What should I do if my child has intellectual disability?

If a child has intellectual retardation, it is important to detect it as early as possible and take intervention and treatment measures as early as possible. You can play more games with your child, develop his or her intelligence through games, and encourage your child to communicate more with the outside world.

1. Interests and needs

The training program is tailored to the interests and needs of the child. People often say: Interest is the best teacher. Intervention should take into account the child's interests and needs. For example, if the child is interested in music, parents can take full advantage of this. Let children touch the piano keys to train their fine motor skills, do simple sight-reading exercises to train their hand-eye coordination, read the music aloud to train their language expression skills, and so on.

2. Develop children's intelligence through games

Train naturally through games and activities. For younger children, training should be arranged in natural situations whenever possible. Sometimes, an activity will involve multiple aspects of a child's abilities, and parents can provide appropriate assistance based on the child's development.

3. Communicate more with the outside world

Communicate more with the outside world. Young children with intellectual disabilities also need to understand the outside world. Since most families have only one child, parents should try to create conditions for their children to communicate with the outside world. We should strive to cultivate children's ability to adapt to the environment, such as using polite language, asking for help, shopping, finding their way, building friendships, interacting with peers, etc.

4. Acknowledge slow-developing children

Identify with your children. For children with intellectual disabilities, parents may face the following problems: their children learn slowly but forget quickly, their children have difficulty concentrating, and their children's thinking is very childish.

5. Develop children's creative thinking ability

Children can often touch paper, sand, etc., and read various books to inspire their imagination.