The effectiveness of strategies to teach activities of daily living to adults with intellectual disability: a systematic review

Adults with intellectual disability are taught a variety of activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) to promote independence and quality of life. This systematic review identified ADLs and IADLs taught in instructional adult programs and examined effectiveness to which the targeted ADLs and IADLs were taught (i.e., achieved the mastery criterion, maintained, and generalised).

Methods: A systematic review was conducted using the following databases - ProQuest, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycINFO, MEDLINE and Emcare. The search resulted in 12,158 results, of which 36 met the inclusion criteria.

Results: Food preparation and shopping were taught most, with prompting the most used strategy. Eight studies reported effectiveness measures. All participants in two studies successfully met the effectiveness measures.

Conclusion: The quality of research varied enormously, with very few studies reporting on mastery criteria, maintenance and generalisation. Stronger research evidence is warranted to inform effective teaching approaches for adults with intellectual disability.