The relationship between the level of adoption of social skills and academic success of students with mild and moderate intellectual disability

Abstract

The achieved level of social competence is a significant predictor of academic success in students with intellectual disability (ID). The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between adopted social skills, gender, level of intellectual functioning and academic success, expressed as average grade at the end of a school year for the sample of students with mild and moderate ID. The sample consisted of 135 participants with ID, aged 7.5 to 21. The level of adoption of social skills was assessed using the subscale Social Skills from the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System II (Harrison & Oakland, 2003). The data on the average grade at the end of the school year, age, gender and level of ID of the participants was obtained from the school documentation. Academic success of students with ID was significantly influenced by the level of their adopted social skills. The gender of the participants and the level of their intellectual functioning did not show significant influence on their academic success.

Keywords

• social skills
• academic success
• intellectual disability