Foundation of Special and Inclusive Education

MODULE 5
LEARNERS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Introduction

Children at risk for success in school include learners with intellectual disabilities. These children with
intellectual disabilities or mental retardation suffer from limitation both in intellectual functioning and in
adaptive behavior as shown in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. Module 5 discusses the
characteristics of these children and how they may be identified and helped in the classroom.

I. Objectives. The readings in this module will enable the students to:
1. Define the concepts of intelligence and adaptive behavior and intellectual disabilities
2. Give examples of conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills
3. Describe the learning and behavioral characteristics of learners with intellectual disabilities.
4. Define learning disabilities

II. Anticipatory Set

A large group of students typically found in today’s inclusive classrooms need special educational
services. These are the learners with intellectual disabilities. To teachers who lack understanding, this
group of students is a great source of their frustrations.
Do you know someone in your neighborhood with an intellectual disability? Describe his/her behavior?
III. Lesson Proper

1. Definition of intellectual disabilities, intelligence and adaptive behavior. Here are some
authorities’ definition of intellectual disabilities:

 Intellectual disabilities (or mental retardation) as “significantly subaverage general

intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behaviors and
manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance (IDEA definition).
 “Mental retardation [intellectual disabilities] is a disability characterized by significant
limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in
conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills.
 “Significantly subaverage intellectual functioning” often mean an IQ score much lower
than the average score in an IQ test (2 or more standard deviations below the mean).
 Adaptive behavior is seen as “the degree to which, and the efficiency with which, the
individual meets the standards of maturation, learning and personal independence,
and/or social responsibility that are expected for his or her age level and cultural group”
(Grossman, 1983)
 Adaptive behavior is “the collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills that have
been learned by people in order to function in their everyday society” (Luckasson et al.
2002). Stated another way, it is how well a person copes with the everyday demands
and requirements of his or her environment.
 The idea of context is important for understanding the concept of adaptive behavior. Because
behavior is strongly influenced by cultural factors, age, and situation, appropriateness must always
be considered within the setting in which it occurs. For example, a teenage girl who uses her fingers
while eating might be viewed as exhibiting inappropriate behavior; however, this behavior is only
maladaptive when considered within the context of Western cultures.
Reference is made to the “developmental period,” the time between conception and 18 years of
age. This time limit is included to help distinguish intellectual disabilities from other disabilities such
as traumatic brain injury.
2. Table 1. Examples of Conceptual, Social and Practical Adaptive Skills
Skill Area Examples of Behavior
Conceptual *Language (receptive and expressive
*Reading and writing
*Money concepts
*Self-direction
Social *Interpersonal
*Responsibility
*Self-esteem
*Gullibility (likelihood of being tricked or manipulated)
*Naivete
*Follows rules
*Obeys laws
*Avoids victimization
Practical *Activities of daily living: (eating, transfer/mobility, toileting, dressing)
*Instrumental activities of daily living: (meal preparation,
housekeeping, transportation, medical use, money management,
telephone use
*Occupational skills
*Maintenance of safe environment

3. Learning and Behavioral Characteristics of Learner with Intellectual Disabilities

The most defining characteristics of someone identified as having intellectual disabilities is impaired
cognitive functioning. Many factors influence individual behavior and functioning, such as chronological
age, the severity of disability, the causes, and educational opportunities.

Students with intellectual disabilities are more like their typical classmates than they are different,
sharing many of the same social, emotional, and physical needs. Furthermore, pupils with intellectual
disabilities, especially those with less severe limitations, learn in the same way as the average or typical
student; albeit, at a slower rate.

Students with lower IQ affects his/her ability to learn, acquire concepts, process information, and apply
knowledge in various settings such as school, home and community. Because learning is not a unitary
variable – it is composed of many interrelated cognitive processes – is can be analyzed in several
dimensions as shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Representative Learning and Behavioral Characteristics of Learners with Intellectual Disabilities

Dimension Associated Attributes and Features

Attention  Inability to attend to critical or relevant features of a task
 Diminished attention span
 Difficulty ignoring distracting stimuli
Memory  Deficits in memory correlated with severity of cognitive disability
 Limitations in ability to selective process and store information
 Inefficient rehearsal strategies
 Difficulty with short-term (working) memory is common – recalling
directions in sequence presented seconds earlier
 Long-term retrieval (recalling telephone number) is similar to
peers without intellectual disabilities
Motivation  History of and a generalized expectancy for failure – learned
helplessness – effort is unrewarded, failure is inevitable
 Exhibit external locus of control -- belief that outcomes of
behaviors are the result of circumstances (fate, chance) beyond
personal control rather than own efforts
 Evidence outer-directedness, a loss of confidence, and a distrust of
own abilities, reliance on others for cues and guidance.
Generalization  Difficulty applying knowledge or skills to new tasks, situations, or
settings
 Problem in using previous experience in novel circumstances
 Teachers must explicitly plan for generalization s; typically, it does
not occur automatically
Language development  Follow some sequence of language acquisition as their typical
classmates; albeit at a slower rate
 Strong correlation between intellectual ability and language
development – the higher the IQ the less pervasive the language
difficulty
 Speech disorders (articulation errors, stuttering) more common
than in peers without intellectual disabilities
 Vocabulary is often limited
 Grammatical structure and sentence complexity are often
impaired
Academic development  Generally exhibit difficulties in all academic areas with reading the
weakest
 Problem solving difficulties are often impaired
Social development  Typically lacking in social competence
 Rejection by peers and classmates is common – poor interpersonal
skills
 Frequent exhibit socially inappropriate or immature behavior –
difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships
 Diminished self-esteem coupled with low self-concept.
 4. A. Defining Learning Disabilities

Student with learning disabilities are found in almost all classrooms. They are known or called by
many different names – slow learner, remedial reader, dyslexic hyperactive, etc. The US Office
of Education came up with the following official definition:

BOX B
“Specific learning disability” means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may
manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical
calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury,
minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include
children who have learning disabilities which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or
motor handicaps, or mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental,
cultural or economic disadvantage (U.S. Office of Education).
The same Office issued the regulations and operational guidelines that were to be used by
professionals as the criteria for identifying pupils suspected of having a learning disability.

A team may determine that a child has a specific learning disability if:
(1) The child does not achieve commensurate with his or her age and ability levels in one
or more of the areas listed in (a) (2) of this section, when provided with learning
experiences appropriate for the child’s age and ability levels, and intellectual ability in
one or more of the following areas:
(i) Oral expression
(ii) Listening comprehension
(iii) Written expression
(iv) Basic reading skill
(v) Reading comprehension
(vi) Mathematics calculation; or
(vii) Mathematics reasoning (U.S. Office of Education)

4.B. Selected Learning and Behavioral Characteristics of Learners with Learning Disabilities include the
following:

 Disorders of attention
 Poor motor abilities
 Psychological processing deficits and information-processing problems
 Short- and long-term memory problems
 Impaired metacognition
 Oral language difficulties
 Phonological awareness deficiencies
 Written language problems
 Quantitative disorders
 Social skills deficits (Friend, 2011; Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen, 2012).
IV. Application:

ACTIVITY M-4 (2)

1. In doing your Case Study (M-4-2) use the precise terms you have learned from this reading.
Revise the work you have started before submitting it to me. This case study will be graded
as part of your midterm. [Read the entries in Table 1. Examples of Conceptual, Social and
Practical Adaptive Skills. Use the precise terms you find in this table to describe the case you
are writing.]