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To summarize:
- Intellectual disability is simply a system of distinguishing groups of people who need social support and special educational services to perform tasks of everyday living. There are four levels of mental retardation, based on functional intelligence (IQ).
- Common causes of intellectual disability include genetic conditions, problems during pregnancy, problems at birth, and health problems.
- Intellectual disability is diagnosed by looking at two main things. These are the ability of a person’s brain to learn, think, solve problems, and make sense of the world (called IQ or intellectual functioning); and whether the person has the skills he or she needs to live independently
- Intellectual disability is a term used when a person has certain limitations in mental functioning and in skills such as communicating, taking care of himself or herself, and social skills.
- In the early 1900s, the Government of Alberta did not want individuals with intellectual disability (mental retardation) to have children. Many reasons were given to justify the sterilization of intellectually disabled people, but all discounted the rights of individuals to govern their own bodies. A debate continues on this topic.
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