Intellectual Disability and the Dilemma of Doubt

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Trent
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Gainful Employment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medical Experimentation ◽  
Americans With Disability Act ◽  
Eugenic Sterilization

The decades since the passage of the 1990 Americans with Disability Act, have seen the continuing depopulation of the institutions. Today many have closed, and those that remain have reduced their populations. The community is now the principal focus of services. Yet, intellectual disabled adults continue to have trouble finding gainful employment. The chapter reviews this recent history by considering changing definitions of intellectual disability. It then considers “sins of the past” made recently public: medical experimentation on intellectually disabled people at the Fernald State School and the eugenic sterilization program in North Carolina. Finally, the chapter reviews changing assumptions and attitudes about Down syndrome, and their bearing on “life not worth living” and the new eugenics.

scholarly journals Beyond the Feeble Mind: Foregrounding the Personhood of Inmates with Significant Intellectual Disabilities in the Era of Institutionalization

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Allen ◽  
Erin Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
State School ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Training School ◽  
Disability Rights Movement ◽  
The Past

This essay explores the experiences of persons with significant intellectual disabilities at the Vermont State School for Feebleminded Children (later Brandon Training School) in the period 1915-1960.  We discuss the limits of existing histories of intellectual disability in accounting for the distinct experiences of significantly intellectually disabled people. This essay works to correct the tendency to define the nominal intellectual disability of "morons" and "borderline" cases—both in the past and in disability historiography of the past—against the abject, embodied difference of the "low-grade idiot" or "imbecile."  The history we offer has implications for the present-day disability rights movement.

Why the intellectually disabled in the Evans case continue to hold the DC government neglectful after 40 years: a history of differing views about disability rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Terrar
Keyword(s):  
National Government ◽  
District Court ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Gainful Employment ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis article is about Washington, DC’s intellectually disabled and the history of their struggle for habilitation rights, which for them includes gainful employment and having a family. Against them has been a conservative local and national government and the US District Court in its rulings over the past 40 years in the

APPLICATION OF TAEKWONDO PARALYMPIC RULES FOR SPARRING COMPETITION IN TERMS OF SPECIAL NEEDS PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR REDUCTION OF CHALLENGING BEHAVIOUR

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Mosler
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Challenging Behaviour ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Group Methods ◽  
Competition Rules

Aim of the study: Para Taekwondo is divided into competition of sparring (kyorugi) and patterns of defense-and-attack motions (poomse). The first one is limited to orthopedic-like disabilities, while the other also include intellectual and visual impairments. The aim of this study is to analyze rules of sparring competitions to propose a pattern of sparring-like exercises for people with intellectual disability for the purpose of reducing aggressive like behaviors that often occurs in this group. Methods: Analysis of the competition rules were compared with existing intervention and knowledge about reducing aggressive behaviors in a group of intellectually disabled people. Results: Limited area of striking, which exclude head and punishment for disobeying rules serve as similar intervention as in behavioral therapy for reducing aggressiveness. Conclusions: Limiting striking zone during practice may induce subconscious restriction in aggressive behavior, improving social adjustment for people with intellectual disability. 

scholarly journals APPLICATION OF TAEKWONDO PARALYMPIC RULES FOR SPARRING COMPETITION IN TERMS OF SPECIAL NEEDS PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR REDUCTION OF CHALLENGING BEHAVIOUR

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Dariusz Mosler
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Challenging Behaviour ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Group Methods ◽  
Competition Rules

Aim of the study: Para Taekwondo is divided into competition of sparring (kyorugi) and patterns of defense-and-attack motions (poomse). The first one is limited to orthopedic-like disabilities, while the other also include intellectual and visual impairments. The aim of this study is to analyze rules of sparring competitions to propose a pattern of sparring-like exercises for people with intellectual disability for the purpose of reducing aggressive like behaviors that often occurs in this group. Methods: Analysis of the competition rules were compared with existing intervention and knowledge about reducing aggressive behaviors in a group of intellectually disabled people. Results: Limited area of striking, which exclude head and punishment for disobeying rules serve as similar intervention as in behavioral therapy for reducing aggressiveness. Conclusions: Limiting striking zone during practice may induce subconscious restriction in aggressive behavior, improving social adjustment for people with intellectual disability.

Inventing the Feeble Mind

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Trent
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Mental Deficiency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Vulnerability ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
History Of ◽  
States History

Pity, disgust, fear, cure, and prevention—all are words that Americans have used to make sense of what today we call intellectual disability. Inventing the Feeble Mind explores the history of this disability in the United States from its several identifications over the past 200 years—idiocy, imbecility, feeblemindedness, mental defect, mental deficiency, mental retardation, and most recently intellectual disability. Using institutional records, private correspondence, personal memories, and rare photographs, James Trent argues that the economic vulnerability of intellectually disabled people (and often their families), more than the claims made for their intellectual and social limitations, has shaped meaning, services, and policies in United States history.

