Challenges Encountered by People with Intellectual Disabilities - Essay Example

hаllеngеs Enсоuntеrеd by Pеорlе with Intеllесtuаl Disаbilitiеs Name Institution Course Lecturer Date Сhаllеngеs Enсоuntеrеd by Pеорlе with Intеllесtuаl Disаbilitiеs Introduction Intellectual disability has in the past been referred to asmental handicap or mental retardation and was defined as the intelligence quotient score below 70(State, King & Dykens, 2007). Intellectual disability is generally the delay in development of one’s mental independence such that a person is unable to perform certain basic functions that require self-determination in thinking (Surgeon General of the United States, 2009). Intellectual disability in this context will be discussed as the delayed or retarded mental functioning of a person that relates to his or her ability to use their skills depending on their environs as well as the stage in growth. In most cases intellectual disability is related to inability to learn and researchers suggest that the disorder is characterized by weakened cognitive functioning and lack of some adaptive behaviors (Seligman & Darling, 2009). People with intellectual disability are diverse and can be placed in various categories. For instance one may develop the disability during his or her early stages of growth, during the adolescence stage, adulthood or at the old age (Emerson, Einfeld & Stancliffe, 2010). At whatever stage this disorder occurs,it has been found to have almost similar effects to the individual.However, there some slight differences when the disorder occurs in the different stages. (Rutter, Graham, and Yule, 2010) This paper will discuss the various challenges that are faced by people with intellectual disability during their childhood. The paper will also discuss the effects of intellectual disability to the learning, mental and behavioral reactions of the victim. Other problems which are associated with the disorder as well as the key evidence –based practices that ought to be carried out so as to overcome the challenges will also be looked at. Moreover the diagnosis of the disorder and the prevention measures will be further Challenges Euphemism treadmill First of all disability is an umbrella name or term that is used to refer to different types of impairments including physical,mental, emotional, cognitive, or developmental and is characterized with limitations to perform certain activities or restriction to participate in some duties (Tsai & Wang, 2009).The categorization of the intellectual disorder as a disability makes the victims feel demeaned and to some it feels like an abuse to be referred as mentally retarded persons or mentally handicap.(Emerson, Einfeld & Stancliffe, 2010) Use of certain terms to refer to people who have intellectual disability are seen as disparaging and socially incorrect. This can be posed as achallenge especially to the people whom the disorder is just a mild one and is not in acute conditions. Historically for example, intellectually disabled persons were referred to as moron, idiot or imbecile. Such terms are deemed abusive and have been replaced with more pleasant ones so thatthose who suffer from the disorder do not feel degraded in the society. (Tsai & Wang, 2009) Psychological and behavioral challenges A child with intellectual disability may suffer psychological and behavioral problems in that he or she is not able to effectively live with others and is also unable to live independently (Emerson, Einfeld & Stancliffe, 2010).Intellectual disability is associated with poor reasoning skills as well as inability to solve basic life issues (Tsai & Wang, 2009). This goes hand in hand with psychological problems that results from self-denial due to lack of self-care skills. A child with intellectual disability cannot be able to adapt properly within the environment. Environmental adaptation enables one to shape his or her behavior depending on various factors that re within the surroundings. For instance some customs are reactions are borrowed from observing how others do things.(Tonge, Einfield, Krupinski, MacKenzie, McLaughlin, Florio and Nunn, 2006) In most cases one is able to acquire life skills from interactions with factors that are predominantly cognitive, affective or developmental in nature either from those people who are close to him or her or the family in which he or she is growing up in(Emerson et al., 2010). Intellectually disabled children are not able to acquire these skills since they are generally devalued by the society and are excluded. This challenge prevents children with intellectual disability from acquiring some of the skills which they could only acquire from their surrounding environment.(Tonge et al., 2006) Stigmatization Intellectual disabled children are highly stigmatized in the society due to their conditions. This makes them feel as if they do not have any place in the society and therefore they always have low or negative self-image towards themselves. In most of the learning institutions children with mental problems such as intellectual disability are usually excluded from other typically developing children. This makes such children to grow with the feeling that they are devalued and have no place in the community.