Adaptive skills are those daily living skills needed to live, work and play in the community. Adaptive skills are assessed in the person's typical environment across all aspects of an individual's life. A person with limits in intellectual functioning who does not have limits in adaptive skill areas may not be diagnosed as having mental disabilities. People with mental disabilities, constitute one of the largest groups of citizens with disabilities. There are an estimated 156 million individuals in the world who have mental disabilities.
Mental disability cuts across lines of race, education, social and economic background.
It can occur in anyone. Hereditary components are known to account for only a fraction of the cases of mental disability. Tthere are well over 350 causes of mental disability and in three-fourths of the cases the specific cause is unknown. About 87 percent of all people with mental disabilities are mildly afflicted and in many respects are indistinguishable from people who do not have mental disabilities. M4T 1N5 tel.