Intellectual disability

Intellectual disability (ID) is an abnormality that has enormous social effects; it not only affects the people who suffer from it but also the family and society as a group.

Intellectual disability is characterized by the deterioration of concrete functions at each stage of development and that contribute to the overall level of intelligence, such as cognitive, language, motor and socialization functions; in this anomaly, adaptation to the environment is always affected. It is a significant impairment of cognitive and adaptive functions, with age of onset before 18 years.

In the literal sense intellectual disability “refers to some restriction or lack of ability having to do with human intellect”.

Diagnosis of intellectual disability:
*Medical
*Educational
*Social
*Political

Etiology of intellectual disability is heterogeneous. Injury, infections and toxins have become less prevalent causes because of improved antenatal care, while genetic factors have become more prominent. No specific etiology can be found in up to 40% of cases, particularly in mild intellectual disability.

Disability is not an illness. It is part of a person’s identity but it is not all that a person is. People with intellectual disability do not suffer, are not afflicted with and are not victims of their disability.
Intellectual disability