Intellectual Disability: LEVELS related to cognitive development

  Developmental Issues of Intellectual Disability

Cognitive Development (CD) Learning and Memory

Understanding a concept and then applying  the understanding in new circumstances

Individuals with I.D. have a slowed or impaired development – but it follows the same path, just not as fast or as high!

Remember Piaget?

4 stages of cognitive development

-  Sensorimotor

- Pre-operational

- Concrete operational

- Formal operational

Short-term memory decreases as the level of disability increases.  However, once something has been learned, long-term memory will be typical. 

Level of Intellectual Disability

Mild CD reaches the concrete operational stage (typically developed by 11 years of age) Potential – understanding of and application of logic to operations Strategies to help learning can promote short term memory

Moderate CD reaches pre-operational stage (typically reached by age 6) Potential – uses symbols to represent the world, e.g. numbers and words; potential for some reading and writing Strategies such as classical and operational conditioning can teach adaptive skills to a functional level. Severe CD is at sensorimotor stage(typically reached by age 2) Potential-knowledge is based on senses and motor skills Strategies: classical and operational conditioning.

 

Communication Development Slower language development Attain levels that are lower than their mental age peers Expressive and receptive language skills are lower 55% of persons affected with ID are also affected by speech disorders, e.g. tongue defects in children with Down’s Syndrome causes speech impediments. These problems are mostly related to severity of the disability, not the cause of the disability	Level of intellectual development
	Mild May show delay in when they start talking as a baby / toddler Mutism is rare
	Moderate Use of stereotypical language with mistakes
	Severe Limited speech and language Mutism is common