What is Intellectual Impairment
Intellectual impairments refer to life-long limitations of the cognitive and intellectual abilities of a person that often results in the person requiring Intellectual Impairments supervision in conducting activities of daily living.
It usually affects the ability to:
- solve problems,
- remember,
- learn new information and skills, including social skills.
Intellectual impairment often has its onset in childhood and is linked to issues in brain development prior to or at birth. They are also lifelong conditions and cannot be treated with medication.
There are various degrees of intellectual impairments: mild, moderate, severe and profound.
Environmental factors, particularly things and people that surrounds a person with intellectual impairment, can impact his/her development, particularly during childhood.

Degrees of Intellectual Impairment
Severe intellectual impairment: people with severe intellectual impairments usually have an IQ between 20 and 34. They often face difficulties in movement in addition to challenges communicating, understanding and learning when compared to others in their same age range. They often face a lot of difficulties in performing activities of daily living (washing, dressing, eating, etc.) by themselves and will require assistance even as adults.
Profound intellectual impairment: people with profound intellectual impairments usually have an IQ under 20. They are often unable to move independently, communicate, understand and learn when compared to others in their same age range. They often are unable to perform activities of daily living (washing, dressing, eating, etc.) by themselves and will require lifelong assistance.
How to refer to someone with an intellectual impairment
Avoid Using
- Retarded/ retard
- Brain damaged
- Dumb
- Slow
- Special ed
Instead Use
- Intellectual impairment
- Person with intellectual impairment
How to create an enabling environment for people with intellectual impairments
- Take time and create trust first for the person to feel comfortable with you.
- Speak clearly and use short sentences and easy words.
- Repeat or rephrase what you have said
- Do not use a childish voice or exaggerate
- Have a quiet and calm place for talking
- Take your time and don’t hurry
- Use gestures and facial expressions. For example, look sad when you are talking about being unhappy.
- Check with the person if they understand what you are saying.
- Repeat information regularly

Specific advice for including people with intellectual impairments in trainings and meetings

- Use pictures or other visuals to demonstrate key concepts as much as possible
- Use easy read material with simple messages and short sentences
- Give clear instructions, one at a time
- Break down a task into smaller steps
- Give tasks one by one —> add the next task when the previous task is mastered
- Take extra time to explain and give more time to practice
- Make sure there is enough leisure/rest time during activities
- Use different approaches to enhance understanding
- Be generous with praise and encouragement
- Discover ways to reduce disruptive behaviour by consulting with their family/ assistants.
- Use peer support as much as possible
- Make sure the work or training or meeting environment is safe, remove any potentially harmful/hazardous materials/equipment or ensure use with close supervision.
- Work with participants to create an individual action plan with realistic objectives for them to reach within the parameters of the programme.
- Budget for and include a caregiver if needed