Appendix C- Intellectual Barriers to Learning

1. Introduction
 An intellectual disabled learner is a learner whose intelligent capacity is lower than what is
considered as normal.
 From an early age, growth and temperament of an intellectual disabled learner is seriously
influenced.
 In the pre-primary classes, the intellectual disabled can cause difficulties for the teachers.
 The incapacity manifest too normal in such a way that they do not keep pace with, do not
comprehend what is projected for them, cannot flourish in doing what others can do with
ease and that they are unwise, idle and slow.
 The self-image is hampered if this carry on for a longer period and eventually these learners
develop certain patterns of actions which are not allowed to other people but which make it
simpler for them to avoid challenging conditions.
 It is very significant for teachers to comprehend what intellectual disability mean so that
they can be able to understand the learner’s difficulties and know how they can assist them
with their struggles.

2. Explanation of Concepts

2.1.Intelligence

 Intelligence is the capacity to cope with and utilise nonconcrete ideas, understand relations
and grasp unfamiliar matter and adjust successful to new conditions.
 Intelligent capacity of persons is quantified utilising the standardised intelligence test.
 The tests comprise of subtests which assess a variety of section of intellect.
 They are supervised under controlled situations and the result which candidates are finally
awarded is the total of the score for different components and is called their intelligence
quotient (IQ).
 The IQ offer a measureable signal of the comparative degree of intelligent indication, in
association with other learners of similar stage of development.
 An IQ number is acceptable and dependable.
 An IQ score of 100 is considered as average.
 A score beyond 10 points greater are thus more than average and 10 points lesser are
considered less average.
 A learner who has a score of 100 whose IQ match to that most of other learners, would have
an intellectual age of five at the age of five.
 A learner with an IQ of 80 at the age of five, could still have the intellectual age of a four-
year old.
 Learners with an IQ of 120 by the time they get to the age of sixteen, they will have an
intellectual age of the 19,2 years.
 The strategy of determining intellect has been critiqued in current years.
 This can be credited to developing assistance for following opinions:
1. Persons’ operative mind is more difficult than it manifested first and cannot be gauged
numerical in an IQ test.
2. An IQ test cannot be utilised as a consistent foundation for anticipating the future.
3. An IQ tests are not at all times valid because they not entirely independent of the
beliefs.

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 4. Surrounding inspirations play a vital role in the stages at which an individual operates
intelligently and inspirations cannot be readily taken into considerations in an IQ test.
5. Intellectual is not an everlasting unchallengeable features as was originally and the
inspirations cannot be considered in an IQ test.
 Intelligent abilities can be improved.

2.2.Intellectual Disability
 Intellectual incapacity is a narrow intellectual capacity and intellectual delay can appear
throughout growing phase.

3. Classification of Intellectual Disabled

 Various classifications of intelligent disabilities are determined on the foundation of
seriousness of the disability.
 The category is usually in medical and psychological circles is of American Association on
Mental Deficiency.
 It links with the new restructured Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
DSM IV (American Association 1994: 45-46).
 An IQ mildly intellectually disabled is 50/55 to about 70
 An IQ for moderately intellectually disabled is 40 to about 50/55
 An IQ for severely is 20/25 to about 35/40
 An IQ for the profoundly intellectually is below 20/25.
 Roughly, the similar categorisation system is utilised and clinical circles, excluding the higher
limit is at 75 (Grover 1990: 164).
 Similar categorisation is not utilised in education.
1. The mildly disabled are learners who were supposed to grasp basic academic skills at a
slower speed.
2. Separate schools were used to teach the moderately and seriously disabled learners and
a greater section of the syllabus comprises of non-academic learning areas for example,
communication, individual care and sanitation, socialising and easy work-related
oriented skills.
3. Most of the profoundly disabled remained at home or cared in institutions and they are
able to grasp listed under 2 skills. Classy countries train them perceptual motor skills,
individual care, sanitation and language.
 The following are the latest trends related to these learners:
 Are not classified instead they are described to as learners with problems.
 The level of retardation is not signified as simple but as intellectually disabled.
 Intellectually disabled learners are not welcomed to learn in separate schools but are
taught at mainstream schools.

