This document defines intellectual disabilities and discusses characteristics and strategies. It provides two definitions, one from IDEA and one from AAIDD. Characteristics discussed include poor motivation, attention issues, difficulties with social skills and academics. Strategies are presented to address motivation, attention, social behaviors, academics, memory, and generalization. The strategies should be practiced before, during and after instruction to support students with intellectual disabilities.

1. By Stephen Cross

2. Audience
 Para-Professionals
 Bus Drivers
 School employees (Librarians, Custodial
workers, Cafeteria workers)

3. Definition
 There are two different definitions used in the United
States today.
 IDEA ’04 (Federal Government)
 American Association of Mental Retardation (now
referred as AAIDD)

4. Federal Government Definition
 Intellectual Disabilities means significant sub average
general intellectual functioning, existing with deficits
in adaptive behavior and manifested during the
developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s
education performance.

5. AAID Definition
 Intellectual Disabilities are a disability characterized
by significant limitations both in intellectual
functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in
conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This
disability originates before age 18.

6. Accompanies the AAIDD Def.
 1. Limitation in present functioning must be
considered within the context of community
environments typical of the individual's age peers
and culture.
 2. Valid assessment considers cultural and
linguistic diversity as well as differences in
communication and in sensory, motor, and
behavioral factors.
 3. Within and individual, limitations often coexist
with strengths.

7. Accompanies the AAIDD Def. Cont.
 4. An important purpose of describing limitations is to
develop a profile of needed supports.
 5. With appropriate personalized supports over
sustained period, the life functioning of the person
with mental retardation generally will improve.

8. Mild/Moderate IQ Range
 Mild intellectual disabilities: IQ range of 50 to 69
 Outcomes: Has learning difficulties, is able to
work, can maintain good social relationships and
contribute to society
 Moderate intellectual disabilities: IQ range of 35 to 49
 Exhibits marked developmental delays during
childhood, has some degree of independence in self-
care, possess adequate communication and academic
skills, requires varying degrees of support to live and
work in the community.

9. 4 Requirements for Eligibility
 1. Sub-average general intelligence
 2. Adaptive behavior impairment
 3. Having occurred during the developmental period
 Must be aversive to the student’s education.

10. Sub-Average General Intelligence
 Sub-Average General Intelligence – Means that
individuals must score two standard deviations below
the mean of an IQ test.
 The mean of an IQ test is 100 with a standard
deviation of 15.
 Students cannot be eligible for services on this
requirement alone.

11. Adaptive Behavior Impairment
 Adaptive Behavior includes the age-appropriate
behaviors necessary for people to live independently
and to function safely and appropriately in daily life.
 Examples Include but are not limited to:
 Personal Hygiene
 Money management
 Social skills
 Personal Responsibility

12. Characteristics
 Motivation
 Attention
 Sociobehavior
 Academic
 Memory
 Generalization

13. Poor Motivation
 Motivation is used to describe what focuses or
energizes a student’s attention, emotions, and activity.
 Due to repeated Academic Failure, students with
disabilities become less motivated to complete
academic tasks.
 Their motivation is based on external loci of control.

14. Locus of Control
 Internal Locus of Control – Individuals who operate
under ILOC see both positive and negative events as
results of their own actions
 External Locus of Control – Individuals who see
positive or negative events as controlled primarily by
outside forces as fate, chance, or other people.
 Many students with disabilities that have motivation
deficits operate under ELOC.

15. External Locus of Control
 Underdeveloped sense of Self-Determination
 Learned Helplessness
 Belief that failure will crown the most extraordinary efforts
 Outer Directedness
 Relying on situational or external cues for guidance
 Expectancy of Failure
 The expectation of lack of success lowers the amount of
effort put into tasks, performance of the task is below what
might be anticipated from individuals capabilities and the
expected failure becomes a reality

16. What can we do?
 All motivational strategies should be practiced before
any tasks demand. Get them excited!
 Communicate positive expectations – positively state
what you want the student to accomplish. Give them
direction.
 Organization – create ways for the students to keep up
with their materials. Class folders or notebooks help
keep the student’s work organized.

