A recent study published through The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health looked at how well autistic individuals with intellectual disability manage everyday life skills—things like personal care, household tasks, and getting around in the community—and how those skills compare to their thinking and problem-solving abilities (often measured as IQ).

For a long time, many people believed that autistic individuals usually have weaker daily living skills than their intelligence would predict. This belief mostly comes from studies of autistic people without intellectual disability. This study challenges that assumption.

The researchers followed 127 individuals from early childhood (age 2) into adulthood (age 25). Instead of looking at daily living skills as one big score, they broke them into three areas:

• Personal skills (e.g., dressing, bathing, hygiene)
• Domestic skills (e.g., chores, cooking)
• Community skills (e.g., using money, shopping, transportation)

What they found

• Most participants (about 80%) had daily living skills that were equal to or stronger than their cognitive abilities when each skill area was looked at separately.
• Only a smaller group had thinking skills that were stronger than their daily living skills.
• When all daily living skills were combined into one overall score, it looked like many people were struggling—but this masked important strengths that appeared when skills were examined one by one.
• These patterns were stable over time, meaning the relationship between thinking skills and life skills stayed fairly consistent from childhood into adulthood.

Why this matters

• The study shows that autistic individuals with intellectual disability often have meaningful strengths in everyday life skills, even if their IQ scores are low.
• It highlights the importance of looking beyond IQ when judging a person’s abilities.
• It also shows why educators, clinicians, and families should focus on specific skill areas, not just overall scores.
• The findings suggest that opportunity and practice matter—when people are given chances to learn and practice life skills, they can do very well.
• Finally, the study emphasizes that research based only on autistic individuals without intellectual disability does not represent everyone on the spectrum.

Bottom line

Many autistic individuals with intellectual disabilities are more capable in daily life than people often assume. Their strengths may be missed if we only look at IQ or broad scores. Supporting these individuals means recognizing their abilities, providing opportunities to practice real-world skills, and tailoring help to specific areas of daily life rather than relying on one overall label.