People with Intellectual Disability – Communication
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Tips for Careworkers:
People with Disability – Communication

What it is: Here, we mean talking with people with an intellectual or developmental disability or limited communication.

Why it matters: Many older people living with disability have multiple health conditions and can benefit greatly from the comfort, dignity, and quality-of-life focus that a palliative care approach provides.

Some people with a disability may move into residential aged care due to changes in their support circumstances, such as:

  • ageing carers or the death of a family carer
  • changes in care needs that can no longer be met through supported, independent, or community‑based services
  • limited access to appropriate local services or suitable accommodation.

What I need to know: Older people with intellectual or developmental disability may:

  • have individual communication needs that affect understanding, expression, or social interaction
  • typically experience age‑related changes earlier than the general population for some conditions
  • have an increased risk of mental health conditions, and for some groups, cognitive changes such as dementia
  • experience changes in hearing, vision, mobility, or stamina
  • find that standard aged care services or activity programs may not always meet their needs.

Do

Always give the person your full and complete attention and make sure that you have their attention before speaking.

 

Do

Do not talk over the person as though they are not there.

 

Do

Give clear and simple information.

Use language that fits with the person’s communication level.

Look at the person not the disability.

 

Do

Where appropriate a speech pathologist or disability support worker may have developed pictorial resources to support care conversations.

 

My reflections:

 

How confident am I in working with older adults with communication difficulties?

 

What can I do when speaking with a person with disability to help them understand what I am saying?

See related palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets:

People with Specific Needs

Person-Centred Care

Talking about Dying

 

For references and the latest version of all the Tip Sheets visit Practice Tip sheets for careworkers

 

CareSearch is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Updated April 2026

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