Young adults with learning disabilities: a study of psychosocial functioning at transition to adult services

A study of the psychosocial functioning of young adults with a history of learning disability (LD) in childhood is reported. The design was a non-clinic community follow-up investigation of a cohort of children who had received special education, the sample frame for which was a birth-period cohort survey. Participants were 149 young adults (89 males and 60 females derived from a survey of the 33,800 children born in the Cambridge Health District between 1967 and 1973) at the stage of transition to adult services (age 18-22y), whose measured IQ scores in childhood were <80, and who had received special education during school years. Most of the young adults were living at home (n=108) and many were in full-time employment (independent employment n=41, sheltered employment n=20), this survey having been carried out in an area of high employment. A strong correlation was found between the child IQ score and subsequent adult Vineland Scale Score. Greater efforts should be made to detect and assess LD and its attendant problems in children in order to plan future care and transition to adulthood, especially for those with more severe disabilities.