General Strategies and Supports for Students with Intellectual Disabilities.

If your client has been diagnosed with an intellectual disability they will require adaptations to programming, instruction, and evaluation in order to make progress in the regular school setting. their learning needs, as identified in the current assessment, should be reflected in an Individual Program Plan.

The following are additional recommendations that may be suggested to support your client:

• Your client’s academic progress should be monitored to ensure that they do not continue to fall behind.
  • Should this occur, they may need to be reassessed in order to confirm their diagnostic presentation and to develop updated recommendations for programming, instruction, and evaluation.

• Your client will need to be supported through routines and predictability. 
  • Routines should be developed for key parts of the day including: wake-up, washing-up (grooming, self-care), dressing, activities, outings, food, exercise, bedtime, etc. 
  • This should help to provide security for your client.

• Your client may benefit from the use of social stories to assist their in learning basic social skills and to assist with problem-solving situations. 
  • Although social stories were first developed for use with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the approach has also been successful with children, adolescents, and adults with other social and communication delays and differences, as well as individuals developing normally.
    • Social stories can be developed for a variety of social situations including waiting in line, saying hello and goodbye, dressing for the weather, and taking medicine. 
      • There are specific guidelines and criteria for writing Social Stories. 
      • For more information on social stories visit the website for Carol Grey Social Stories at: https://carolgraysocialstories.com/.

• Engage in paired reading with your client regularly and invite him/her to retell the story using their own words, emphasizing the beginning, middle, and end parts of the story.
  • This activity can also be done with television programs or movies.
  • If the client struggles with this, they could be provided with words to help them.

• Encourage the client’s parents to take time each day to talk with them about the day’s events.
  • Ask them what went well, what didn’t go so well.
  • If they have difficulty identifying things to talk about, remind them of events that occurred.

• When watching television or reading stories, clients can be encouraged to talk about the concepts that might appear in the stories (e.g., the main theme of the story might identify a certain kind of problem or solution, a certain group of interests or activities, and other such things that may then become the foundation for a conversation about underlying concepts).

• Parents need to demonstrate their interest in learning, and can ask their children to teach them about important new concepts. This can take place while traveling in the car or in many other settings.

• If your client is assigned homework, try to reduce frustration for them by breaking work periods into small chunks, with frequent energizing or fun breaks.
  • Also, try to limit the amount of homework that they have to do so that they do not feel overwhelmed or begin to feel that home is just an extension of school.

• Continue to encourage your client’s independence in personal care and daily living skills.
  • This will help reinforce his/her self-esteem, as well as further prepare him/her for managing things in his/her future.
  • It might be helpful to sit down with him/her to generate sequences or lists of things that he/she can do (e.g., “6 steps to prepare for school”, “8 Steps to prepare for bed”, or “5 Steps to set the table”.
  • This list should include short reminder words, small diagrams or drawings, and photographs if necessary.
  • After he/she has done each item on his/her list, encourage him/her to think about “What comes next?“.

• Continue to give the client positive feedback and encouragement for their efforts and achievement.
  • Also, encourage them to reward themselves verbally by saying things like “I did a good job” or “I’m happy with myself”.

• Encourage the client to build puzzles and to continue to work with their hands. Supporting their interests and strengths.

Parental Resources

Your client’s parents are encouraged to seek out resources and programs offered by community and provincial agencies, such as:

• The Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary (DDRC) provides information and resources regarding academic curriculum and social inclusion to both parents and teachers.
  • DDRC also provides workshops for parents, teachers, students, and the community at large on how to include children into regular classroom setting both academically and socially: http://www.ddrc.ca/
• As part of the DDRC, the Inclusive Schools Initiative assists schools, children, and their families in the Calgary area by partnering with specific Calgary Board of Education schools to promote exemplary practices for school inclusion.
• The Children’s Link Society: http://www.childrenslink.ca/.
• The Between Friends Club: http://www.betweenfriends.ab.ca/