The author’s programme of motoral improvement and physical fitness of intellectually disabled people

Physiotherapy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Drobnik ◽  
Agnieszka Cybulska ◽  
Robert Dargiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Physical Fitness ◽  
Intellectual Development ◽  
Special Test ◽  
Mild Intellectual Disability ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Degree Of Disability ◽  
The Impact

AbstractRegardless of which part of the world people live in, approx. 10-15% of society is disabled in terms of senses, physical or intellectual development.The objective of the undertaken studies was to assess physical fitness of intellectually disabled people on the example of disabled people under the custody of the Nursing Home (NH) in Gdańsk as well as to examine the impact of the authors’ improvement program entitled “Me and my fitness” on improvement of physical fitness.The studies involved 23 participants who were divided according to the degree of disability and age. Initial measurement of physical fitness was performed using the Eurofit Special test. After diagnosing physical fitness, the authors’ improvement program was introduced into the patients’ daily schedule. The program was implemented for six months, after which another measurement was performed using the same research tool.It was stated that the implemented motor improvement program beneficially impacted results in selected tests regarding physical fitness of the participants with mild intellectual disability. The results did not indicate significant changes, in particular in the group of people with moderate intellectual disability.1. The authors’ improvement program “Me and my fitness” indicates statistical symptoms beneficially impacting the relation with maintaining physical fitness measured by the Eurofit Special test among the participants with mild intellectual disability in a group of 30-45 year-olds. 2. The studies indicated that there are certain trends, curves showing the direction of changes, which after a longer period of improvement applying the authors’ program may become statistically significant.

scholarly journals Intellectual Disability and Experiencing Happiness

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
ANNA PORCZYŃSKA-CISZEWSKA
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Life Situation ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Rehabilitation Process ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The Subject

Anna Porczyńska-Ciszewska, Intellectual Disability and Experiencing Happiness. Interdisciplinary Contexts of Special Pedagogy, no. 24, Poznań 2019.Pp. 51-66. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2019.24.03 Although it may be challenging to unambiguously recognize and define it, the notion of experiencing happiness, a constituent of psychological well-being, is undoubtedly one of the key traits featuring every person, whether intellectually fit or disabled. The feeling of happiness plays a significant role when coping with various types of situations including also the circumstances faced by an intellectually disabled person. Due to the diversity and multeity of the dimensions where it occurs, the experience of happiness can be subject of analyses from various stances, including the viewpoint of an intellectually disabled person. It seems that the disabled individual’s ability to deal with difficulties, which also influences efficiency of the rehabilitation process, is actually determined by the feelings of happiness, content and optimism, all of which remain in a relation with one’s personality, life situation,and conditions in which they live. The article draws attention to the subject of experiencing happiness by and psychological well-being of intellectually disabled people. It emphasizes the possibility of both theoretical and practical applications of assumptions of positive psychology as a requisite condition for the optimization of functioning of intellectually disabled people. Beyond any doubt, due care for the intellectually disabled people’s experience of happiness and psychological wellbeing is one of the most crucial requirements of their rehabilitation process as “positive states of mind (…) provide the power to struggle with adversities of life”

Physical fitness of people with moderate and considerable intellectual disabilities

Physiotherapy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzena Ślężyńska ◽  
Grzegorz Mięsok ◽  
Kamila Mięsok
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Physical Fitness ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Body Height ◽  
Abdominal Muscle ◽  
The Body ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Fitness Tests ◽  
Abdominal Muscle Strength

AbstractIntroduction: The aim of the physical activity of the intellectually disabled is the strengthening of health, creating movement habits, promoting active recreation, and maintaining exercise capacity. Skillfully applied physical activity allows to mitigate the effects of pathology and create the compensations to enable the intellectually disabled people to live relatively independently. Physical activity and sport also increase their chances to integrate with their families, peers, and social environment.Materials and methods: The research targeted a group of 134 people with moderate or considerable intellectual disability (65 women and 69 men), aged 20-53 years, who participated in occupational therapy workshops in Jastrzębie Zdrój, Rybnik, and Żory. Physical fitness was assessed using the “Eurofit Special” test and balance tests. Measurements of body height and mass were also taken and then used to calculate the body mass index (BMI).Results: A salient somatic trait was the greater body mass relative to height among the persons with considerable disability, clearly illustrated by the BMI. This explained their greater heaviness in performing physical exercises. An even greater difference between participants with moderate and considerable intellectual disability was visible in physical fitness. Obviously, older persons did not achieve as good results in fitness tests as the younger ones, yet the participants were more differentiated by the level of disability than age. Most symptomatic differences to the disadvantage of the considerably disabled were observed in explosive strength, speed, abdominal muscle strength, and flexibility.Conclusions: Significant differences in fitness between the compared groups make it necessary to take into account the level of intellectual disability in the course of physical education and sport, at work, and in household duties.

The Perils and Promises of Disability Biography

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim E. Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Helen Keller ◽  
Rigorous Study ◽  
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Biographical scholarship provides a means by which to understand the past. Disability biography writes disabled people into historical narratives and cultural discourses, acknowledging power, action, and consequence. Disability biography also analyzes the role of ableism in shaping relationships, systems of power, and societal ideals. When written with skilled storytelling, rigorous study, nuance, and insight, disability biography enriches analyses of people living in the past. Disability biography makes clear the multiple ways by which individuals and communities labor, make kinship, persevere, and both resist and create social change. When using a disability analysis, biographies of disabled people (particularly people famous for their disability, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Helen Keller) reveal the relationality and historically embedded nature of disability. In an ableist world, such acts can be revolutionary.

Disability and Work During the Industrial Revolution in Britain

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Blackie
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Industrial Sites ◽  
The Past ◽  
Paid Employment

A common claim in disability studies is that industrialization has marginalized disabled people by limiting their access to paid employment. This claim is empirically weak and rests on simplified accounts of industrialization. Use of the British coal industry during the period 1780–1880 as a case study shows that reassessment of the effect of the Industrial Revolution is in order. The Industrial Revolution was not as detrimental to the lives of disabled people as has often been assumed. While utopian workplaces for disabled people hardly existed, industrial sites of work did accommodate quite a large number of workers with impairments. More attention therefore needs to be paid to neglected or marginalized features of industrial development in the theorization of disability. Drawing on historical research on disability in the industrial workplace will help scholars better understand the significance of industrialization to the lives of disabled people, both in the past and the present.

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