Intellectual Disability: Using Smart Art

Editor's Notes

• #4: Prevalence ratings for intellectual disabilities are significantly inconsistent, highlighting the often hidden nature of intellectual disabilities within other disability classifications. The U.S. Department of Education reported for the 2003-2004 school-year that there were over half a million students with intellectual disabilities being served in special education which constitutes 9.6% of all students receiving special education.
• #5: While the term mental retardation is still widely used within education and is noted in the federal law as a disability category, many advocacy groups feel that this label has too many negative connotations. The newer label of intellectual disability is becoming far more accepted and prevalent within the field due to its far less pejorative nature.
• #6: Limitations in intellectual functioning refers to the student’s general mental capabilities which effect the student’s ability to solve problems, pay attention, think abstractly, and remember information. The most extreme problems caused by the limited intellectual functioning are found in memory, generalization, and motivation. Limitations in adaptive behavior refer to inability of the individual to meet the social responsibility and personal independence expected for his/her age and culture. The adaptive behavior of students with intellectual disability will almost always fall below the norm of their typical peers. Adaptive behavior consists of conceptual skills (self-determination, reading and writing), social skills (following rules and taking responsibility), and practical skills (daily living and employment skills). Individuals with intellectual disability can have a combination of strengths and weaknesses in one or more of these areas.
• #7: A student with intellectual disability may require new information to be presented multiple times before the new information or skill is acquired. Individuals with intellectual disability typically have difficulty transferring skills learned in one environment (like school) to other environments (such as home). For this reason, instruction of skills is typically addressed in various settings. For the most part, these individuals require external motivation, or prompts from others, before acting. Students with intellectual disability develop a sense of distrusting their own judgment and relying on the decisions of others.
• #10: Limitations in intellectual functioning often include difficulties with memory recall, task and skill generalization, and a tendency towards low motivation and learned helplessness. Issues in adaptive behavior may include difficulties with conceptual skills, social skills and practical skills. Individuals with intellectual disability also often exhibit deficits in self-determination skills as well, including skill areas such as choice making, problem solving, and goal setting.
• #11: While these students will have limitations in many adaptive behaviors, these limitations will co-exist alongside strengths in other areas within the individual.
• #12: A child with a significant intellectual deficit will not be able to cognitively “catch up” to his peers in terms of intelligence and academic performance. In fact, the opposite is more often true. T and the child will fall further behind as he gets older, particularly if no appropriate academic supports are implemented. Even with a good program in place, the cognitive gap between these students and their normally functioning peers will widen with age. This is due to the fact that the cognitive resources available to the child with an intellectual deficit will be significantly less than that of a normally developing peer. The child with developmental delays will learn and understand far fewer things at a much slower pace than the average child, and intellectual development will always be significantly impaired. Because new learning is filtered through a younger mental context in children with developmental delays, the quality of what is learned and how it is applied will be far different than the perspective of a normally developing peer.
• #13: Academic skills take on a more functional role utilizing real world experiences in reading, math and writing. To fully address the limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior often experienced by individuals with intellectual disabilities, teachers need to provide direct instruction in a number of skill areas outside of the general curriculum as well as academic skills. These skills are more functional in nature but are absolutely essential for the future independence of the individual. Additional skill areas include money concepts, time concepts, independent living skills, self-care and hygiene, community access, leisure activities, and vocational training. Students with intellectual disabilities learn these skills most effectively in the settings or activities in which they will be asked to apply these skills. Once the skills are mastered then additional environments can be added to work towards generalization.
• #14: Prelinguistic milieu teaching is an early literacy strategy proven effective in the classroom. A key component of the training is frequent requesting for specific behaviors from the student.
• #15: Breaking down larger tasks into their specific component parts can be an effective technique for teaching any number of skills to students with intellectual disabilities. More complex concepts or activities can then be taught over time, and as the student masters one component of the task, another is added to the routine. This type of task analysis can be taught using a variety of instructional supports, from physical and verbal prompting to observational learning. As always, the specific instructional strategies and materials utilized with the student should be aligned to the student’s own interests and strengths.
• #17: For students with intellectual disabilities in an inclusive classroom, it is always best to utilize the same materials as the rest of the students.
• #18: There are a number of existing software packages designed to support students with intellectual disabilities in the classroom. Any learning software that can tailor content to address the interests of the student can be useful in supporting learning with individuals with intellectual disability, given that the instruction can be adapted to meet the needs of the individual.