Social skills and social capability

Abstract

Mary is a quiet, rather reserved woman of 34 years, with a warm sense of humour. She is short and a little overweight. Her clothes and hairstyle make her seem older. Mary lives with her stepmother and their dog in an established inner suburb of an industrial town. Although there had been suggestions that Mary was “slow” from an early age, she did attend a mainstream school until age 11, transferring to what is now termed a school for children with moderate learning difficulties. Going to that school led to ridicule and bullying by children in her neighbourhood. On leaving school at 16, Mary attended an Adult Training Centre and then an annexe where she did contract work, putting instructions in the lids of home-brew beer kits. She attended a college course for people with special needs and was found employment (half-time) as a cleaner by the employment service for people with learning disabilities in her area. She is not very keen on this work which is largely solitary (except when she cleans the ground-floor areas), and says she would rather work where there are children. Mary’s stepmother used to take and control all of her money, and there were suspicions that she spent most of it on drink for herself. Now that she is getting older and more infirm Mary is assuming greater autonomy. Unfortunately the two women have never really got on well, and Mary’s role was always subordinate, to the extent that she has had few opportunities to learn how to manage a house.