Posts Tagged ‘skills’
Intellectual Disability Causes
December 18, 2011 | 
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The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) defines intellectual disability since the disability occurring prior to the chronilogical age of 18 years. This disability causes limitations in intellectual ability, functioning and adaptive behavior of a person. These limitations include conceptual skills, practical adaptive skills, and social skills.
You will find standard tests that help determine if an individual or perhaps a child is suffering from intellectual disability. The most important test that can help determine intellectual disability is the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test. Individuals with an IQ of 70 or below with limitations in a single area of adaptive behavior are said to be struggling with this disability. This brings us to intellectual disability causes. What are the causes that lead to intellectual impairments? Let’s have a look at these causes in detail, in the following paragraphs.
Causes of Intellectual Disability
The causes of intellectual disability include conditions that occur before birth, during birth or after birth, during childhood years. These conditions lead to impaired growth and development of the mind. There are many known causes of this brain development impairment. However, 1 / 3 of those may take a hit with this disability because of unknown reasons. The reasons are divided into the next categories:
Genetic Conditions
One of the common causes of intellectual disabilities is abnormal genes inherited through the child from his parents. Any error in the coding like addition or deletion because of contamination during pregnancy, contact with radiation, etc., can lead to intellectual disabilities. Missing or defective enzymes, chromosomal glitches, gene disorders, etc., may cause this mental disability. The most common genetic conditions that lead to intellectual disabilities include -
Phenylketonuria
Down syndrome
Fragile X syndrome
Prader-Willi syndrome
Williams syndrome
Angelman syndrome
Toxic Chemical Abuse while pregnant
Use of toxic substances like smoking, alcohol, drugs (cocaine), teratogenic medications, etc., can result in many fetal development issues. These substances affect the development of the fetus and prevent brain development. This leads to highly underdeveloped mental abilities along with physical disabilities. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is among the most common causes of mental disability in children. Ladies who consume alcohol during their pregnancy term cause severe intellectual disabilities in their babies. Before one indulges in these addictions, think about the baby in the womb. It is the child who will pay for that mistakes produced by the mother while pregnant, its its life. They are preventable intellectual disabilities, and something should therefore abstain from smoking, drinking alcohol, and taking drugs while pregnant.
Infections
There are many infections that affect a pregnant woman. The mind rise in the fetus begins about 3 weeks after fertilization. This is the time when it’s highly vunerable to diseases. Infections like contracting rubella during the first trimester, can lead to intellectual disability in the child, along with other birth defects. Other infections like encephalitis, toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, syphilis, etc., can lead to intellectual disabilities.
Environmental Toxins
Contact with environmental toxins can lead to mild or moderate to severe mental disabilities in the child. Included in this are ingestion of chemical toxins like lead, mercury and cadmium. Also, exposure to radiations like X-rays, chemicals, etc., can interfere with the brain growth and development of the fetus.
Problems with Childbirth
Ladies who are malnourished mostly give birth to premature babies. These babies have low birth weight and may suffer from numerous health issues. Throughout the birth process, the infant are affected from temporary oxygen deprivation (anoxia) or another birth injuries because of utilization of forceps, prolonged or shortened labor, vacuum birth, etc. When the mother suffers from gonorrhea, or is given excessive painkillers at birth, given careless medical assistance or remains unattended during labor, it could cause intellectual disabilities in the baby. Children who’re born breech or by other unconventional birth methods may also suffer from mild to severe intellectual disabilities. You can read a bit more from the listing of mental disorders.
Problems After Childbirth
Since the baby starts growing, it may be susceptible to many illnesses. Infections such as whooping cough, measles, meningitis, encephalitis, malaria, mumps, allergies, etc., can result in intellectual problems. Children who are physically, mentally and sexually abused show signs of decreased mental ability. Pollutions in the environment, domestic violence, accidental ingestion of poisons, malnutrition, etc., can also result in decrease in mental capability. Acquired brain injuries because of traumatic brain injury, stroke, infections, and drug abuse, may lead to neurodegenerative disorders that impair their mental capability.
There isn’t any specific or permanent intellectual disability treatment. These children are given special counseling along with their parents. Occupational therapy, physical rehabilitation, special learning schools, etc., help these children overcome their disabilities to some extent. One should undergo genetic counseling before conceiving a child, especially if there is a family history of genetic disorders. One should abstain from drug abuse while pregnant and ensure they do not take any medications without the advice of the doctor. Women should make sure they are immunized before they get pregnant. Vaccinations will reduce the chances of catching a devastating infection. Proper nutritional diet and regular antenatal checkups can help prevent intellectual disabilities.
It was by pointing out intellectual disability causes and treatment. Prevention may be the only type in reducing the chances of intellectual disabilities in a child.
Posted in Learning Disabilities | 
Tags: causes, defines, disability, intellectual, occuring, prior, skills, standard | 
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18 Techniques for Enhancing Vocabulary skills
Alice Thomas and Glenda Thorne
1. Go ahead and take mystery away.
The first and perhaps most important strategy would be to teach students concerning the aspects of language, common language challenges and language strategies, and to help students understand their unique language strengths and challenges. This technique may also be called demystification – taking the mystery away.
