Nonverbal Social Skills of Adults with Mild Intellectual Disability Diagnosed with Depression

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in adults with intellectual disability (ID), yet little is known about depressive behaviors in an ID population. This study examined the nonverbal social skills of 18 adults with mild ID diagnosed with depression and a matched sample of adults with mild ID without depression. Nonverbal social skills were coded from videotapes of actual social interactions. Results indicate that adults with mild ID diagnosed with depression evidence a profile of maladaptive nonverbal social skills including limited body movement, a restricted range of facial expressions, infrequent smiling, speaking in a flat and quiet voice, and taking a long time to respond to the questions or comments of a social partner. Findings from this study have implications for enhancing the early detection and diagnosis of depression and guiding theories of and treatments for depression in an ID population.

Screening for depression: Psychometric properties of the German version of the Glasgow depression scale for people with a learning disability (individual and carer version)

“…For the inter‐test reliability, we could not find a significant correlation between the GDS‐LD and the GDS‐CS in our sample of participants with intellectual disabilities ( r = .20, p = .116, n = 64). On one hand, this is surprising, as other studies found a significant and much higher correlation: r = .93 ( n = 19) in Cuthill et al (2003), r = .45 ( n = 80) in Mileviciute and Hartley (2015) and r = .43 ( n = 32) in Hartley and Birgenheir (2009). But on the other hand, this goes in line with the discordance in self‐ and carer reports described above.…”

Association between speech–language, general cognitive functioning and behaviour problems in individuals with Williams syndrome

“…Likewise, monotone intonation seems to fit perfectly with withdrawn and depressed traits. Therefore, these findings must be viewed with caution and further investigated to better understand the real impact and meaning of this speech–language characteristic on communication, considering that spoken language production with little variation of spoken contour has been attributed to autism spectrum disorder (de Villiers et al ) and to depressed adults with intellectual disabilities (Hartley & Birgenheir , ). In fact, withdrawn and inhibited behaviour with less overt speech personality was described in older WS by Gosch & Pankau ().…”

Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Health: United States–Based Research

“…Hartley and Birgenheir (2009) compared individuals with mild ID with and without a diagnosis of depression in terms of their nonverbal social skills and found that individuals with depression displayed fewer body movements, smiled less, had longer latency to verbal responses, spoke more quietly, and showed a more restricted range of facial expressions.…”