Intellectual Disability: How to Find Identification

December 27, 2012December 27, 20123 Comments

An intellectual disability poses many research issues relating to identification, terminology, and laws of mental retardation. Through better understanding these concepts, one can greater appreciate those affected by them and perhaps find ways to resolve them.

Identification of Intellectual Disability

IQ scores, for the population, are found on a normal curve. Those individuals with Mental Retardation fall two standard deviations from the mean of the population and consist of approximately 2.3% of the population. For those children, from 1983 to 2002, to be considered mentally retarded, they had to score approximately 70 or less on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and the Stanford-Biner. A child that scores above 75 or more on these tests may still be considered mentally retarded, if the clinician indicates that the individuals adaptive skills are greatly impaired due to intellectual functioning.

These IQ tests that children take are often criticized, as they cannot necessarily define a child’s level of functioning. The tests are based highly on verbal skills and academic functioning, which is correlated with the child’s successfulness at school. These skills however may not be strictly limited because of cognitive functioning, but rather a result of physical impairments, different cultural background, a bad day, the time, the location, and a number of other variables. Children’s scores on these tests may also change over time when they undergo intervention.

It is important for all individuals to remember that intelligence is a hypothetical construct. People assume that it takes a certain level of intelligence to perform the specific tasks on the IQ tests. It is also for people to remember that just because they or their child scored low on the IQ test does not mean that they are limited in their ability to learn. Through intervention, the score can be raised. They may need to work harder than some others, but they too can be very successful.

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Self-Advocacy: Why It’s Part of the Transition

December 13, 20121 Comment

The Importance of Self-Advocacy

Self-Advocacy is essential to a smooth transition. No one has a greater stake in the outcome of transition planning than the student with a disability. The student should be an active, participating member of the transition team, as well as the focus of all activities. For a young person with a disability, decision-making is complicated by limited choices and the tendency for others to tell the individual what to do.

Too often students are thought that dependence, passivity, and reliance on unseen forces will take care of them. Throughout transition planning, students should be encouraged to express concerns, preferences, and conclusions about their options and to give facts and reasons. They may need to learn how to express their thoughts in a way that others listen to them and respect their views. In order to learn these skills, students need to practice them within a supportive environment. The transition process is a good place to start. Transition planning should be an ongoing opportunity for students to learn and practice responsibility and self-knowledge. Transition is an ever-changing process, and students need to be skillful enough to adapt to the challenge of those changes.

There are skills students can learn to become better:

Study Skills
Note-taking
Organization
Reading and Listening for Main Ideas
Abbreviation Skills
Categorizing

Ideally, children should begin to learn organization and study skills in the early elementary grades. However, it is never too late to help your child develop these skills. Even children who are taught good study skills in school will benefit from your reinforcement of them at home. Organizing notebooks, assignments, time and study space requires constant monitoring for some children before they can automatically and independently apply these skills. While helping your child read and listen for main ideas, as well as take two-column notes, is challenging and time-consuming, it can help make a difference in your child’s success in school. You will not always have all the answers. Your committed, consistent effort counts. Making your child/student more self-reliant in school will help the child become a more self-reliant adult with better self-advocacy skills.

Autism: An Attribute to Success in the Workplace

December 5, 20121 Comment

Autism is not always simply something that negatively effects an individual it can also be an attribute toward success. While those with Autism think and respond to their environment differently, their skill set can also help them to be more successful at certain tasks.

I recently read an article from NYTimes, The Autism Advantage. It is about the discovery of this great advantage by a father who gave up his job to create a new business. His “company called Specialisterne, Danish for “the specialists,” on the theory that, given the right environment, an autistic adult could not just hold down a job but also be the best person for it.” The company contracts out individuals with high-functioning autism to help companies complete the tasks that these individual’s skill set is geared to naturally being successful at.

The article mentions a theory:

The “dandelion model”: when dandelions pop up in a lawn, we call them weeds, he said, but the spring greens can also make a tasty salad. A similar thing can be said of autistic people — that apparent weaknesses (bluntness and obsessiveness, say) can also be marketable strengths (directness, attention to detail). “Every one of us has the power to decide,” he said to the audience, “do we see a weed, or do we see an herb?”

This company does not hire anyone with Autism, however. It is only a small percent who fill their goal. His workers are able to do what the rest of us might consider mundane, repetitive tasks and stay thorough without the desire to do shortcuts the rest of us might be drawn toward.

For years, scientists underestimated the intelligence of autistic people, an error now being rectified… Other scientists have demonstrated that the autistic mind is superior at noticing details, distinguishing among sounds and mentally rotating complex three-dimensional structures.

The employees often work off site as social problems can still arise, but it is a great step toward using individual strengths toward helping the greater good.

A Child With Needs

Early child development from a mom and professional.

Month: December 2012