New Study Confirms That the Supports Intensity Scale Assessment is Effective in Measuring the Support Needs of People With Intellectual Disability and Making Funding...( Study was conducted with 274 adults w...),Health

Study was conducted with 274 adults with intellectual disabilities currently receiving funding from a state developmental disability agency

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) assessment tool can effectively predict funding for people with intellectual disability based on individual needs, and it is truly a needs-based assessment tool, unlike adaptive behavior instruments or other measures of personal competence commonly used to determine services for people with intellectual disabilities, reveals a new study with 274 adults currently receiving funding from a state developmental disability agency. The study, titled, "Efficacy of the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) to Predict Extraordinary Support Needs" is published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AJIDD). The SIS is a planning tool developed by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to assess needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 85 life areas.

"The most significant finding of this study is that the Supports Intensity Scale measures something unique from measures of personal competence. It captures a person's support needs," explains Dr. Michael Wehmeyer, Senior Scientist at the Beach Center on Disability and the study's co-author. "This is significant because it presents the field of developmental disability with a unique opportunity to base services and funding decisions on the needs and goals of a person living with an intellectual disability."

Dr. Wehmeyer explains further, "Measures of personal competence such as IQ tests and adaptive behavior assessments, while serving an important role in the diagnosis and classification of intellectual disa
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