Intellectual Disability: Definitions

 

Intellectual Disability

Mild I.D. is a learning disorder with the following characteristics:

‘an ability to profit educationally within a regular class with the aid of considerable curriculum modification and supportive service’

‘an inability to profit educationally within a regular class because of slow intellectual development’

‘a potential for academic learning, independent social adjustment, and economic self-support Definition used in Ontario classrooms and found in Weber, 2008)

"No matter what their differences may be, children who are intellectually disabled have much in common with other children. They feel, think, hope, play, have fun, and find mischief, just like everyone else" (Winzer, 169).

Kids with an intellectual disability used to be called slow, stupid or ‘retarded’. In fact, until recently,  American definitions still used the phrase ‘mentally retarded’ which, in our opinion, carries a lot of negativity towards these children.

In summary, intellectual disability is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour. It also must be detected before the age of 18. 

Intellectual functioning—also called intelligence—refers to general mental capacity, such as learning, reasoning, problem solving, and so on. The intellectually disabled child will have an IQ of 70 or less.  Adaptive behaviour covers many everyday conceptual, social and practical skills. Conceptual skills — language and literacy; money, time, and number concepts; and self-direction (getting things done without someone else’s prompts) Social skills — Interpersonal skills, social responsibility, self-esteem, gullibility, naïveté (i.e., wariness), social problem solving, and the ability to follow rules/obey laws and to avoid being victimized. Practical skills—activities of daily living (personal care), occupational skills, healthcare, travel/transportation, schedules/routines, safety, use of money, use of the telephone

Scale of functioning and levels of suppo

I.Q.	55-70	40-55	25-40	Below  25
Level of support	Intermittent	Limited	Part to full time	Full time
Potential	Achieve grade 5 or above	Learn independence, life skills, self-care and basic academic	Learn limited independence	Learn basic self-care and communication

“We like to think of everyone’s potential (as shown in the table above) rather than their limitations, whether they have a disability or not”. 
Jantine, Jayne and Karen, 2012

PREVALENCE:  The total number of existing cases old and new and also refers to the percentage or proportion of the population. 

Did you know?

Approximately 1 - 1.5 % of the population are considered to have an intellectual disability.

Of these, 75 % are considered to be mildly disabled.

The prevalence of intellectual disabilities is hard to determine due to   these many factors: 

• Differences in IQ cut off points, methods of data collection, and definitions 
• Rates differ between regions, social classes, and gender 
• Reluctance to label children as intellectually disabled 
• There are overlaps between different categories of disabilities 
• Consideration as intellectually disabled is not consistent – outside of school, they may NOT be defined as intellectually disabled.
• Newly discovered genetic syndromes may change the perception of an individual’s level of intellectual disability

Intellectual functioning—also called intelligence—refers to general mental capacity, such as learning, reasoning, problem solving, and so on. The intellectually disabled child will have an IQ of 70 or less. 

Adaptive behaviour covers many everyday conceptual, social and practical skills.

Conceptual skills — language and literacy; money, time, and number concepts; and self-direction (getting things done without someone else’s prompts)

Social skills — Interpersonal skills, social responsibility, self-esteem, gullibility, naïveté (i.e., wariness), social problem solving, and the ability to follow rules/obey laws and to avoid being victimized.

Practical skills—activities of daily living (personal care), occupational skills, healthcare, travel/transportation, schedules/routines, safety, use of money, use of the telephone

I.Q.

55-70

40-55

25-40

Below  25

Level of support

Intermittent

Limited

Part to full time

Full time

Potential

Achieve grade 5 or above

Learn independence, life skills, self-care and basic academic

Learn limited independence

Learn basic self-care and communication