Introduction
Disability is the state at which an individual is not in a position to function in a normal way and hence is hindered to perform their daily activities as expected. Children and adults with an intellectual disability have challenges functioning mentally or in their social skills, communication, and adaptive behavior. In order to help students with intellectual challenges, they are to be supported or taken through special education (SPED), since their needs are very distinctive compared to other physically challenged students. For this case, a team of supporters in charge of these students should work in a collaborative manner to ensure that these mentally challenged students have become self-reliant and independent. A team that includes a regular teacher, a special educator, parents and individuals from a community organization that deals with such cases are required work hand in hand to ensure that they offer nothing but the best in meeting the needs of these students. Furthermore, these individuals should be equipped with professional skills, support, and resources in order for them to provide comprehensive and effective assistance and services to the students. The instructions offered to the students should be specially individualized education programs that suit the particular students due to the differences in their cognitive functions (Colleman, Dowaliby, Capello, & Murdica, 2016)
Individuals with intellectual disability have a right to proper and quality education through efficiency and compassion from all the stakeholders involved.
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Special Education Team
The special education team comprises of individuals whose responsibilities are centered on making sure that the students with an intellectual disability have acquired the required knowledge and skills including communication and other social skills that will enable them to facilitate their daily activities and eventually become self-sustainable just like the regular students’. Furthermore, this team has specialist that have the ability to help the students in medical care as they attain their education. Within the SPED team, there are specialists that include a regular and special educator, a medical specialist, parents, and members of a community organization with knowledge of the child’s welfare. The regular educator is always aware of the students’ progress in the class set up and ensures provision to general education curriculum. The special educator is responsible for ensuring that the student has all they need to excel in the general education class set up. They modify programs and curriculum to suit the needs of the students. As for the medical specialist, he/she ensure the students acquire medical attention and psychological services hence they help in interpreting the student’s evaluation results. Members of community organizations play a variety of responsibilities to the lives of these students which include empowering parents with mentally challenged children, allocating resources that will be of help in the education and well-being of these students and helping the teachers to boost the self-esteem or self-worth in the students’ lives (Stanberry, 2016).
Interview of Teachers
Terminology
Intellectual disability is a condition that has been referred to names that in many ways demeaned the social being of the students and other individuals with ID. For instance, before it was termed as an intellectual disability, the mentally challenged were referred to the mentally retarded. In addition, names such as idiocy, feeblemindedness, and mental sub-normality were names that were used to refer to the mentally challenged (Harris, 2016).
G. Allena, a teacher who is specialized in SPED programs compassionately explains that the students despised the former names because they not only lowered their self-worth but also separated them from the regular students.
The law has been in the forefront to ensure that mentally challenged individuals have access to all their needs including education and medical services. For instance, the formulation of Acts like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that was billed in 2010 has a number of provisions that fully benefit people with disability including the intellectual disabled. The Act prohibits the exclusion of pre-existing conditions and discrimination based on disability and the health status (TheArc.org, 2016).
According to L. Mathews, a medical specialist who is also an educator, intellectual disability can be identified at the early years of a child when they are developing. He explains that significant limitation in intellectual functioning must be evident during the developing stages of the child (Oct 27, 2016). The state of the disability in many ways must affect the students’ performance in their regular education hence the need of special education to meet their needs
Characteristics of Intellectual Disability
The core reason as to why educators are encouraged to individualize the education programs to their particular students is because individuals with intellectual disability differ in the way they behave or respond socially. Primarily, some of the common characteristics depicted by the intellectually challenged include poor memory, inability to communicate or express themselves, are unaware of how things work, they have problems thinking logically, they at times are unaware of the consequences of their behaviors and are unable to come up with solutions to arising problems. Some of the students with ID may have one or more of the listed characteristics. The educators should be aware of the different needs of their students and hence should allocate the necessary instructions that suit each student’s needs. In addition, the society should be educated on how to handle individuals with ID. These will ease the misunderstandings in the way they act or behave towards regular students and individuals (Colleman, Dowaliby, Capello, & Murdica, 2016).
Summary
Intellectual disability is a mental condition that can be managed and the individuals with it can be equipped with skills that will further assist them to be independent in the future. Education offered to the ID students, is required to be customized and individualized to ensure that proper attention is given to the individual students so that they may be in a position to grasp the knowledge offered at their own pace.
Conclusion
Education is a tool that has been associated with excellence and appropriate skills that individuals need to run their daily lives. Individuals with intellectual disability are people with a dysfunctional mental state that hinders them to relate with regular individuals as expected. They can either have symptoms of poor memory and low communication skills that may deter them to compete with regular students in a class set up. For a specialized education system, the ID students should be attended to by a regular and special educator, medical specialists that include a psychologist, parents and other members of community organizations. All the listed stakeholders are expected to give all the required input in the field of their skills to ensure the ID students have been mentored to become individuals in the society that are self-reliant. Several Acts have been put in place to fully support and guard the rights of the disabled including the right to education and proper health care. Former terminologies that were used to identify ID individuals, for example, mental retarded, were done away with in order to respect and dignify the ID individuals who are no different to the regular ones but are slightly disadvantage. SPED should be incorporated in regular schooling so as ID students would have a chance to associate with regular students who will in one way help ID students to exercise social skills like communicating. Furthermore, professionals and all stakeholders should be equipped will all the necessary skills to ensure the provision of quality.
References
Colleman, G., Dowaliby, G., Capello, N., Murdica, P. (2016). Guidelines for Identifying Children with Intellectual Disability CT State Department of Education Bureau of Special Education Retrieved from http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/DEPS/Special/guide_intellectualdisability2007.pdf
Harris, J. (2016). New Terminology for Mental Retardation in DSM-5 and ICD-11 Medscape Retrieved 27 October 2016, from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/782769
Stanberry, K. (2016). At a Glance: Who’s on the IEP Team? Understood.org Retrieved 27 October 2016, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/ieps/at-a-glance-whos-on-the-iep-team
The Arc.org,. (2016). The arc Key Federal Laws Retrieved 27 October 2016, from http://www.thearc.org/what-we-do/public-policy/know-your-rights/federal-laws
