Strategies to teach English to children with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Intellectual disability comprises the slow, delayed, and incomplete acquisition of cognitive skills in human development.  One of the possible problems in the learning of English by children with intellectual disabilities is the lack of knowledge of teachers of strategies to teach this group of students, which becomes a challenge. The condition of these students requires the use of special didactic strategies for the development of learning. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify effective strategies for teaching English to children with intellectual disabilities, through a thorough literature review of specialized documents on the subject. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was carried out using the bibliographic method for the selection of literature related to the teaching of English to people with intellectual disabilities and the analytical-synthetic method. Among the main results it was found that intellectual disability develops before a baby is born, others during birth and others caused by serious pathologies in childhood. Among the strategies found to teach English to children with intellectual disabilities are: inclusive environment, diagnosis and follow-up, coordination of teachers with tutors, communication between English teachers, development of language skills, application of interactive activities, use of technology, pictograms, active and inclusive participation. In order for these strategies to be successfully linked, it is important to create a formal document called individualized curricular adaptation in order to continuously monitor these curricular adaptations and achieve the development of skills in students.