Mild intellectual disability

A child or teenager with a mild intellectual disability doesn’t think as fast as a peer with an average intellect. They can adapt less, or not at all, to the demands of the environment. This manifests itself, for example, in the areas of communication, self-reliance, social skills, health and – at a certain age – relationships. Because thinking and learning doesn’t go as naturally as expected, children with mild intellectual disability are also called “children with learning difficulties”. 

A mild intellectual disability is not something that the environment will recognize straight away. Most of the children can express themselves reasonably well. There is nothing different about their appearance. It often goes wrong when these children cannot meet the expectations of the environment. You might notice that the child does not understand things, does not stick to the rules and agreements, or gets very angry very often. Not being able to live up to the expectations of the environment and the feeling of constantly doing everything wrong causes stress and problems for the child. If this stress persists for a long time, it can lead to psychological problems. 

The actual determination of a mild intellectual disability cannot be based on a ‘checklist’ alone. This requires a diagnostic examination. Mild intellectual disability is measured using an intelligence test and a by testing the independence of the child. Children with an IQ between 50 and 85 are said to have a mild intellectual disability. The IQ of normally gifted children is around 100. 

There are a number of characteristics of a mild intellectual disability, your child:

Has more difficulty with learning than other children of his/her age

• Has difficulty understanding language (understanding what someone is saying). Especially proverbs and jokes are difficult to understand. 

• Difficulty with writing and doing math

• Lives from day to day and understands little about ‘time’. It is difficult to tell the time, arrive on time and stick to agreements. 

• Has difficulty understanding why something happens as a result of something else (difference between cause and effect). 

• Finds it difficult to think about solutions to solve a problem. 

• Is easily distracted, for example: cannot work on a task for a long time and cannot finish a task from start to finish. 

• Does not stick to agreements. Not because he/she does not want to, but because he/she has not remembered or understood the agreement. 

Has more difficulty with handling feelings

• Finds it difficult or is unable to empathize with someone else. Mainly responds from his/her own standpoint. 

• Has a hard time talking about his/her feelings. Finds it difficult to distinguish emotions and often doesn’t get further than happy and angry.

• Reacts fiercely to emotions of others. Your child acts first without thinking. 

• Reacts uninhibited.

• Reacts to everything.

• Finds it difficult to handle new situations. These cause anxiety, but because your child finds it difficult to handle the emotion of anxiety, he/she reacts angry in new situations. 

• Finds it difficult to choose and make decisions.

• Finds it difficult to make new friends and to maintain the friendship. Your child doesn’t know what is expected of him or her in a friendship, doesn’t know what a friendship means and what’s appropriate. Your child does not know what a friend is and will answer that all classmates are his/her friend, or that he/she has 100 friends. 

Wants to be as normal as possible

• Denies learning difficulties and overestimates himself/herself. Your child wants to become a lawyer, a pilot or a doctor later. 

• Thinks that he/she can’t do anything and underestimates himself/herself. Your child is very insecure about itself and has a feeling of inferiority.

• Is easily persuaded (influenced) by others. As a result, it often happens that your child comes into contact with the wrong friends, or does things that are not smart when looking back on it. Social media is a great danger to these children/teenagers.

• Finds it difficult to estimate when someone has bad intentions. These children are often naive and cannot see through the intentions other people. 

Hides the disability

• Overcompensates by putting themselves in the picture and acting tough or like a know-it-all, or may makes up a story to hide that he/she doesn’t know something. 

• Uses difficult words in a wrong way.