Why is the PEDI-PRO important?
The lack of self-reported assessments that are accessible for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is a significant problem for education and rehabilitation. Youth and young adults may not have a have a chance to share their opinions about their needs and preferences. This is important because parents and other professionals may not identify the same needs as youth and young adults. Many currently available assessments use paper and pencil forms that are not easy to use by youth and young adults with IDD. Technology can make self-reported assessments accessible for youth with IDD.
What was the purpose of the PEDI-PRO?
Building upon previous research, we hope to show that the PEDI-PRO Assessment Software allows youth to provide reliable and accurate reports of their functional skills for everyday activities that are important for successful transition to adulthood. The PEDI-PRO measures functional skills in three domains: Daily Activities, Social/Cognitive, and Mobility.
What did the researchers do?
We had youth and young adults with intellectual disabilities and/or developmental disabilities complete the PEDI-PRO. A parent or teacher completed two assessments: 1) the PEDI-CAT Social/Cognitive, Daily Activities, and Mobility domains, and 2) the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System- 3 (ABAS). We then examined the PEDI-PRO’s validity and reliability to make sure the PEDI-PRO does a good job measuring functional skills for all youth and young adults with IDD.
Who participated in the study?
Participants were 306 youth and young adults 14-22 years old (M = 18.83, SD = 2.41) with intellectual or developmental disabilities (43.1% autism, 23.9% ID, 17.6% other disability, 11.4% both ASD and ID, 3.9% missing). Over half of youth and young adults (53.6%) identified as African American/Black, Asian, Hispanic, or any other race or ethnicity, 41.8% identified as White, non-Hispanic, and 4.6% did not self-report on racial identity or ethnicity. Approximately half of participants reported they resided in suburban areas (50.3% suburban, 22.9% urban, 19.3% rural).
What are the findings of the study?
We tested 36 Daily Activities questions, 32 Social/Cognitive questions, and 29 Mobility questions. We removed some questions that made the score inaccurate. Structural validity was good for the Daily Activities and Mobility domains, and acceptable for the Social/Cognitive domain. The 3-point Likert response scale was used as intended. All domains had good internal consistency on all criteria. Item difficulty was relatively stable when compared across different youth and young adult characteristics; when item difficulty was different, it had < 1.0 impact on the domain score. This means for the questions that we kept:
- The PEDI-PRO measures the 3 different skills it is supposed to.
- The questions about each skill can be put together to make a score.
- Gender identity, age, and race/ethnicity don’t change the score someone gets for each skill.
- There were significant correlations between PEDI-PRO and PEDI-CAT domain: Daily activities (moderate); Social/Cognitive and Mobility (small). This means the PEDI-PRO and PEDI-CAT measure similar, but different perspectives about youth and young adult’s functional performance.
- There were significant differences in PEDI-PRO domain scores for YAA, with higher and lower scores on parent- or teacher-reported measures: intellectual function, self-care adaptive skills, communication and social adaptive skills, and mobility. This means that different PEDI-PRO is able to capture differences in functional performance.
What is the impact of these findings?
- The PEDI-PRO was developed with teens and young adults with disabilities over many years. This may explain why the PEDI-PRO worked so well.
- Teens and young adults with disabilities can use the PEDI-PRO to report functional skills they may need to improve as they become adults.
- The PEDI-PRO seems to be fair for teens and young adults with disabilities who are different ages and have different gender, racial and ethnic identities.
- The PEDI-PRO is similar to some other parent or teacher reported assessments, but still provides a unique perspective on functional performance from the perspective of the youth/young adult respondent.
Download an accessible report about the results of the PEDI-PRO:
PEDI-PRO Accessible report 10.11.25