SEVERE DISABILITY GROUPS

All these groups Moderate Intellectual Disability (MOID), Severe Intellectual Disability (SID), and Profound Intellectual Disability (PID) are under severe disability. Each group requires some type of assistance throughout their lives and can be identified before school age is reached. Some characteristics these groups have in common are communication, synthesizing, information, skill learned, and challenging behaviors. The difference in communication between moderate and severe/profound disabled individuals is a child with moderate disabilities can express himself using words, while severe/profound disabled individuals use short phrases, one-to-two uttered or non-verbal sounds. Simple ACC devices help severe/profound disabled individuals to express their needs. Synthesizing information is different between MOID and SID/PID individuals because a MOID person engages in his environment in such ways as recognizing bathroom signs and reading signs, while a SID/PID person may not be able to read signs. In the skills learned area a MOID individual can learn a vocational skill in order to earn an income but a SID/PID individual can learn a skill but normally not one that can produce an income.

Challenging behaviors are different between the two because MOID individuals may require less prompts to stop a maladaptive behavior, while a SID/PID individual may require full physical assistance and more one-on-one attention when engaged in maladaptive behaviors, such as self-injury and self-stimulation. A challenging area when teaching students with severe disabilities is mastering self-help and daily living skills that can enable them to live a more independent life. Also, the students should learn skills that are relevant. They can learn to play a CD player or table games to occupy leisure time.

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