Intellectual Disability

I learned about Intellectual Disability when I was doing my powerpoint for my ED-215 class. Intellectual Disability is characterized by significant limitations both in Intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving). This covers a range of everyday social and practical skills. This disability originates before the age of 18. This disability is also called "mental retardation." The disability is NOT determined by IQ test. A test score below or around 70 - or as high as 75 - indicates a limitation in intellectual functioning. There are three types of skills: Conceptual Skills, Social Skills, and Practical skills. People goal is to functions within their own environment in order to lead a more successful satisfying life.

When I took ED192 two semesters ago, I was observing this elementary class. One of the students had an Intellectual Disability. The students were sitting down in their assigned seats for the rest of the school year except one of the students. He was sitting in the back with another teacher aid. The teacher explained his disability how he cannot talk, write, and he was just different. As an educator teacher, I would have let the boy with the disability sit down with the rest of the students. Students with a disability will feel left out, not confident in learning, and feeling like an outcast. The goal for every teacher is not to make any student feel that way. Although, the teacher did say she does focus on him when she is done teaching the lesson to the other students. The teacher aid is always the one helping the student with the disability and helping him learn the same way how the students are learning in the classroom. I learned that student with a disability should not be treated differently when it comes to learning.