Jan Briane Astom - Intellectual Disabilities

7/29/2019 Jan Briane Astom - Intellectual Disabilities

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INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

By

JAN BRIANE ASTOM

G2013-0553

St. Paul University ManilaGraduate School

Master of Arts, Major in Music Therapy

July 15, 2013

Course Title: Introduction To Special Needs Education

Professor Elizabeth P. Flordeliza, BM, MA-SpEd


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I. DefinitionIntellectual disability (also known as cognitive disabilities and mental retardation)

is a term which has been used to refer to people with certain limitations in mental

functioning and performance of activities of daily living. People with intellectual

disabilities can and do learn new skills, but the processes of learning and development

take much slower for them as compared to a typical child. There are varying degrees

of intellectual disability, ranging from mild to profound.

As stated above, intellectual disability touches on two areas of a persons

development: intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour.

I ntellectual functioningrefers to the persons intellectual quotient or IQthe ability

to learn, reason, make decisions, and solve problems. The average IQ is 100, and a

person is said to be intellectually disabled if the tested IQ is less than 70-75.

Level Lower

IQ range

Higher

IQ range

Level of needed support

Mild 50-55 70-75 Support is intermittent and usually

given on an as-needed basis.

Students dont necessarily requiredaily support.

Moderate 35-40 50-55 Limited supports are provided overprescribed period of time. Intermittent

and extensive supports are provided

for students.Severe 20-25 35-40 Extensive supports are provided.

Students are usually provided dailyassistance in different settings.

Profound < 20-25 Pervasive assistance involvingconstant assistance across all

environments. Supports provided areoften of high intensity and mayinclude life-sustaining measures.

Adaptive behaviour, on the other hand, refers to the skills needed for day-to-day life,

such as the ability to communicate with others, interact with others, and take care of

oneself. A person with intellectual disability usually has difficulty performing even the

simplest of tasks such as feeding and dressing himself, or understanding

straightforward instructions.


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II. EtiologyIntellectual disability is multifactorial in causation, and doctors have pinpointed the

following etiological bases for the condition:

Genetic conditions. In some instances, intellectual disability can be caused byabnormal genes which are inherited from parents, errors when genes combine,

or other reasons. Examples of these genetic conditions are Down syndrome

(where mild to moderate intellectual disability is usually present), fragile X

syndrome (where there is a problem with the FMR1 gene which is necessary for

normal neural development), and phenylketonuria (PKU) (where the enzyme

needed to break down phenylalaninea protein which could damage the CNS

when it accumulatesis rendered non-functional).

Problems dur ing pregnancy. Intellectual disability can also result when thebaby does not develop properly inside the womb of the mother. For example,there may be a problem with the way that the babys cells divide as it grows.

Mothers who drink alcohol (Fetal alcohol syndrome or FAS) or contract rubella

(aka German measles, can cause severe mental retardation when contracted

during the first trimester of pregnancy) while they are pregnant may give birth

to infants with intellectual disabilities.

Problems during bir th. Sometimes, the cause is on the childbirth process itself.Problems during labor and birth, such as not getting enough oxygen and being

born extremely premature, may lead to intellectual disability.

Health problems. Some diseases, when contracted during early childhood, canresult to intellectual disability later on. These include pertussis (whooping

cough), measles, or meningitis (these conditions lead to bacterial invasion of the

CNS and seizures, thereby causing intellectual disabilities). Extreme

malnutrition, severe head injury, exposure to poisons such as lead or mercury,

and inadequate medical care can also result in intellectual disabilities.

III. Characteristic Signs and SymptomsIn children, intellectual disability can manifest in a gamut of ways. Onset of the signs

and symptoms differ from child to child; in some cases, they appear as early asinfancy, while in some, the signs and symptoms only become noticeable by the time a

child reaches school age. The severity of the signs and symptoms also differs

depending on the degree of the intellectual disability. Here are some of the most

common manifestations among children:

Delayed rolling over, sitting up, crawling, or walking


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Delayed and/or troubled speech Difficulty in mastering basic life skills such as potty training, dressing, and

feeding.