2. Simplify directions.
Students with receptive language challenges might require directions separated within their simplest form. They will often also take advantage of a comic book-type illustration of steps to adopt for your finishing a job.
3. Give written copies of directions and examples.
Students with receptive language challenges may need directions given to them at a relatively slow pace. They could need directions repeated for them. They generally benefit from creating a written copy of directions that are sent orally. Types of what should be done are also useful.
4. Provide frequent breaks.
Students who have receptive language challenges may use up plenty of energy listening, and, therefore, tire easily. Consequently, short, highly structured work times with frequent breaks or quiet periods might be helpful.
5. Give more time.
Students with receptive and expressive language challenges will probably have a slower processing speed and will be permitted additional time for written work and tests.
6. Sit Close.
Trainees may want to sit near the teacher so he is able to watch the facial expression with the teacher when s/he is talking. This could also help to diminish interference using their company auditory distractions.
7. Allow voluntary participation.
Students with language processing challenges really should not be put on the location when you’re required to respond to your questions during class discussions, especially without being forewarned. Rather, their participation needs to be with a voluntary basis.
8. Teach summarizing and paraphrasing.
Reading comprehension is usually enhanced by summarizing and paraphrasing. This assists students to identify the primary idea and supporting details. It usually is necessary to provide keywords for instance who, what, when, where and why to orient awareness of the proper details.
9. Teach a staging procedure.
Most students discover a staging procedure beneficial when writing paragraphs, essays, poems, reports and research papers. First they need to generate ideas, after which they ought to organize them. Next, they should tackle spelling and grammatical rules. They will often also list their most regularly occurring errors in a notebook and refer to this list when self correcting.
10. Encourage renewed investment of energy in older students.
Older students who have experienced reading failure from an early on age must become convinced that a renewed investment of energy will probably be worthwhile. In accordance with Louisa Moats, a specialist in the field of reading, older students who are weak readers should have their phonological skills strengthened because the wherewithal to identify speech sounds erodes spelling, word recognition, and vocabulary development. Phonological awareness, spelling, decoding, grammar, and also other speaking skills might be taught as being a linguistics course where instructors use more adult terminology such as phoneme deletion and morphemic structure. Phonemic drills may include games including reverse-a-word (Say teach; then say it while using sounds backwards – cheat.)
11. Give Language of choice Waivers
Students who’ve experienced difficulty with their primary language may experience difficulty using a language of choice. Language requirements should be waived for these students.
12. Use echo reading for fluency development.
For fluency development, it is beneficial to have a very student within the lower grades echo read and also read simultaneously having an adult. The adult and the student could also take turns reading almost every other sentence or paragraph. Additionally, the adult may model a sentence after which have the student read that same sentence.
13. Amplify auditory input.
Multisensory techniques enables you to increase phonetic skills and to memorize sight words. As an example, trainees may appear out a thing or write sight words on a magnetic whiteboards using different colored markers, all when using Hearfones, a Phonics Phone or possibly a Toobaloo device to further improve auditory input. The product amplify and direct the student’s own voice straight to his ears, causing increased auditory stimulation to the brain. They can be purchased from CDL’s A+ WebStore at www.cdl.org.
14. See, say, hear and touch.
Multisensory strategies are ideal for learning letter names. Examples include: 1) spreading shaving cream over a desktop and obtaining the child write letters inside shaving cream while saying the letter name out loud; and 2) eliminating letters from sandpaper and obtaining the child “trace” the sandpaper letter along with his or her finger while saying the letter.
15. An image may be valued at a thousand words.
The expression, “A picture may be valued at lots of words,” could become particularly important to the visual one who has difficulty expressing himself verbally. For instance, trainees could make diagrams, charts, or drawings to aid him remember what she has read. If he’s proficient at art, the student may draw or paint pictures to spell out his ideas.
16. Teach active reading.
To aid with comprehension, it may be beneficial to underline key phrases and phrases using a pencil or highlighter and also to paraphrase them inside the margins, thereby making reading more active. In the event the student isn’t able to write inside book, he is able to write the main words or ideas on Post-It notes.
17. Guide students to read relating to the lines.
When first teaching students to infer while reading, the teacher should first advice the thinking with a whole class activity. After the class all together has identified a logical inference, the teacher should facilitate the study of the method through which they arrive at their inference. Leading questions might be, “What is the author saying to us? How should we be aware of author meant this?” Remind students that authors provide clues (imply) so readers can infer.
18. Provide individual evaluation and intervention.
Many students with language challenges benefit from individual evaluation and remediation by highly qualified professionals. It is advisable to use assessment tools built to pinpoint specific skill deficits and provide individual or small group remediation/intervention using explicit, evidence-based methods and tactics that directly address each student’s individual needs.