4. Incidence of Intellectual Disability

 Three percent of the population is used to determine how many people from an ordinary
population are intellectually disabled,
 intellectually disabled (all categories) are 30 out of every 1 000 people.
 Mildly intellectually disabled learners are 25 out of 1 000 people.
 Severely intellectually disabled learners are 4 out of1 000 people.
 Profoundly intellectual disabled learner is 1 out of 1 000 people.
 The number raises questions such as,

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  Poorer communities have more people who are mildly intellectually disabled than
prosperous communities.
 An additional remarkable occurrence is that the schools have more percentage than
adults.
 The people are not classified correctly as intellectually disabled when similar
individuals turn into adults, they adjust very well.

5. Causes of Intellectual Disability

5.1.Introduction
 Intellectual disability can be created by intrinsic and extrinsic factor.
 There is a difference between reasons of milder grades of disability and those of the more
severe disabilities.

5.2.Intellectually Mildly Disabled

 83% is the biggest section which is formed by the intellectually mildly disabled person.
 These individuals operate on a slightly lower level for one of the following causes:
1. Genetic factors-are intellectually less gifted for the reason that one or both parents,
brothers and sisters or other family members have a lesser level of intelligence.
2. Poor environmental conditions -where learners develop do not inspire their intellectual
growth in a similar way as other situations do.
 Bad conditions can be malnourishment, poor medical services, insufficient motivation
learning situations, inadequate of cognitive inspiration and unenthusiastic parents.

5.3.Intellectually and Severely and Profoundly Disabled

 This group is considerably lesser than the intellectually mildly disabled as it includes more or
less 5 of 30 out of 1 000 significant persons.
 There is a syndrome available which responsible for intellectual disability.
 A syndrome means that there are signs that manifest jointly and they indicate a particular
organic or physical situation.
 For example, high fever, sore eyes and unique skin rash are symptoms of measles.
 Medical researchers have displayed a number of symptoms linked to intellectual disability
such as:
1. Chromosomal abnormalities for instance Down’s syndrome, Turner’s syndrome (just in
girls) or Kinefelter’s syndrome (just in boys).
2. Genetic deformities like phenylketonuria of Tay-Sachs disease.
3. Prenatal, perinatal and postnatal aspects- in several circumstances a brain of the baby
grows normally but is harmed before birth the child turn out to be intellectually
disabled.
4. Brain, skull or spinal cord of a child grows abnormally because of some other difficulties.
 Extrinsic factors can be worsened or dismissed by intrinsic factors if the child is intellectual
disabled.

6.Additional Disabilities

 Similar aspects that affected the intelligence of the child might also have created additional
problems such as epilepsy or sensory disability.

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7.Characteristics of the Intellectually Disability

 Total personality is affected by intellectually disability.

 It is the responsibility of the teacher to be acquainted with how disability affects child’s
growth and approach of learning.

7.1. Developmental Characteristics

 Intellectually disabled learners do not all display similar personalities.

 The potential and problems of two intellectually disabled learners are not the same even
though they have similar cause.

7.1.1. General Characteristics

 Intellectually disabled learners do not develop at the same speed as the normal learners.
 The insufficiency of the growth of the intellectually disabled learners rises when they
mature.

7.1.2. Cognitive Development

 Learners who are intellectually disabled have difficulties in their cognitive development.
 The pace of the development is slow and achieve under normal and there are particular
deficits.
 Profound learners develop at half or even less of other learners while mildly disabled
learners develop at three quarters.
 They will not succeed as much as other learners.

7.1.3. Language Development

 Intellectually disabled learners have deficit in language growth.

 They have insufficient vocabulary and have shortage in variety.
 Vocabulary is very tangible and sensitive.
 They construct simple sentences and stereotyped, comprehension of high-level language is
low, poor pronunciation and have common voice mistakes.

7.1.4. Perceptual development

 Intellectually disabled young learners suffer perceptual problems.

