Peer review

It is very important how intellectual disability (ID) is defined because this tells us if the student is in need of help and indicates if the student would require special education. In the past ID has been known by many different names, most of them extremely inappropriate. Standardized tests are utilized in order to determine a student’s ID, and this results in the student being able to receive the support and help that they need.
Standardized testing however does not indicate what a student’s conceptual, social and practical skills are. These are the student’s adaptive behavior or the life skills that a student needs in order to live a relatively normal life. It is very important to include this when talking about ID since this is also where the student requires help. Teachers can focus on developing these skills in order that the student is self-sufficient outside of school as well. If a student has a hard time interacting with others, teachers can help them learn how to socialize better, if a student has a hard time performing a certain task, the teacher can help them learn alternate ways to perform that task and if a student has a hard time understanding something, the teacher can use alternative teaching methods to help the student.
After a lot of thought and consideration, weighing the pros and cons of both the general classrooms and self-contained classrooms I think that students with ID should be placed in a blended environment. In this arrangement the student will be able to benefit from both environments, they can gain the educational knowledge through the general classroom while they can get more individualized help with the skills and areas where they require a more specialized learning experience through the self-contained classroom. This would also allow the teacher to not neglect the other students in the classroom while paying extra attention to the students with ID and there would be a specifically qualified teacher focusing on the students with ID in a separate environment.