La valutazione delle abilità orientata al lavoro in persone con disabilità cognitiva

Recent studies in career counseling underline the usefulness of an ecological approach focused on the information on the self, on the actual environment, on congruence between these two measures and on the perception which people with disability, theirfamily and health care workers have about strengths and weaknesses. This may reveal particularly useful since people with disability are characterized by specificity and differences, which result from underlying disability and poor experiences overcome. The study aims at describing and analysing profiles of work oriented abilities in young adults with cognitive disabilities as assessed using a structured interview which covers both basic sensory-motor abilities, functional cognition and social abilities, and more specifically addresses prework abilities and basic work adaptability. The analysis has been carried out on adults with cognitive disabilities following an acquired psychiatric pathology or a developmental intellectual disability. Results show specific profiles, characterized by basic strengths and weaknesses, key points in building career counselling paths toward work integration; they also suggest the usefulness of the instrument in the first steps of assessment for career counselling in adults with disability.