Special Education

Students With Intellectual Disabilities
A Resource Guide for Teachers

The Nature of Intellectual Disabilities

The Ministry of Education provides supplementary funding to school districts at two levels depending on the severity of the intellectual disability. For information on the funding categories see Special Education Services: A Manual of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines, 1995.

The identification of students within a particular funding category does not imply that their instructional needs will necessarily be the same. No two students with the same disability will experience its impact in the same way. Examples of different needs and strategies are provided in the case study appendices at the back of this resource guide.

One of these funding levels is called low incidence. In the general population about one tenth of a per cent, or one in every 1000 students, would have intellectual disabilities of this degree of severity. Statistically, one might expect fewer than one student in this category to be present in a neighbourhood school of 400 students."

These students span a very wide range of abilities. The continuum ranges from students who will require assistance with all areas of self-care throughout their lives, to students for whom the acquisition of academic skills and concepts is a reasonable and appropriate goal.

The program designed by the teacher may include areas such as:

  • functional academic skills,
  • communication skills,
  • physical development and personal care,
  • social interaction skills,
  • community living skills,
  • career development/work experience, and
  • transition planning.

For students who require assistance with all areas of self-care throughout their lives, specialist teachers and health professionals may be required to assist in the development of these skills. For others, classroom teachers will have all the resources required to meet the student's needs by making adaptations in the regular curriculum. Just as there is a wide range of needs, there is also a wide spectrum of interventions to meet those needs.

The Ministry also provides supplementary funding at a level called high incidence. In the general population, these students occur with a higher rate of incidence, about two per cent. In a school of 400 students, statistics predict about eight students with mild intellectual disabilities. Some of them may enter the school system without mastering all of the personal skills usually acquired in the pre-school years. They may need help in personal care in the early primary years, ongoing support with academic skills, and occasional assistance with social skills.

Generally, these students learn to function normally in response to the everyday demands of living and usually develop into self-sufficient adults. In school, they may have difficulty attaining the academic skills associated with their grade level, but teachers should not see their disabilities as predicting a limit to their potential. These students often have difficulty understanding concepts of the same complexity and acquiring skills and knowledge at the same rate as other students. Their programs should be adapted to meet these unique learning needs. At the secondary level, functional vocational skills may begin to take precedence over academic skills. During the graduation years, preparation for work and independent living is often the highest priority.

 

 Some students have disabilities in addition to their primary handicap. These may include physical disabilities, visual or hearing impairment, chronic health conditions and behavioural disorders. The effect of these additional disabilities is to magnify the degree of overall handicap. See Appendix 3 for a list of Ministry resource guides for specific areas of needs.