INTERESTING FACTS WORLD

Incredible and fun facts to explore

Intellectual Disabilities facts

While investigating facts about Intellectual Disabilities List and Intellectual Disabilities Definition, I found out little known, but curios details like:

'euphemism treadmill' a process in which a correct term is eventually perceived as an insult. For example, mental retardation which replaced a term deemed as offensive, is now viewed as politically incorrect and has been replaced by intellectual disabilities.

how to teach students with intellectual disabilities?

23 year old, Joe Arridy, a intellectually disabled man with an IQ of 46, was wrongfully executed in 1939. He was known for playing with his toy train that the prison warden gave him as a present while on death row. Guards and Inmates described him as "the happiest prisoner on death row"

What are some intellectual disabilities?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are the most common intellectual disabilities. Here are 43 of the best facts about Intellectual Disabilities Examples and Intellectual Disabilities Characteristics I managed to collect.

what are examples of intellectual disabilities?

  1. Iodine deficiency currently affects around 2 billion people and is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability.

  2. In the 2000 Paralympics, 10 out of 12 players in Spain's ID Basketball team were non-disabled, who pretended to have intellectual disabilities. The scandal was exposed after the Paralympics, when one of the players was revealed to be an investigative journalist.

  3. There was a 12 year ban on athletes with intellectual disabilities competing in the Paralympic Games because of the Spanish Basketball Team cheating in the 2000 Games by having 10 members pretend they had a disability.

  4. The word 'Retarded' was once championed to more accurately describe the (now dubbed) intellectually disabled , and replace its then synonyms, which had all become colloquialisms for being stupid; but today it's considered offensive after having fallen prey to the same fate.

  5. 'Moron', 'Idiot', and 'Imbecile' were once valid Psychology terms for people with low IQ. When these terms entered vernacular usage as insults, they were disused in favor of 'Mental Retardation' which in turn was disused in favor of 'Intellectual Disability'.

  6. Salt is iodized because it is the simplest and most cost-effective measure available to battle iodine deficiency, whicih is the leading preventable cause of intellectual and developmental disabilities

  7. While pregnant, Gene Tierney contracted German measles from a fan who had escaped quarantine to meet her. Her baby was born deaf and intellectually disabled as a result, inspiring the Agatha Christie book The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

  8. The words 'idiot,' 'imbecile,' and 'moron' were originally medical categories for intellectual disability

  9. The US Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell where the Court approved the practice of forced sterilization of citizens the state deemed unfit, including the intellectually disabled, in order to to improve the human race by eliminating "defectives" from the gene pool.

  10. The average person in 1900 would have been "intellectually disabled" by modern IQ norms

intellectual disabilities facts
What are some examples of intellectual disabilities?

Why are you interested in working with individuals with intellectual disabilities?

You can easily fact check why is adaptive behavior included in the definition of intellectual disabilities by examining the linked well-known sources.

About the Vipeholm Experiments. To determine if sugar causes cavities, Swedish scientists experimented on mentally and intellectually disabled people, feeding them toffee specially formulated to stick to their teeth. Many of the test subjects teeth were ruined.

That, during the 2000 Paralympic Games, the basketball team from Spain which competed in the sport for intellectually disabled, cheated by including 10 (out of 12) players who weren't actually intellectually disabled. - source

Microcephaly can result in a smaller head, poor motor function, poor speech, dwarfism, seizures, and intellectual disabilities. There is no treatment to cure microcephaly.

The United States was the first country to implement compulsory sterilization laws for eugenics, targeting those with traits such as intellectual disability, promiscuity, and criminality

In the 2000 paralympic games most of the Spanish basketball team were not actually intellectually disabled but were asked to fake it. - source

A diagnosis of intellectual disabilities is typically made when?

Research shows that as much as 90% of people with some form of intellectual disability will be sexually abused in their lifetime with 49% experiencing 10 or more incidents of sexual abuse in their lifetime

How to help students with intellectual disabilities?

Colorado City, Arizona and Hilldale, Utah have the highest rates of fumarase deficiency, or "Polygamous Down's," a genetic issue which causes intellectual disability. The high rate is attributed to the fact that about half of the two town's FLDS residents are descended from the town's founders.

The terms idiot, moron, and imbecile were used as actual legal and psychiatric classifications for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Ten members of the Spanish Paralympic basketball team were ordered to hand back their 2000 Sydney Games gold medals after it was revealed that they had no intellectual disability

A "Making a Murder" like story of Holly Bobo. Dylan Adams, intellectually disabled, who "couldnt read a clock" was arrested on unrelated charges and 'coerced' into confessing that his brother and a friend kidnapped the girl. One of the boys accused killed himself.

The words "idiot," "imbecile", and "moron" used to be politically correct terms for intellectually disabled persons, with each corresponding to a specific IQ range.

When do intellectual disabilities begin?

The Spanish Paralympic basketball team was forced to return their gold medals in Sydney's 2000 Olympics after it was revealed that 10 out of 12 of their players had no intellectual or physical disabilities.

In 19th- and early 20th-century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very profound intellectual disability

In the movie “Deliverance,” the banjo boy was played by a local (Billy Redden) who looked like an intellectually disabled inbred enhanced with special makeup, but was neither. He couldn’t play the banjo, so another musician reached around him from behind disguised with careful camera angles.

People can be denied organ transplants in the USA due to intellectual disability (and its quite common)

How are intellectual disabilities diagnosed?

Colorado City, Utah area has the world's highest incidence of "fumarase deficiency", a rare genetic condition which causes severe intellectual disability because of cousin marriage between descendants of 2 of the town founders. About half of the 8,000 inhabitants are descended from one or both.

At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, 15 out of 200 Spanish athletes were not mentally or physically disabled. These athletes didn’t even pass the medical or psychological examinations. Since many of the 15 athletes were in intellectual disabilities basketball, the sport was removed in later events.

Rosa’s law (2010) officially removed the words “mentally retarded” and “mental retardation” from health and education code. The term The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (Fifth Edition) uses is Intellectually Disabled.

In Australia, intellectually disabled women are being sterilized without their consent.

Dogs have a form of retardation compared to wolves, due to a genetic mutation making them overly friendly and juvenile-like. Humans may have similar, resulting in Williams Syndrome: bubbly, extroverted personalities, broad forehead, full cheeks, heart defects, and intellectual disability.

Individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare intellectual disability that reduces IQ to 60pts and impairs speech, are much more skilled with jigsaw puzzles than able-bodied children.

Spain cheated at the 2000 Summer Paralympics basketball competition by sending a team of non-disabled athletes who pretended to be intellectually disabled.

There are forced sterilization in Australia for women with "intellectual" disabilities

A new tool to study neural networks uses the modified rabies virus. This will allow scientists to target specific cells for genetic modification that can be used to treat intellectual disabilities and mental health issues.

The Paralympics aren't just for the physically disabled, but also the intellectually disabled.

The Spanish Paralympic basketball team was forced to return their gold medals in Sydney's 2000 olympics after it was revealed that 10 out of 12 of their players had no intellectual or physical disabilities.

Every time you wash your hands, you're technically committing mass genocide on millions of your very-distant intellectually-disabled cousins

When Alexander the Great died, it was decided that the empire would be co-ruled by his intellectually disabled brother Arrhidaeus, and Alexander's unborn son.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Intellectual Disabilities. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Intellectual Disabilities so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor