Intellectual and Developmental Disorder

1017 Words5 Pages
Assignment: Reflection Paper on intellectual and developmental disorder Intellectual disability (ID) once called mental retardation is characterized by below average intelligence or mental ability and a lack of skills necessary for day to day living. People with intellectual disabilities can learn and do new skills but they learn them more slowly. It is a condition diagnosed before age 18, usually in infant or prior to birth. Intellectual disability has always been part of human history. In 1848 Samuel Gridley Howe expanded the Perkins institute to include individuals with mental retardation. It became a separate institute later on. The oldest US organization in special education dated from 1876, first called the Association or Medical Officers of America Institute now called American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR). During 1960s and 1970s researcher developed new ways in which students with mental retardation learned skills. Researches broke down tasks into smaller teachable units. This showed that students with mental retardation could learn skills and tasks used in daily life. In the 1960s Bengt Nirge introduced normalization. It means making available to all people with mental retardation people pattern of life and condition of everyday living which are as close as possible to the regular circumstances and ways of life or society. In 2007 AAMR changed names to American Association or Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I believed it changed to allow society to find a socially acceptable way of addressing persons with an intellectual disability. This name (intellectual and developmental disabilities) is simply less stigmatizing than mental retardation. Feeble mindness and other names we have cast aside over the years. Symptoms and signs of intellectual disability typically include cognitive skills delay, language delays and delay in
Open Document