 Their perception is less accurate and extra artificial than other learners.
 They can identify differences easily and prefer visual than aural modalities.

7.1.5. Motor Development

 Young intellectually disabled learners experience difficulty in motor development.

 They reach developmental signs later than other young learners and they seem awkward.

7.1.6. Affective Development

 The learners often suffer nervousness and strain because of constant failures.
 They cannot evaluate conditions and cannot anticipate the consequences of actions.
 They do not trust their strength and rely on others.

7.2. Learning Characteristics

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  These learners learn at a slower pace than other learners and they learn less amount of
work.
 It is the responsibility of the teacher to be equipped how these learners learn and their
learning difficulties.
 Therefore, they will understand why they experience difficulty and be able to assist them to
learn further.

7.2.1. Motivation

 Learners should be inspired to do learning activities.

7.2.2. Attention

 Intellectually disabled learners are easily distracted, concentration is weaker than other
young learners.

7.2.3. Conceptualisation

 Intellectually disabled learners experience problems with conceptualisation because

they have poor quality in their insight.
 They find it hard to perform cognitive actions such as grouping, sorting and arranging.
 They are not able to think abstractly and intelligent is tangible.

7.2.4. Memory

 Intellectually disabled learners have additional difficulties with short memory than long term
memory.
 For them to understand, something should be repeated.
 They are able to cope in small amount of information.

7.2.5. Transfer

 The intellectually disabled learners experience problems to transfer what have been learnt
to various situations.

8. Teaching Intellectually Disabled Young Learners

8.1. Educational Provision

 The mildly and moderately intellectually disabled learners can learn in the mainstream pre-
primary school.
 The severe intellectually disabled learners can learn in special training centres for the
intellectually disabled learners but can also be admitted in mainstream schools.

8.3. Guidelines for the Specialised Handling of Intellectually Disabled Young Learners

 The teachers should:

1. Make sure that the syllabus is appropriate for the child.
2. Provide continuous personal attention to a learner or group.
3. Divide longer assignment into smaller sections so that learners can grasp them bit by bit.

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 4. Important information should be emphasised.
5. Make it a point that learners succeed.
6. Do not change classroom rules or procedures regularly because that will confuse learners.
7. Inspire them to solve a task and see it complete.
8. Be familiar with the fact that they explain all stages loudly.
9. Praise the child for small units of activities they have finished.
10. Create a feeling that their inputs are significant in the class.
11. Utilise external inspirations to encourage the child.
12. Call learners by name each time so they can concentrate and also allow them to sit next to
you.
13. Must experience things by seeing, hearing, touching and test them if it is possible.
14. Assist learners to repeat the names of objects more than other learners.
15. Recap what they have learnt.
16. Make it a point that directions are up the learners abilities.
17. Utilise terms that learners can comprehend and speak unambiguously.
18. Should not relocate learners from one class to one another or from one location in the class
to another.
19. Provide sufficient time to the learners.

8.3. Identification Intellectually Disabled Young Learners

 The teachers require outstanding information and scrutiny powers to screen intellectually
disabled child, especially those who are mildly disabled.

Hints to the Teacher: Indicators of a Possible Intellectual Problem

 The following could be indicative of an intellectual disability:

1. The learners experience developmental delay when considering chronological age especially
in language.
2. The learner cannot comprehend directions rapidly.
3. The learner does not understand stories when told when pictures are not available.
4. The learner experiences a challenge when learning songs or recitations.
5. Additional time is required by a learner to finish an activity.
6. The learner encounters problems to perform difficult instructions.
7. The learner experiences challenges to copy difficult activities.
8. The learner encounters a problem when he has to repeat long concepts or a sentence
appropriately.
9. There is little dissimilarity when the child is playing or drawing.
10. The learner is regularly excluded in games.
11. The learner chooses to play with younger learners.
12. The learner seems awkward.
13. The learner is easily perplexed.
14. The learner experiences motor coordination complex.
15. The learner finds it difficult to comprehend nonconcrete concepts.

