Intellectual+Disability

By Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D. [|Website Here] Trudy is a 16 year old girl who has Down Syndrome. Her mother was very confused by her recent daily activities such as not taking an interest in her dress; not caring about school, and no longer watches her favorite television shows. She was displaying behaviors uncommon to her daily routines in an abrupt manner. Trudy’s mother brought her into the doctors to find the source of the problem. After the lab tests came back the doctor told the parents that she was a healthy girl. Perplexed by this answer, Trudy’s mother knew there was more to the story. She brought her into another doctor and that doctor explained that she is acting in a way that is common to many students. This behavior is the emergence of some kind of psychological distress. “While about 20 percent of American teenagers between the ages of 13 to 18 are affected by some type of mental disorder to an extent that they have difficulty functioning, teens with intellectual disability are more than twice as likely to develop a mental illness. Double!” Some of the triggers to this disability have to deal with traumatic experiences with less of the inner resources needed to handle them. The daily life for a teen with an intellectual disability is rough. Daniel Tomasulo, says that many intellectual disabilities have had issues with what is called big T and little T dealing with traumas. “The “Big T” includes events as car accidents, house fires, rape, bullying, and violence. But “little t” can through people for a lope. People with intellectual disability depend on a certain amount of predictability and stability in their lives to manage.” Some students may find it a challenge and quite irritating if they forgot something back at home that they needed for class. These little changes may be scary for these students and people may not even realize it. These students will experience anxiety and start to ask millions of questions only because the predictability level of anew teacher, let’s say, was low and they did not know it was coming and it concerned them. Trudy, who has a mild case of intellectual disabilities, has a hard time dealing with the little Ts in her life. This is why her daily routine changed to quickly. It is no surprise, Trudy goes through anxiety and depression because of her disability. She notices her differences and how she can never have some things that other students have. The biggest thing for teenagers to keep strong and overcome their disabilities is loyal friends. In Trudy’s case this is difficult because she doesn’t have loyal friends who can relate to her. We need to address this issue and allow students with disabilities to perhaps get to know other students with issues similar to their own.
 *  [|__Teens with Intellectual Disability Have it Harder__] **

(Mary Jean Loosbrock)