(Van, Dijker, Bos, Borne & Curfs, 2012) Lack of self-esteem and support from the community and even sometimes from the relatives disorients children who have intellectual disability making them suffer stigmatization both self and societal.Some families even hide their children once they realize that they have any form of disability.(Van et al.,2012)Due to stigmatization portrayed to children with intellectual disability, the society defines them as people who cannot properly communicate,evaluate or understand situations and various events that face them.Therefore they are perceived as impaired persons who cannot be able to respond adaptively to life issues and common problems within their environment; hence the society does not accommodate them in any way. (Tonge et al., 2006) Related health problems Children with intellectual disability are likely to be attacked by other mental disorders. This is because sometimes if the disorder is not well checked by an expert it may not be clear to the patient the extent to which the disorder has affected the person.(Bigby & Fyffe,2010)Moreover, sometimes most of the parents may be unable to take their children for a professional checkup thus they may not know whether the child has the disorder or not. According to Tsai & Wang (2009), when people with intellectual disability are placed in one place for example in a school or in a common health care they are likely to contact other adverse health conditions unlike people who do not have any form of disability. For instance children with intellectual disability can be affected by health conditions such as neurological disorders, epilepsy, or gastrointestinal disorders as well as psychiatric complications (Bigby & Fyffe,2010). It has also been noted that children at the age of between 10-16 years who live with intellectual disability disorder, if they are not well taken care of they may suffer from depressions, poor health status, diabetes, and other behavioral risk factors. Such disorders mainly results from poor social health determinants since children with intellectual disability lack a sense of belonging among the communities they live with.This subjects them to mental torture and restlessness as well as demeaned self-esteem.(Resch, Mireles, Benz, Grenwelge, Peterson & Zhang, 2010) Participation in the society Children with intellectual disability are rarely allowed to participate in normal social activities since they are deemed to be persons who cannot perform properly in the community(Acharya & Msall, 2011). This interactive reaction of the community towards children with intellectual disability is very dangerous. This is because it makes the society not to stress its responsibility to accept and accommodates the needs of others as well as changes in personalitycharacteristics, mental ill-health and self-esteem; thus contributes to a child’s overall behavioral and functional impairment.(Bigby & Fyffe,2010) Researches show that children with intellectual disability who are given opportunities to live just like other children they tend to develop adaptive techniques that enable them to develop or realize their potentials and work towards attaining them. However when these children are looked down upon and receive no support from the society they end up being inactive and meaningless to the community. Suggestions Adaptive functioning Children with intellectual disability should be taught skills that can help them live independently. Such adaptive skills can enable the children with intellectual disability to live and take life just like other typical or normal children. Children should be taught skills such as daily living skills for example getting dressed up, feeding themselves as well as use of lavatories and bathroom. They also ought to be helped to acquire communication skills that can help them to understand what is being said as well as express their needs effectively. Another important skill is the ability to live with the peers, family members, adults, and fiancées/spouses as well as other people in the society. (Taylor& Romanczyk, 2014) In order to ensure that these skills are in line with the needs and demands of the growing children who have intellectual disability, they should be assessed against functional abilities of those children of similar age. This would help in overcoming the problem of forced behavioral responses or lack of response a tall by the children with the disorder. To measure the effectiveness of such adaptive behaviors, professional health practitioners should be involved so as to conduct organizedinterviews to the people who live with persons who have intellectual disability. The interview should be aimed at gathering information about the behaviors and functioning of the child with intellectual disability in the community after having been engaged in the adaptive functioning program. Moreover adaptive functioning scales may be employed so as to assess the accuracy and the effectiveness of the program among the children with the disorder. In addition qualified clinical therapists should be enquired in order to give the guidelines about how well such a program should be run. Use of friendly terminologies Terms that denote deficiency or that are deemed abusive to persons with intellectual disability should be replaced with more pleasant terms. This is because some of the terms used by the community to refer to intellectually disabled children indicate the society’s attitude about the disorder