Intellectual Disabilities

Diagnosis

The purpose of establishing a diagnosis of intellectual disability is to determine eligibility to receive various services and supports, and to ensure rights are protected:

Special education services

• Home and community-based waiver services
• Social Security Administration benefits
• Specific treatment within the criminal justice system

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that executing a person with mental retardation violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Intellectual disability is diagnosed through the use of standardized tests of intelligence (testing a person’s I.Q.) and adaptive behavior (the ability of a person to function and perform everyday life activities). According to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) states the following must be present:

1. Limitations in present functioning must be considered within the context of community environments typical of the individual’s age, peers and culture.
2. Valid assessment considers cultural and linguistic diversity as well as differences in communication, sensory, motor and behavioral factors.
3. Within an individual, limitations often coexist with strengths.
4. An important purpose of describing limitations is to develop a profile of needed supports.
5. With appropriate personalized supports over a sustained period, the life functioning of the person with intellectual disability generally will improve.

Treatment

There is no cure for intellectual disability, but services and supports play an important role and can enable the person to thrive throughout his or her lifetime.

Services for people with intellectual disabilities and their families are there to provide adequate support to allow for full inclusion in their communities. These services touch their daily lives (education, justice, housing, recreational, employment, health care, etc.) and may include:

• Case management (a case manager helps the person apply for Medicaid in order to get a variety of supports including daily living needs, health care and long term care services and supports)
• Family support (for example, respite care) [link]
• Vocational programs
• Day programs [link]
• Residential options
• Early intervention
• Special education
• Transition services [link]

Supports include the resources and individual strategies necessary to promote the development, education, interests, and well-being of a person. Supports can come from family, friends and community or from a service system. Job coaching is an example of a support provided by a service system. Supports can also be provided by a parent, sibling, friend, teacher or any other person, such as a co-worker who provides a little extra support to someone on the job. Supports are provided in many settings, and a “setting” or location by itself is not a support.

Online Glossary

If you are interested in learning more about specific forms of intellectual and developmental disabilities and services related to them, The Arc provides a searchable Glossary of Terms. <learn more>