Activity

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 1. Describe in your words what is intellectual impairment?
2. What are the causes of intellectual impairment?
3. Describe the manifestation of intellectual impairments?
4. Briefly write down the practical strategies that you can utilise to teach the learner with
auditory impairment in the classroom.

Down Syndrome

 Down syndrome is caused by the twist of genes in the 21 st chromosome.

 Children with Down syndrome are lovable persons and are sometimes called the ‘children of
heaven’.
 The following features need to be taken into consideration by all staff members who are in
contact in everyday administration of the learner’s syllabus and classroom, for the learner
with Down syndrome to be involved fruitfully in school tasks.

Medical issues and physical Implications Support strategy

characteristics
Motor skills
 Muscle tone in arms and
hands is low.
 Shorter limbs and digits.
 Lessened energy.
Visual perception
 Challenging arrangement
order.
 Swap pictures.
 Unplanned visual
perusing.
Cognitive Characteristics
 Learners display a wide
range of skills.
 Understanding of vocal
and written directions
manifest progressively
than real skill/ level.
 Nonconcrete thinking is
insufficient.
 Not able to allocate
knowledge to new
 Handwriting may be large
and light/ vague.
 Physical skills such as
cutting, utilising tangible
resources and tools, may
be less precise and
finished more gradually.
 Challenging in perceiving
and envisaging a pattern
or ordering.
 Not independent to read
numbers, for example 43
turn out to be 34.
Implication
 Asynchrony across
subjects, i.e. may be more
skilled in reading than in
Mathematics. A learner
with Down syndrome
differs in capacities
matched to his peers.
Comparisons are complex.
 Functioning speed is very
slow due to intellectual
 Utilise alternative task for
recording, e.g. cut and paste,
multiple-choice questions.
 Utilise large or adapted
equipment such as ruler with
ridge for gripping, blackboard.
 Number of estimated activities
should be decreased
 Offer proformas in a big size
with some information already
recorded.
 Demonstrate pattern by
utilising tangible things
matching directly, below/ on
top of a given pattern.
 Over-learning utilising verbal
signal.
 Memorization of numbers, e.g.
telephone numbers.
 Train them to skim from right
and down the page.
Support strategies
 Decrease amount of work so
the learner can finish the task.
 Task analysis process should be
utilised-each section of the skill
should be taught in order.
When sections are grasped, the
whole process should be
demonstrated.
 Nonconcrete concepts should
be supported by tangible

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 circumstances.
 Not capable to distinct
pieces of knowledge and
form links.
Memory
 Poor short recollection.
 Poor long term memory.
 Challenging in recalling
and following order e.g.
utilising a calculator.
Attending skills
Errorless learners
Failure avoidance
 Reject to endeavour an
activity if it appears to be
impairment and motor
skills are poor.
 Appears to comprehend
that he understands but
cannot understand the
task.
 Misunderstand words
with more than one
meaning e.g. light can
convey to weight.
 Not able to translate and
finish activities.
 Not able to store
knowledge long enough
and answer to it.
 Experience challenge in
initiating because they are
not sure of the order.
 Unfinished activities.
 To retain learner into task,
adult involvement is
needed.
 Learners show a variety of
manners. They might not
grasp class oral directions.
They have a tendency to
complete the last unit of
the task.
 Learners might
understand a section of
the directions and go off
on an approach in their
thoughts.
 Have challenge in
correcting when answers
have been done.
 Excessive knowledge,
either vocally or written.
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materials.
 Continuously demonstrate the
whole process in any new
context to show.
 Utilise visual directions or
demonstrating and present
same activities or formats that
do not depend on short term
recall.
 Utilising over-learning and
continuing revision abilities.
 Adults and/or learners utilise
rehearsals to move throughout
the process e.g. turn on the
calculator and put into words
each number and signs.
 A learner should be put in a
place where there is less
disturbance e.g. independent
activity space.
 Give easy directions.
 Utilise visual demonstrations to
be finished, followed by
incentive/ task free period. A
number of smaller tasks can
yield better outcomes than
lengthier tasks.
 Readdress learners.
 Give visual stimuli.
 Refrain learners form
rehearsing / adopting an
improper procedure/ activity
since it is very hard to remove
the subject matter from their
minds and re-teach.
 Give only lesser activity or
portion of a task at a time.
 complex. This takes place even  Present tasks in a monotonous
when the answers are arrangement.
correct to an activity.  Present modifications in a
format or activity slowly.