Difficulty in remembering things. Incapacity to associate actions with consequences. Behavior problems (e.g., suddenly bursting into explosive tantrums) Difficulty in thinking logically or in solving problems.

IV. TreatmentThere is no cure available for intellectual disability. In lieu of treatment, however,

there are services and supports which can help patients thrive from day-to-day

throughout their lifetime. These services include:

Case management (a type of service where a case manager helps a personapply for Medicaid in order for them to be able to avail of a variety of supports,

including daily living needs, health care and long-term care services, and

supports.)

Family support (e.g., respite care) Vocational programs Day programs Residential options Early intervention Special education Transition services

Supports, meanwhile, include the resources and individual strategies which are

necessary for the promotion of development, education, interests, and well-being of a

person. They come in varied forms and sources, such as family support and job

coaching, among others.

V. Assistive technologiesThrough the years, assistive technology have been developed to help the intellectually

disabled compensate for their intellectual and functional limitations. These

technologies are leveraged to help people with intellectual disabilities on the following

areas:


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Communication. Assistive technologies to help out those with communicationproblems due to physical and/or cognitive reasons range from low (e.g., paper,

pencils, flash cards) to high (e.g., computers, tablets) technological grades.

Environmental controls. Those with severe or multiple physical and/orcognitive disabilities may need the help of devices to assist them in controlling

their environment. Such technologies are those that allow for a person to

control electrical appliances, or to do something as basic as locking or

unlocking doors.

Mobility. Mobility aids, such as wheel chairs, walkers, and canes, range fromsimple manual models to sophisticated computer-controlled devices.

Education. Traditionally, teachers would use manipulatives or concrete objectsin order to help students with intellectual disabilities to grasp abstract ideas.

With modernization, however, the computer has become an indispensable tool,

leveraged by teachers to help improve literacy, language, mathematical,

organizational, and social skills development. There are a number of existingsoftware packages currently available in the market which are specifically

designed to support students with intellectual disabilities in the classroom.

One promising approach in literacy software utilizes universal design for

learning principles. This approach combines reading for meaning with direct

instruction for decoding and understanding. The resulting software consists of

an audio and video based curriculum that can be adjusted by the teacher to

meet the specific academic capacities of the student.

Activities of daily l iving. There are many ways by which the intellectuallychallenged can take advantage of assistive technologies when it comes to this

aspect. For example, there are some devices which are specifically designed to

assist a person with memory difficulties to complete a task or to follow a

certain sequence of steps from start to finish. There are also devices to help a

person shop, write a check, pay the bills, and a whole lot of other things.

Recreation. A lot of games and recreational activities require from itsparticipants quick decision-makingsomething which the intellectually

challenged are hard up on. In response to this constraint, adaptations have

been made to computer games allowing for slower gameplay.

VI. EpidemiologyPrevalence ratings for intellectual disabilities are inconsistent, more likely because of

its nature which is often hidden within other disability classifications. In the US,

experts estimate that intellectual disability affects about 1% of the population, with

85% of those having mild intellectual disability.


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For the Philippines, the latest available data for disabilities is that from 2002 initiative

of Japan International Cooperation Agency Planning and Evaluation Department. Of

the approximately 1 million subjects, 6% percent were noted to have intellectual

disabilities.

Sources:

Assistive Technology for People with Intellectual Disabilities. South Carolina Assistive

Technology Program, October 9, 2012, web. 10 July 2013.

Country Profile on Disability: Republic of the Philippines. World Bank. Japan International

Cooperation Agency Planning and Evaluation Department, March 2002, web. 10, July 2013.

Intellectual disability. National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2011. web.

10 July 2013.

Intellectual Disabilities. ProjectIDEAL. Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, 2008,

web. 10 July 2013.

Intellectual disability. WebMD. WebMD, LLC, n.d., web. 10 July 2013.

Treatment of an Intellectual Disability. TheArc. The Arc, n.d., web. 10 July 2013.

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Jan Briane Astom - Intellectual Disabilities