G. (2020). Enhancing social inclusion of young adults with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review of original empirical studies. Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID, 33(5), 793–807. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12678
McBride, O., Heslop, P., Glover, G., Taggart, T., Hanna-Trainor, L., Shevlin, M., & Murphy, J. (2021). Prevalence estimation of intellectual disability using national administrative and household survey data: The importance of survey question specificity. International journal of population data science, 6(1), 1342. https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1342
Schalock, R. L., Luckasson, R., & Tassé, M. J. (2019). The contemporary view of intellectual and developmental disabilities: Implications for psychologists. Psicothema, 31(3), 223–228. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2019.119
Siegel, M., McGuire, K., Veenstra-VanderWeele, J., Stratigos, K., King, B., American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Committee on Quality Issues (CQI), Bellonci, C., Hayek, M., Keable, H., Rockhill, C., Bukstein, O. G., & Walter, H. J. (2020). Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders in Children and Adolescents With Intellectual Disability (Intellectual Developmental Disorder). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(4), 468–496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2019.11.018
Tassé, M. J., Luckasson, R., & Schalock, R. L. (2016). The Relation Between Intellectual Functioning and Adaptive Behavior in the Diagnosis of Intellectual Disability. Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 54(6), 381–390. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-54.6.381
Taylor J. L. (2002). A review of the assessment and treatment of anger and aggression in offenders with intellectual disability. Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 46 Suppl 1, 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2788.2002.00005.x
Van Biesen, D., Van Damme, T., Pineda, R. C., & Burns, J. (2023). The impact of intellectual disability and sport expertise on cognitive and executive functions. Journal of intellectual disabilities : JOID, 27(1), 104–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/17446295211036331
Verdugo, M. A., Aguayo, V., Arias, V. B., & García-Domínguez, L. (2020). A Systematic Review of the Assessment of Support Needs in People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(24), 9494. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249494
Wessels, M. D., Van Assen, A. A. G., Post, W. J., & Van der Putten, A. A. J. (2023). The construct validity and reliability of the Motor Development List for the assessment of motor skills in children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: The next step?. Journal of intellectual & developmental disability, 48(4), 370–383. https://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2023.2188877
World Health organization. (2023). Disability. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health.
Winders, P., Wolter-Warmerdam, K., & Hickey, F. (2019). A schedule of gross motor development for children with Down syndrome. Journal of intellectual disability research: JIDR, 63(4), 346–356. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12580
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13812
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Higher Education of Social Science

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Please send your manuscripts to hess@cscanada.net,or hess@cscanada.org for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.
Articles published in Higher Education of Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
HIGHER EDUCATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE Editorial Office
Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail: caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net
Copyright © 2010 Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures