Intellectual Disability
Overview
An intellectual disability or developmental cognitive delay refers to
significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. (IDEA)
Thirteen percent of students qualifying for services under the IDEA have an ID or DCD/DD designation (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022).
The intellectual disability (ID) or developmental cognitive delay DCD/DD categories represent the fifth and sixth most prevalent types of disabilities among school-aged children. These attributes must be manifested during a child’s developmental period. Typically, a student must have an IQ of 70 or lower with a low functional ability to qualify for special education services.
Strengths
While students with an intellectual disability or developmental cognitive delay experience intellectual challenges, they also have the potential to experience social and vocational success. Unfortunately, because students with intellectual disabilities or developmental cognitive delays struggle intellectually, school settings tend to misalign with these students’ strengths. In turn, this situation may make students in this group feel they are unable to succeed, when really the academic setting causes this perception. In other settings, these students can thrive to the same degree as their nondisabled peers (Project IDEAL).
Needs
Students with an intellectual disability or developmental cognitive delay experience challenges when it comes to learning and retaining information. Students in these categories experience limitations related to “intellectual functioning” and “adaptive behavior” (Project IDEAL). These limitations can impact how students solve problems, recall information, and engage in social settings. Students who fall under the ID/DCD designations require supplementary support to succeed in academic settings.
Reflection
Supporting Students with Intellectual Disability
The section below explains some strategies for supporting students experiencing intellectual disability. Based on what you have read so far, what strategies do you think might be useful for supporting students experiencing emotional disturbance?
Common Teaching Strategies
Project IDEAL offers the following ways to help promote learning among students with an intellectual disability:
- Teach one concept or activity component at a time.
- Teach one step at a time to help support memorization and sequencing.
- Teach students in small groups, or one-on-one, if possible.
- Always provide multiple opportunities to practice skills in a number of different settings.
- Use physical and verbal prompting to guide correct responses, and provide specific verbal praise to reinforce these responses (Intellectual Disabilities).
Deeper Dive
Intellectual Disability
For more information about intellectual disabilities, review the following resources:
References
National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Students With Disabilities. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.
U.S. Department of Education. (2018). Sec. 300.8 Child with a disability. Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8
is learned behaviors that reflect an individual's social and practical competence to meet the demands of everyday living
is significant sub-average general intellectual functioning combined with deficits in adaptive behavior. Also characterized as Developmental Cognitive Delay/Developmental Delay (DCD/DD)
