Video Transcription:

Hi, my name is Andrew Kinney.  I’m an attorney at Hoglund Law offices.  I practice Social Security Disability.  Today I’m going to talk a little more about cases involving borderline intellectual functioning.

I have a previous video that discusses the basics of how social security uses definitions of disability to defining impairments with IQ scores.  What I’m going to talk about now is more specific, adaptive functioning.  Adaptive functioning is claimants have been able to survive and actually thrive in a work environment.  That’s a good thing, but that doesn’t always happen.  So if you are pursuing social security benefits on borderline intellectual functioning, or social security calls it mental retardation under listing 1205 C, It is very important for your attorney to know that we have evidence of adaptive functioning.

functioning, because if an individual has shown, despite the work history, they only worked alongside family members or close friends with understanding bosses, they may not have adapted properly. So in those situations, if someone has not adapted then that would be evidence of it, and so I would perhaps have a family member testify at the hearing, that they helped them get the job, they showed up at the job during lunch, they had interactions with the boss.

It comes down to this:  Sometimes jobs that people do look like they’ve adapted and can function well, and that’s a good thing, but sometimes the actual job the way its performed is more toward sheltered workshops or sheltered work.  That sort of work is done with direct supervision and its different than competitive work.

There are other examples of where adaptive functioning comes into play.  For instance, if they went back to school and learned a specific skill or not.  There are also questions about day-to-day activities.  Reading the paper, basic functions, taking the bus.  There are a lot of other examples about what adaptive functioning actually is and it’s important at hearings to get evidence of it.  If you have further questions about adaptive functioning, borderline intellectual functioning in general, or just about getting benefits for social security disability please feel free to call our offices at 1-800-850-7867.  You can also go to www.HoglundLaw.com.  Thank you.