Intellectual Disability Student Population

Intellectual Disability Student Population Within, at the least, the United States, we are most familiar with identifying individuals that lack cognitive skills as having “mental retardation,” but the legal term that is now being used is “intellectual disability.” Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that protects the education of certain disabled children from age 3 up to the age of 21. Under IDEA, intellectual disabilities is one of the thirteen categories in which students ages 3-21 must be given a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). So, what exactly is an ‘intellectual disability’? As defined by IDEA, an intellectual disability includes “significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing
department of Education publishes statistics every year of the disabled student population based on the total number of students enrolled in public school from Pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade, there are inferences that can be made based on this data (the data is attached to end of this paper). This resource also explains what has happened throughout the last forty or so years with specific disabled populations. One of the first things to notice is that over time the total student population with disabilities has risen since 1976-1977 at 8.3% to 12.9% in 2013-2014, (U.S. Department of Education). The intellectual disability student population made up 2.2% of the entire 8.3%in 1976, whereas some disabilities had no recorded statistics at the time, more than likely because they had not yet been identified. As other disabled student populations grew, the intellectual disability student population gradually decreased until 2009-2010, where the percentage of this student population began to be constant at 0.9% of the total disabled student population. The difference in the change for intellectual disability student population and the total disabled student population is likely to be due to the discovery of other disabilities. It’s safe to assume that students that were or would have been diagnosed with another disability are actually being diagnosed with a completely different disability. The advancement in technology and research has helped in narrowing the
Educators must be aware of the IEPs for each student to make appropriate decisions on how to teach the students so that they can best understand content. Sharon Dominica, an occupational specialist, created a list of strategies that were found to be beneficial to students with intellectual disabilities, which are the following: hands-on-learning, play-based learning, baby steps, chaining, group learning, and positive reinforcement (Dominica). Depending on what the student will need, some of these will work better than others. Reviewing the IEP of a student will let the educator know where the student lacks so educators can decide what is best. The special education teachers spend the most time with intellectual disabled students to ensure their needs are met all day every day.
The intellectually disabled student population is small but like all populations, is recognized so that the students may maximize their potential and prepare for