the child has. Most of the historical psychiatric simple terms used in books and medical archives sound abusive if used in today’slanguage. For this reason they ought to be replaced so as to change people’s perspectives towards intellectual disabled persons. Among some English speaking countries terms such as retardation have now been replaced with terms such as challenged or special. Other terms such as idiots and imbecile or feeble-minded have also been replaced with more pleasant terms like intellectual disability. This should continuously be encouraged in bid to create a positive perception among people regarding intellectually disabled children. Self and societal stigma To overcome this challenge more community based advocacies that encourage participation and acceptance of intellectually disabled persons should be encouraged as much as possible. Moreover forums that educate people the need to view intellectually disabled children just like other typical children ought also to be encouraged. Families with children who have intellectual disabilities should be sensitized the importance of allowing the child that has the disorder to take part in various activities just like other children. This would help the child to build some sense of self confidence, esteem as well as belonging, hence ability to cope with the condition. Early interventions Mechanisms should be put in place to ensure that as children are growing checkups about their mental development are constantly conducted so that any eventuality can be controlled or taken care of as early as possible. Studies have proofed that early interventions in childhood have resulted in some instances to permanent solution for certain disorders. From the psychiatric and intellectual disability researchkey principles have beenfound important when dealing with children with intellectual disability at their early stages. Though at some points children may seem to be buoyantor resistant to life adversaries such as loss of a close relative for example a parent, physical or sexual abuse or even various kinds of rejection, to some extent such factors have lasting repercussions on the mental health of the child.Therefore if future impacts of such factorsare preventedearly enough they help save the child from possible intellectual disability. Another major factor that ought to be considered early enough to prevent its future consequences is about taking care of disadvantaged children. Educating and providing to a disadvantaged child is very important, however if the support does not last till the child attains success, the child may suffer mental torture that may result to intellectual disability. For this reason a child should be prevented from such events in his or her early stages of growth to ensure that their mental growth is not interfered with.(Emerson, Einfeld & Stancliffe, 2010) In addition, behavioral interventions that are aimed at reducingpoor adaptive behaviors so as to encourage social competence allied with disorders such as autism spectrum are quite helpfulbut the outcomes differ a lot among children with the same condition and in some cases, a continuous management strategy ought to remain so that the benefit may remain as well. There if such interventions are considered before they become a problem to the child, thenprevention may be attained. (Dabrowska & Pisula, 2010) Finally interventions that enhance maximum academic ability as well as social skills should be encouraged among children as theygrow so as to reduce the likelihood of mental ill-health in the later life of the child. Detection of the mental disability Changes in the general state of a child’s well-being are often ignored forgetting that the change would be signaling a possible mental problem in the child. It is obviously very difficult for a child who has intellectual disability to recognize themselves that they have a disability and that they need help. Therefore in most cases they depend on other people to identify the problem in them through the observation of their behaviors and other notable changes in their lives. It is very important to acknowledge that it is possible for a disorder to occur to anyone and thus child should be well screened as he or she grows so as to ensure that the disorder is detected as early as possible if it is there. This helps in dealing with the problem before it becomes uncontrollable.(Emerson, Einfeld & Stancliffe, 2010) It is very important for one to accept the situation and to belief that it can be dealt with and be overcome. However, most of the people who live with children with intellectual disability tend to belief that the problem is inescapable and incurable, hence they choose not to look for help.Such responses should be avoided so that a solution can be sought carefully and with keenness Another very critical factor to consider is the quality and the nature of assessment that is carried out when seeking help for the intellectually disabled person. Diagnostic overshadowing should be avoided as much as possible so that the help is sought with an attitude and the aspect that it obvious that the child has intellectual disability.