"Individuals are considered to have an intellectual disability when their IQ score is below 70-75, when they have significant limitations in adaptive skills (self-care, home living, social skills, communication, functional academics, and work), and when they developed the disability before the age of eighteen".
[...] "stereotypes still endure about people with intellectual disabilities being somehow less worthy than so-called normal people. One of the biggest reasons for the preservation of these stereotypes is that we continue today to compare people with intellectual disabilities to a statistical norm using IQ testing". [...] "One of the major reasons that people with intellectual disabilities have had difficulty integrating into the mainstream of society is they they violate a core American value: the belief that intelligence is a single innate and fixed entity that can be measured by an intelligence test".
"Ultimately, anyone who wants to understand the strengths and abilities of people with intellectual disabilities needs to detach herself from 'normal' methods and indexes for assessing competence in the world and embrace a wider vision of human potentialities". Following Howard Gardner's work, we can think in terms of multiple intelligences: linguistic intelligence; logical-mathematical intelligence; spatial intelligence; bodily kinesthetic intelligence; musical intelligence; interpersonal intelligence; intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalist intelligence.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities benefit from learning and working environments that foster their own personal intelligences, with additional support as needed.
Source: Armstrong, Thomas. Neurodiversity Discovering the Extraordinary Gifts of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Brain Differences. First Da Capo Press edition. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong, 2010.