17. What can we do? Cont.
 Create realistic instructional goals – set up your
students to succeed before asking them to attempt a
challenging task.
 Provide Immediate Feedback – let your students know
when they’re doing a good job or need to try a different
strategy. Be specific.
 Teach students how to deal with failure – let students
know it’s okay to fail. Everyone does. The important
part is to see what went wrong and try it differently.

18. Attention
 Lack of Sustained Attention – the inability to focus on
a task long enough to comprehend information
 Attention Span
 Lack of Selective Attention – The inability to focus on
relevant aspects and discard the irrelevant aspects of a
task.
 Distractibility

19. Attention Strategies
 All attention strategies should be practiced
before, during and after instruction to maintain
student attention.
 Remove extraneous information – Include only what
they need to know. Get to the point.
 Present Information grouped – Group liked
information together.
 Use examples that are familiar – Activate prior
knowledge

20. Attention Strategies Cont.
 Stress the importance of paying attention – Explain
why it’s important that the students should pay
attention
 Teach Self-monitor skills – teach students how to self-
monitor during their task. Create a checklist for the
students to fill out.
 Provide Frequent breaks – Allow set times for students
to take breaks from their tasks.

21. Sociobehavior Characteristics
 Unable to read social cues – Students have a
hard time picking up on non verbal cues
 Easily taken advantage of – many students
will want to please peers and will listen to
inappropriate suggestions to do so
 Not aware of personal space – must be
taught personal bubbles

22. Sociobehavior Characteristics cont.
 Unaware of inappropriate behavior – must be taught
examples and non examples of appropriate behavior
 Hyperactive – has trouble staying calm during social
interactions.
 Low Self-Esteem – A result due to repeated failures at
academics and social relationships

23. Sociobehavior strategies
 Strategies should be practiced with students through
instruction and role playing, before real life scenarios
 Use Peer Reinforcement – Use peer buddies, peer
tutors, and general ed. students as reinforcements for
behaviors that are appropriate or inappropriate.
 Reinforce appropriate behavior – Reinforce when the
student is performing appropriate behavior
 Model appropriate behavior

24. Academic
 Delay in acquiring Reading, Math, and Writing skills
 Problems with:
 Decoding
 Comprehension
 Fluency
 Math computations

25. Academic Strategies
 Learning Strategies:
 Mnemonics – for remembering rules
 Repeated readings - for fluency
 Paragraph Shrinking, story retell – for comprehension
 Using Concrete, Semi-Concrete, and Abstract teaching
– for Math in that order. Focusing on Concrete the
longest
 Direct Instruction/MLT

26. Memory
 Long Term – Just as effective as a student without
Intellectual Disabilities
 Short Term:
 Lack Selective Attention
 Delay in learning sets – remembering rules to apply for
certain tasks
 Inefficient or non-existent rehearsal skills
 Problems with Generalization

27. Memory Strategies
 Group Information
 Teach Mnemonics
 Acronyms – First letter of each word combines to make
a word. Ex. HOMES – Lake
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Eerie, etc.
 Acrostics – Similar to Acronyms but creates a sentence
instead of a word. Every Good Boy Does Fine

28. Generalization
 Difficulties in performing learned tasks in different
setting with different people
 Not able to recognize already known skills needed in
different settings

29. Generalization Strategies
 Make sure that the skill is mastered before having the
student generalize it.
 Make sure the training is as realistic as possible
 Provide opportunities for practice in different settings
 Stress meaningful content

30. The Vicious Cycle of Intellectual
Disability Characteristics
 Due to the sociobehavior characteristics, students feel
peer rejection. This causes them to withdraw from
others and from engaging in their education.
 Due to the lack of engagement, the student’s
motivation is decreased which leads to little to no
effort and poor grades
 This creates a sense of failure and rejection leading to a
vicious cycle

31. References
 Mastropieri, M.A, Scruggs, T.E. (2010) The Inclusive
Classroom: Strategies for Effective Differentiated
Instruction. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
 Smith, D.D, Tyler, N.C. (2010). Introduction to Special
Education. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.