(White et al., 2005) Management of intellectual disability challenges Societal and cultural challenges Persons with disability are in most cases viewed as if they are not full members of any given community. This can only be overcome by introducing more person-centered programs that will encourage focus on children with disability. There are so many children though intellectually retarded who possess a lot of capabilities and gifts that can be very useful to the community if well utilized. Therefore in order to guard such gifts and capabilities, self –advocacies that promote self-determination and self-direction to the persons with intellectual disabilities should continuously be encouraged. (Szymanski et al., 2009) Previously children with intellectual disability would not be allowed to attend public education or even mingle with other typically growing children because they were viewed as incomplete children. However, this has continually been discouraged by introducing special education teachers as well as special schools to attend to intellectually disabled children (Carvalho & Vasconcelos, 2011). Moreover some especially those who have mild effects of the disorder are even included in regular classrooms with other children. This has helped in enabling children with intellectual disability to grow just like other typical children till they are able to independently raise their own families and become useful in the society. Fighting stigmatization Children who grow with intellectual disability tend to be excluded in so many activities by other children because they are deemed to beineffective and incapable of performing certain duties. This social exclusion of children with intellectual disability makes them develop sense of stigmatization and a feeling of devaluation.. (Carvalho & Vasconcelos, 2011) To overcome this challenge more community based advocacies that encourage participation and acceptance of intellectually disabled persons should be encouraged as much as possible. Moreover forums that educate people the need to view intellectually disabled children just like other typical children ought also to be encouraged. Families with children who have intellectual disabilities should be sensitized the importance of allowing the child that has the disorder to take part in various activities just like other children. This would help the child to build some sense of self confidence, esteem as well as belonging, hence ability to cope with the condition. Diagnosing the disorder among children Children withintellectual disability can only be noted through observing their behavioral response to the environment. For instance a child may take a longer time to learn how to talk, walk, crawl or even sit up. This is because the child’s mental and cognitive functioning is impaired and therefore does not perform like that of other children. (Sovner & Hurley, 2006) Another evident characteristic of the disorder is that the child lacks good memory skills. The child tends to forget quite easily even simple information that is relayed to him or her. This symptom, though it may represent another mental disorder, it is a key sign for a child having intellectual disability. (Carvalho & Vasconcelos, 2011) Closely associated to deficit in memory skills is the delayed development in oral languageor the ability for the child to communicate in words especially the mother tongue language that she or he ought to have learnt from the mother. Ability to speak is an indication that the child’s mental functioning is growing. Moreover a child who has ID is likely to have problems when it comes to learning basic social skills due to the problem with her cognitive functioning .studies show that social behavior of a child for example taking part in playing with other children is a sign that the child’s brain is advancing. However when the child always wants to be alone and is not interested in mingling with other children could be a sign that the child is suffering from intellectual disability.(Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman & Anastasiow, 2011) Another character that distinguishes an intellectually disabled child is the delayed development typically basic adaptive behaviors such as independent self-care skills. A typical growing child should be able to develop skills that enables him or her how to independently solve some problems without the help from anybody. Such skills include ability to attend a call of nature, wiping a running nose and reacting to such phenomenon as hunger and pain. It shouldbe noted that there are some mild intellectual disability which isdifficult to determine its presence in a child till during his or her later stages of growth.This requires an expert to assess the child for such a disorder to be recognized; however, even if the signs could be there it could not be clear whether the person is suffering from the disorder. With a mild effect of intellectual disability a child can still be able to perform some normal duties just like other children. For example the child can still be able read, write and even work out some mathematics. He or she can also be able to comfortably learn self-care and other practical skills such as making food for themselves and even effectively using the local mass transit system. References Acharya, K., & Msall, M. E. (2011). Introduction: Bioethics and intellectual disability‐scientific promise, social context and policy. Developmental disabilities research reviews, 17(1), 1-2. Bigby, C., & Fyffe, C. (Eds.). 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