Essential Facts About Intellectual Disability Services

By Mattie Knight


Intellectual disability, initially known as mental retardation, refers to impairment in brain development resulting in intelligence that is below average. This means affected people find great difficulty in handling tasks that unaffected persons would otherwise find easily surmountable. For this reason, different intellectual disability services are made available in Portsmouth for affected individuals to better themselves. A variety of terms are used synonymously with intellectual disability. Some of them are general learning disability and intellectual development disorder (IDD).

For a person to be diagnosed with intellectual disability, certain criterion is used according to the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). First, individuals must be deficient in general mental capabilities. Secondly these individuals are usually unable to adapt to the social environment in terms of communication skills and so forth. These disorders should be observed in childhood. This serves as a distinction from other forms of brain function impairment such as dementia.

General learning disability can be said to be either a syndrome or a non syndrome. Downs is one of the disorders involved in the syndromic category. In the non underlying anomalies can be detected. In both, patients present with symptoms that are behavioral in nature. They are unable to look after themselves, they lack the ability to communicate effectively and do not remember events that happened in the recent past.

IDD can be attributed to a number of factors but the most common is genetic derangement as seen in conditions such as Downs, fragile X and Klinefelter syndrome. Malnutrition is a major contributory factor in the African continent due to poverty and lack of awareness. Other global causes include fetal alcohol syndrome, rubella syndrome in a pregnant mother, accidental poisonous substances such as lead, among others.

The setup of services offered for people with disabilities can take different forms. While some programs provide only day school rehabilitation, some run as a residential area for this people at the same time. Some take the extra step of helping these individuals obtain employment and even take care of their own families.

Every person has a role to play in rehabilitating persons with IDD, starting from the guardian to the clinician, to members of the community. Their role may fall under any four groups including behavioral, psycho-social, family based and cognitive treatment. Psycho-social intervention is done early in the life of a child before they start going to school. Children are taught simple skills, they are given the freedom of exploring and are trained the same thing over and over again until they master the given skill. They are also rewarded whenever they achieve a certain goal.

The behavioral approach of intervention incorporates attainment of language and social skills. This is done under the guidance of a skills therapist on a one on one basis with other aid of shapes, pictures and other visual aids. Older children also benefit from this treatment since they are able to acquire skills such as smiling, sharing, communicating and even obeying instructions. An advanced form assistance takes into account both psycho-social and behavioral treatments. Children are taught language, math and other academic units that require them to exercise their ability to learn and remember.

In as much as medical treatment is not the mainstay of management of general learning disorders, they come in handy when complications arise. An example is in autistic children who sometimes may experience uncontrollable behavioral states. Mood stabilizers may be given but close monitoring for any adverse reactions should be done.




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