Intellectual Disabilities (ID)

According to the Texas Education Agency (2019) Emotional Disturbance is a  "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. The term “intellectual disability” was formerly termed “mental retardation.”"

Common traits/characteristics 

• Reduced ability to understand new/ complex information

• Reduced ability to learn new skills

• Students have a difficulty with communication and social skills

• Slow cognitive processing time

Educational challenges:

• Curriculum and instruction should be carefully modified as students with intellectual disabilities can have high achievement in other areas of life. 

• These students may not perform at the same cognitive level as their peers do academically. 

• A student with an intellectual deficit will continue to learn new things, but the pace, when compared to their peers, is much slower, and there will be significant gaps in the student's knowledge of the world. 

Tips/ recommendations for teachers:

• Teach through modeling and demonstration

• Teach one concept at a time

• Try to teach one-on-one if possible

• Give students an extended amount of time to practice the new skills

• Focus on helping students to master daily activities