Intellectual Disabilities Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

Cerebral palsy is a condition that primarily affects a person's muscles, and thereby his/her ability to move in a coordinated fashion. Although some individuals who have cerebral palsy do have intellectual disabilities as well, the two are not necessarily linked.

Cerebral palsy occurs due to brain damage usually before or just around the time of birth. It has several different causes, and the condition can range from very mild to very severe muscular/motion impairment.

Answer: Genetic mutation(s) diagnosed

The American Psychiatric Association sets forth three conditions which must be met for a person to be diagnosed as having an intellectual disability. First, there must be cognitive impairment present (IQ less than 70). Second, the condition must have originated prior to the person's eighteenth birthday - in other words, during the developmental years. Finally, the condition must result in the person's evincing significant difficulty in carrying out everyday activities that most people are able to do.

Some genetic mutations do result in intellectual impairment, but genetic impairment is not necessarily a component of an intellectual disability.

Answer: False

The term "mental retardation" was used beginning in 1961, by the American Association on Mental Retardation, followed shortly by the American Psychiatric Association. The term was a clinical description of a number of conditions that resulted in significantly impaired cognitive functioning, which in turn caused affected people to be unable to manage effectively their activities of daily life. Earlier, people with intellectual developmental disorders were classified into categories including "moron" and "imbecile". At the time, the change to "mental retardation" was a huge step forward in eliminating derogatory terms for describing the conditions.

However, over time, the term mental retardation itself began to acquire a negative connotation. For some years in the late 1990s and early 2000s many people expressed unhappiness with the continued use of the term. In 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association was revised to eliminate the term in favor of the term, much better accepted, "intellectual developmental disorders".

Answer: The condition is caused by a chromosomal abnormality

People with Down Syndrome have 47 chromosomes instead of the normal 46. It is the most common chromosomal-caused developmental disorder. Most people with Down Syndrome have mild to moderate intellectual impairment, and many are able to live very independently, holding jobs, marrying and even parenting with minimal support from others.

It used to be true that people with Down Syndrome had a much shorter life expectancy than the general population. As recently as the early 1980s, according to figures from the National Down Syndrome Society, it was a mere 25 years. With improved medical care since then, people with Down Syndrome in the early twenty-first century have a life expectancy of 60.

Answer: Seizure disorder (epilepsy)

A number of studies have been done examining the incidence of seizure disorders among people with intellectual disabilities, and while there is variation in the numbers they report, virtually all of them conclude two things: one, that there is a higher prevalence of seizure disorders in people with intellectual disabilities than in the general population and also that the more severe the intellectual disability, the higher the incidence of seizures. Most estimates of the incidence of seizure disorders in the general population area around 5-10%; in those with intellectual disabilities, the figure doubles or triples to up to 30%.

Answer: Autism

Fragile X was first identified, although not so named, in 1943, but it wasn't until 1991 that the specific marker for the condition was identified. It was discovered by an English researcher, Julia Bell, in partnership with James Purdon Martin, a physician from Ireland. Ms. Bell in particular devoted much of her life to research in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities, even authoring an original research paper on the effects of rubella on fetal development at the ripe old age of 80.

Answer: Genetic

Fragile X is caused by a genetic mutation, an abnormally high number of replications of DNA on a particular chromosome. It is the most commonly inherited form of intellectual disability, and has been found in some studies to be present in nearly half of all people with autism. The condition occurs in males more often than females.

Functionally, the condition causes learning disabilities ranging from mild to severe; there are physical and behavioral characteristics associated with it as well, including stereotypical actions like hand-flapping.

In 2015, there is no cure for the condition.

Answer: preventable

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS, is caused by a woman's consuming alcoholic beverages during pregnancy. As such, it is 100% preventable. Children born with the syndrome have common facial characteristics, a range of intellectual disabilities, and behavioral deficits.

No safe level of alcohol consumption has been established for women who are pregnant, and, in general, obstetricians advise their patients to avoid it altogether when pregnant or when trying to become pregnant. The more alcohol a woman consumes during pregnancy the higher the risk of irreversible damage to the unborn child becomes, so avoidance is the best path to follow.

Answer: nursing homes

Although mostly known as "group homes", the housing set up for people with intellectual disabilities coming out of institutions was run under regulations that closely resembled those for nursing homes. As such, although they were usually smaller settings, in many ways they still functioned as institutions. Progress was made in integrating the people who lived in group homes into the community, in terms of providing jobs in community-based sheltered workshops and in beginning to integrate school-aged kids into special education classrooms, and efforts still continue to increase the degree to which individuals with disabilities are part of our everyday lives.

Answer: Wolf Wolfensberger

Wolfensberger, born in Germany in 1934, emigrated to the US in 1950. His work on normalization was based on that of Bengt Nirje of Sweden, who headed the Swedish Association for Retarded Children (bear in mind, this was in an era when the term "retarded" was not considered denigrating).

Normalization, simply defined, means the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities should be as close to normal as possible, with inclusion in community institutions, activities and events. It was thought that if a person was treated as normal, he or she would develop normally.

The precept continues to be a primary force in the habilitation of individuals with intellectual disabilities today.