Intellectual Disability Accommodations in the Classroom

In your teaching career, you will have many di erent kinds of students in your classroom. You will need to make accommodations for those
learners who have an intellectual disability. This lesson will provide some examples of these accommodations.

Intellectual Disability Accommodations

For students diagnosed with an intellectual disability, learning in the classroom can be quite a challenge. It is your job, as
the teacher, to accommodate that student's needs so they can better access and learn the content. An accommodation is
an adjustment to how information is presented to a student so they can better engage in learning. This is di erent from a
modi cation, which would be an adjustment in the actual information itself (less material would be taught, for example).
This lesson will provide several examples of how you can accommodate a student who has an intellectual disability.

There are several broad categories of accommodations that will be used in this lesson to outline the examples. These are
accommodations in instruction, response, and timing and setting. But rst, a short explanation of what an intellectual
disability is will help you understand why these accommodations are necessary.

What Is an Intellectual Disability

People who are diagnosed with an intellectual disability often experience di culties with intellectual capabilities and
behavior. These may include:

Slow development of certain skills, such as language and motor

Slow development of intellectual capability

Di culty with learning social skills

Slow development of practical life skills (such as self-care, safety, travel, etc.)

Because of these delays and di culties, people diagnosed with an intellectual disability often struggle to learn and keep
up in school. That is why providing accommodations is so important.

Instruction Accommodations
Students with intellectual disabilities may struggle to engage with and comprehend material if it is presented in a
traditional way. For example, reading from a textbook can be a challenge for these students. Therefore, you should
provide them with various accommodations in your instruction to help them better engage with and learn information.
Some of these accommodations include:

Provide an audio version of textbooks: this will help students with reading di culties access the same material as their peers (either
someone could read the book to them or they could listen to a recording).

Provide an outline: students with intellectual disabilities often struggle to follow the logic and progression of learning. A clear picture
of learning will help them keep up.

Pre-written notes: students with intellectual disabilities may struggle with taking notes and listening to information being taught to
them. Pre-written notes will help them listen and learn without having to focus on writing.

Response Accommodations

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Another area that students with intellectual disabilities struggle with is responding to and demonstrating learning.
Therefore, you should provide accommodations and alternate ways for students to do so. Not every student will be able
to show they have learned something through a pen and paper test, so an alternate response would be appropriate for
them. These accommodations might include:

Oral responses to questions

Dictation of answers instead of writing

Using an electronic device instead of pen and paper

Timing & Setting Accommodations

Accommodations to the timing and setting of learning are grouped together here because they often overlap or occur at
the same time. These are accommodations in either the physical space in which learning occurs or the pace and rate at
which activities and learning are done. Student with intellectual disabilities often need more time and a quiet space to
work and these accommodations address those needs. Examples of these kinds of accommodations are:

Extra breaks while working to help with energy and focus

A quiet environment to reduce distractions

An sensory object to dget with to direct energy (for example, a bungee cord around the legs of their chair that the student can kick
or a soft ball to squeeze)