Autism

 Autism has a genetic foundation.

 Consequently, experts including teachers should abstain from suggesting that the behaviour
of parents in the upbringing a child might be the result of his strange manner and societal
quarantine.
 Teachers in pre-primary classes and foundation Phase have a significant part in screening
that a learner could perhaps have a social interpersonal challenge connected to autism.
 The identification of autism is very important in their foundational stage.
 Nevertheless, teachers should never notify parents or custodians that their learners are
autistic, they should rather recommend them to experts.
 Only specialists should really diagnose if a learner undergo autism or not.
 It is significant for teachers to be capacitated with the symptoms which can show autism.
 Teachers should have contact details of organisations and institutions for autism where
specialise aid can be pursued.
 Autism or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an everlasting, difficult, universal
developmental impairment, which manifest to have hereditary tendency and stems from
multi-faceted foundation, causing disorders in brain growth and operations.
 It is established to happen in four times as numerous boys as per girls and occurrence of ASD
appears to be accelerating.
 The commencement of autism is from the learner is born to the age of three years.
 Different smaller groups are transferred to inside autistic range disorder, which include
infancy autism, early infant autism as Asperger Syndrome.
 Learners with ASD usually experience difficult in learning and spectrum of intellectual
capacities among learners with ASD is huge.
 ASD learners may also experience extra impairments such as epilepsy, sensory impairments
and intellectual disability.
 They also demonstrate a wide spectrum of personal features as they are disturbed by what
is referred to as ‘triad of impairments’.
 The triad is normally related with a limit, monotonous pattern of tasks and opposition to
modification in objects, which may directly affect the singular individual.
 It appears with an impairment in the quality of growth in the following range:

Social interaction

 Less consciousness of the presence of others or their emotions.

 Unable to make proper social interaction.
 The most serious kind is unfriendliness and indifferent from others but demonstrate
attachments with parents or guardians.
 Challenge to create proper relationship with fellow learners or others.

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  Desires to play alone.

Language and communication

 Speech development may be normal, behind or lacking.

 An individual displays minimum response in oral contribution or act as deaf.
 Gestures may be lacking or rare.
 Words, questions, phrases or/sentences are repeated.
 Speeches are infinite concerning their special wellbeing without adjusting to the desires of
the listener.
 Inappropriate use of words and phrases.
 It is a challenge to start or participate in dialogues.
 The vocal ones may be captivated with words and words games though they do not utilise
vocabulary for social integration and mutual communication.

Behavioural and imagination

 Poor or insufficient creative play.

 Tend to concentrate on minor or unimportant features of objects in the surrounding.
 They may display insufficient range of creative tasks which may be copied from the
television or somewhere else.
 Activities may be followed repeatedly and cannot be inspired by proposal of
modification.
 Unfamiliar conducts such as rocking, spinning, finger-licking, frequent petty with things
in patterns.
 Utilisation of playing toys is unsuitable.
 Cuddling on things.
 Obvious physical over-activity or extreme under-activity.
 Irritabilities may manifest for no cause.
 Modification in the monotonous or the surroundings, for instance a change of a way to
school.
 Interest of and range of tasks may be insufficient.

The following features may be observed

 Less or no eye contact.

 Are not afraid of actual hazard.
 Abnormalities in the growth of cognitive skills for instance poor, learning skills.
 Some learners have poor gross and fine motor skills.
 Strange answers for example, covering their ears.
 Increased or reduced sense of touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell.
 Feeding pattern is strange.
 High pain threshold.
 Sleeping patterns are not normal.
 Laugh or cry for no obvious causes.

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Activity
1. Explain what is autism in your own words.
2. Briefly write down the manifestation of autism.

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