A day-habilitation program provides training in communication and daily living and social skills to people with severe disabilities. Competitive employment is a job in the community done by workers with and without disabilities. Supported employment is a job in the community done by workers with disabilities who need assistance to learn job requirements or adapt to a competitive employment setting. The number of employed people with developmental disabilities increased between 1990 and 1996, to nearly 400,000. Of these workers, approximately 305,000 people with developmental disabilities worked in facility-based settings, and almost 91,000 worked in supported employment.
Mental retardation is the most common developmental disability.
The American Psychiatric Association defines significantly subaverage intellectual functioning as an IQ of 70 or less. Using the Wechsler Scales, a person is considered to have mild mental retardation with an IQ from 55 to 69, moderate mental retardation from 40 to 54, severe mental retardation from 25 to 39, and profound mental retardation with an IQ of 24 or less. 2 Epidemiologists have generally used severe to describe the functioning level of persons with IQs less than 50 and mild to refer to the level of those with IQs from 50 to 70. 7 People with mild mental retardation can learn basic academic and vocational skills. Those with moderate or severe mental retardation can learn basic social, communication, and self-help skills.