Teaching strategies for students with intellectual disabilities

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID, formerly mental retardation) benefit from the same teaching strategies used to teach people with other learning challenges. This includes learning disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism.

One such strategy is to break down learning tasks into small steps. Each learning task is introduced, one step at a time. This avoids overwhelming the student. Once the student has mastered one step, the next step is introduced. This is a progressive, step-wise, learning approach. It is characteristic of many learning models. The only difference is the number and size of the sequential steps.

A second strategy is to modify the teaching approach. Lengthy verbal directions and abstract lectures are ineffective teaching methods for most audiences. Most people are kinesthetic learners. This means they learn best by performing a task "hands-on." This is in contrast to thinking about performing it in the abstract. A hands-on approach is particularly helpful for students with ID. They learn best when information is concrete and observed. For example, there are several ways to teach the concept of gravity. Teachers can talks about gravity in the abstract. They can describe the force of gravitational pull. Second, teachers could demonstrate how gravity works by dropping something. Third, teachers can ask students directly experience gravity by performing an exercise. The students might be asked to jump up (and subsequently down), or to drop a pen. Most students retain more information from experiencing gravity firsthand. This concrete experience of gravity is easier to understand than abstract explanations.

Third, people with ID do best in learning environments where visual aids are used. This might include charts, pictures, and graphs. These visual tools are also useful for helping students to understand what behaviors are expected of them. For instance, using charts to map students' progress is very effective. Charts can also be used as a means of providing positive reinforcement for appropriate, on-task behavior.

A fourth teaching strategy is to provide direct and immediate feedback. Individuals with ID require immediate feedback. This enables them to make a connection between their behavior and the teacher's response. A delay in providing feedback makes it difficult to form connection between cause and effect. As a result, the learning point may be missed.

Teaching Strategies for Intellectual Disability

Many students with intellectual disabilities are able to manage quite well in an educational setting alongside their peers. Some students may do better in a separate setting such as a special school for all or part of their education.

Try these tips for working with students with an intellectual disability:

Use concrete items and examples to explain new concepts and provide practice in existing skill areas.
Role model desired behaviors, and clearly identify what behaviors you expect in the classroom.
Plan ahead with your class activities.
Use appropriate communication methods such as Makaton signing for pre verbal students or those with beginning language.
Do not overwhelm a student with multiple or complex instructions.
Use strategies such as chunking, backward shaping and role modeling as helpful teaching approaches.
Be explicit about what it is you want a student to do.
Learn about the needs and characteristics of your student, but do not automatically assume they will behave the same way today as they did yesterday.
Ask for their input about how they feel they learn best, and help them to be as in control of their learning as possible.
Put skills in context so there is a reason for learning tasks.
Involve families and significant others in learning activities, planning and special days, as well as in informing you about the needs of their young person.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (intellectual developmental disorder, formerly mental retardation) benefit from the same teaching strategies used to teach individuals with learning disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism. It is helpful to break down learning tasks into smaller steps and to introduce each learning task, one step at a time, to avoid overwhelming the student. Once the student has mastered one step, the next step is introduced. This is a progressive, step-wise, learning approach and is characteristic of many learning models. The only difference is the number and size of the sequential steps.

In a similar manner, lengthy verbal directions and abstract lectures are not the most effective teaching approaches for any audience, and are especially unreliable methods for teaching people with intellectual disabilities. Most people are kinesthetic learners; i.e., they learn best by performing a task "hands-on," rather than by thinking about it in the abstract. This is especially true for students with intellectual disabilities because they learn best when the learning experience involves concrete, observable information, rather than abstract instructional lectures. For example, a teacher who wants to teach the concept of gravity has several options: She can tell students that things are pulled towards the earth by a force known as gravity; she can demonstrate how gravity works by dropping something; or she can instruct the students to drop something themselves while explaining the concept of gravity. Chances are that the students will retain more information from dropping an object during the demonstration or by experiencing the act of dropping something, rather than simply being told how gravity works.

Typically people with intellectual disabilities do best in learning environments where visual aids are used as much as possible such as charts, pictures, and graphs. These visual tools are also useful for helping students to understand what behaviors are expected of them. Using charts to map students' progress is very effective, for instance. Charts can also be used as a means of providing positive reinforcement for appropriate, on-task behavior (e.g., in conjunction with a token economy, as described in the next section).

Individuals with intellectual disabilities require immediate feedback in order to make a connection between their answers, behaviors, or questions and the teacher's responses. A delay in providing this immediate feedback may disrupt the formation of a connection between cause and effect in the student's mind, and the learning point may be missed.