Intellectual Disabilities

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Intellectual Disabilities

• Chapter 6

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Definition

• American Association on Mental Retardation
  Mental retardation is a disability characterized
  by significant limitations both in intellectual
  functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed
  in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive
  skills. The disability originates before the age
  of 18.
• approximately IQ 70 and below

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• AAMR describes individuals in terms of intensity
  of support to function across environments. See
  page 223
• Development disability term

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Causes

• Organic
• Genetic, chromosomal, or traumatic
• Familial
• Associated problems
• Appearance, physical disabilities, health problems

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Classification of Developmental Disability

• Mild Mental Retardation- About 85 of children
  diagnosed as DD belong to this category. The
  rough IQ range for this group is 50-70.
• Deficiencies associated with mild retardation my
  not be evident until after age 5.
• Theses individuals may acquire 6th grade level
  academic skills, hold a job and even live
  somewhat independently.

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Classification of Development Disability

• Moderate- About 10 of children with DD are in
  this category.
• The IQ for this group is approximately 35-55.
• These children acquire communication skills
  during early childhood and benefit from
  vocational training.
• They probably will not achieve more than a second
  grade education, they most likely will be able to
  perform unskilled or semiskilled work under
  supervision in sheltered workshops.

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Classification of Developmental Disability

• Severe Retardation- About 3 to 4 percent of
  children with DD have severe cognitive deficits.
• The IQ range for this group is 20-40.
• Language acquisition in this group is very
  limited, they may learn basic language skills
  during their elementary years.
• They may only sight read a few words and can only
  perform simple tasks under constant supervision.

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Classification of Developmental Disability

• Profound Mental Retardation- About 1 or 2 percent
  of children with DD have profound cognitive
  deficits.
• The IQ range for this group is below 20-25.
• A genetic syndrome or a neurological condition is
  often associated with profound DD.
• These children may experience problems with their
  vision, hearing, and usually have some type of
  paresis or paralysis.

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Finally on to Something New

• Down Syndrome- is due to a chromosomal defect.
  People with Down syndrome are born with an extra
  chromosome. Its also called trisomy 21 because
  of the third copy of chromosome 21.

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More Down Syndrome

• Down Syndrome appears in 1 out of every 800 live
  births.
• Maternal age is related to its incidence older
  women, more than younger women, have a greater
  chance of giving birth to a child with the
  syndrome.
• Children may have reduced muscle tone flat
  facial profile small ears, nose, and chin short
  front-to-back head dimension shortened oral and
  pharyngeal structures.

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Down Syndrome

• DD is typically mild to moderate, and speech,
  language and hearing problems are common. Some
  with Down syndrome may exhibit normal or even
  exceptional language skills.

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More Syndromes

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome- Is caused by maternal
  alcohol abuse during pregnancy. This syndrome is
  entirely preventable if women abstain from
  drinking during pregnancy.
• More than 50 of women in childbearing age drink
  more than 50 of all pregnancies are unplanned
  one in 30 pregnant women drink to an extent that
  exposes their fetus to the damaging effects of
  alcohol. (CDC, 2004a)

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FAS

• DD and physical growth deficiencies are common in
  children born with this syndrome. Physical
  symptoms include general physical growth
  deficiency, from a small head, to small eye
  openings to poor motor coordination. This
  syndrome is found in .2 to 1.5 per 1,000 live
  births.

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Fragile X Syndrome

• A single-gene mutation on the X chromosome causes
  Fragile X Syndrome. Abnormalities in this gene
  cause a failure to produce a protein thought to
  be necessary for brain function.
• Fragile X occurs in 1 in 2,000 male births a
  smaller number of females are affected. More
  females (1 in 250) than males (1 in 700) carry
  the disorder though.

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Fragile X

• DD is more severe in the affected males than in
  affected females. Children with FXS have speech
  and language impairments, which include
  articulation disorders, sound repetitions,
  echolalia, jargon, telegraphic speech, missing
  morphologic features, and limited language
  production in social contexts.

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X

• The children may have conductive hearing loss
  from the disorder and they may talk like autistic
  children, with tangential or irrelevant comments.

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PKU- phenylketonuria

• PKU occurs once in every 10,000 births, and is a
  deficiency in metabolizing an amino acid called
  phenylalanine. A concentration of this acid is
  toxic to the body and causes nerve and brain
  damage. An absence of a liver enzyme is the cause
  of this disorder.

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PKU

• Since the condition is effectively treated in
  early infancy, most states require a testing for
  PKU on all newborn babies. Consequently, PKU is
  not a common cause of DD in the United States.

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Tay-Sachs Disease

• Tay-Sachs disease is a fatal and inherited
  genetic disorder in which excessive amounts of a
  fatty substance called ganglioside GM2
  accumulates in the brain and the nervous system.
  Blindness, deafness, swallowing disorders and
  severe DD follow.

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Treatment Procedure And Closure

• Early intervention is important to any child, but
  in the case of a child with DD, it is even more
  critical. Intervention must be started as early
  as possible to increase the childs potential
  communicative skill and the evidence for early
  intervention is favorable.
• Selecting a list of functional words, phrases or
  sentences as target behaviors and then selecting
  the ones that will have the most immediate effect
  on the childs patterns of interaction will be
  beneficial to both the child and the family.