Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research in Developmental Disabilities journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/redevdis Daily living skills in children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability: A comparative study from Turkey Ayse Kilincaslan a, ⁎ , Sule Kocas a , Sumeyye Bozkurt a , Ilyas Kaya a , Songül Derin a , Resa Aydin b a Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey b Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Daily living skills Autism spectrum disorder Intellectual disability Children Quality of life ABSTRACT Background: Better daily living skills (DLS) are associated with increased independence and positive functional outcomes in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Method: The present study aimed to investigate daily living skills (DLS) and the associated factors in 51 children with ASD and intellectual disability (ASD group) and 51 age- and gender-matched controls with intellectual disability (ID group). The severity of the autistic symptoms was mea- sured with the clinician-rated Childhood Autism Rating Scale and the parent-reported Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) in all children. The mothers also completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and the Basic DLS Questionnaire. Results: The ASD group scored lower than the comparison group in the total DLS score, personal hygiene, dressing, safety and interpersonal skills, despite being comparable in the parent-re- ported quality of life. Regression analysis of the whole sample demonstrated that the child’s age, intellectual level, speech level, autism symptom severity and the monthly household income were independent correlates of the total DLS. Exploratory analyses for each group revealed differential effects of these variables: in the ASD group; a higher speech level and monthly in- come, while in the ID group; an older age, a higher intellectual level and monthly income and a lower ABC score emerged as significant predictors of higher DLS. Conclusions: Deficient DLS in Turkish children with ASD, given their IQ, suggest that lower level of adaptive skills is inherent in ASD, rather than culture-specific to US and Western Europe. What this paper adds Research on adaptive functioning and daily living skills in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have predominantly been undertaken in USA and other western countries, and very few is known for other parts of the world, including Turkey. The aims of the present study was to investigate the levels, and demographic and clinical correlates of daily living skills (DLS) in children with ASD in comparison to an age-, gender- and intellectual level- matched group of children with intellectual disability (ID). The ASD group scored lower in the total score, personal hygiene, dressing, safety and interpersonal skills of the DLS. In the whole sample older age, higher intellectual and speech levels, lower autism symptom severity and increased household income appeared as independent correlates of higher DLS levels. Separate analyses in the ASD group revealed that only household income and language level had https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2018.12.005 Received 25 July 2017; Received in revised form 10 December 2018; Accepted 10 December 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Istanbul Tıp Fakultesi, Çocuk Ruh Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Esnaf Hastanesi Ek Binası, Beyazıt, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail address: ayse.ka@windowslive.com (A. Kilincaslan). Research in Developmental Disabilities 85 (2019) 187–196 0891-4222/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T