Background The dynamic nature of intellectual disability necessitates repeated screening. Method The functional screening tool (FST‐ID) for individuals with intellectual disabilities was carefully constructed. Results The FST‐ID General Adaptive Composite score (GAC) runs between 0 and 68 points. Criterion validity—high‐positive correlations were found between FST‐ID and ABAS‐II (Gold standard), and between the severity of the intellectual disability and the FST‐ID (r = 0.78, p < .001). The scale holds high‐internal consistency and intra‐ and inter‐rater reliability values. The cut‐off point between mild and moderate disability is 50.4 (Sensitivity: 87%, Specificity 86%, p < .001) and 29.4 between moderate to severe‐profound (Sensitivity: 96%, Specificity 94%, p < .001). Conclusions The FST‐ID presents high‐psychometric properties and requires less than 5 min to complete. Using this tool may support efficient screening practices and improved supports for adults with intellectual disability.

Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) typically show weak long-term memory (LTM) skills. Understanding verbal LTM processes and searching for effective mnemonics in this population is important, to improve intervention programs. The current study aimed to assess verbal LTM abilities of adults with mild ID of mixed etiologies, and to offer a simple memorization technique based on vocal production. Participants ( n = 55) learned lists of different study materials (images of familiar and unfamiliar objects, written words, and sentences) by vocal production (saying or reading aloud) or by no-production (looking, listening, or reading silently). Memory tests followed. Better memory was found for vocally produced images of familiar objects, written words, and sentences. The results show that adults with mild ID can benefit from the relative distinctiveness of items at study. Hence, vocalization may be used in educational and therapeutic contexts for this population, improving memory performance.

Laryngopharyngeal sensation is important in the normal process of swallowing, it is often impaired after neurological events and it has been common practice in such an occurrence to order non-oral tube feeding to prevent aspiration. This study assesses a novel approach to the evaluation of the laryngopharyngeal sensation that allows for improved triage of aspiration risk and more lenience towards oral feeding. This is a case series with follow-up period ranging from 6 to 24 months. Forty patients with neurological deficiencies were tested by a modified laryngopharyngeal sensation study that included evaluation of both supra and infra-glottis. All patients had impaired supra glottic sensation but had good infra glottic sensation that enabled cough protection. All had received oral feeding. Main outcome measure is incident aspiration pneumonia. Twenty-two patients maintained oral feeding without any evidence of aspiration. Eighteen patients had some aspirations associated with cough, and were maintained on modified oral feeding. Out of these 18 patients, four patients (10% of the entire group) developed aspiration pneumonia. The presented procedure identified patients with impaired supraglottic sensation but preserved good infra glottic sensation. This observation enables safe oral feeding in most patients and therefore offers a better quality of life for these individuals.

No abstract