Contribution of a post-secondary academic enrichment program on cognitive abilities of adults with severe...

We investigated the impact of participation in post-secondary university education (PSE) on the academic knowledge of adult students with severe intellectual disability and extensive support needs (SIDESN) vs. a similar group of controls who did not participate in PSE. We also examined whether the PSE would result in a "near transfer" to basic crystallized (facts and information) and fluid (problems involving executive functions and working memory) cognitive abilities, the contribution of background characteristics and crystallized and fluid abilities to their academic knowledge, semantic fluency and temporal relations.

Nine adults with SIDESN (aged 27-58) participated in an Introduction to Sociology course using an Ecological-mediational Strategies Model that included use of an e-book while 10 other adults served as the control group. An academic knowledge test according to Bloom's taxonomy as well as crystallized and fluid cognitive tests were administered at Time 1 (pre-course) and Time 2 (post-course).

MANOVAs indicated improvement in academic knowledge and a "near transfer" to crystallized and fluid tests in the PSE group at Time 2, versus stability or decline in the controls. Chronological age and the PSE program contributed to the EPV of the improvement in the knowledge test, semantic fluency and temporal relations.

Despite the small sample size, our findings indicated that academic PSE programs using technology hold potential for improving academic knowledge and cognitive abilities of crystalized and fluid types in adults with SIDESN, supporting the Compensation Age Theory, Enrichment Theory, and the Ecological-mediational Strategies Model that were developed for acquiring academic material for this special group.