Intellectual Disability (ID) refers to the brain function is under slow or abnormal development and hence setting restrictions on learning and adaptation ability. Apart from intelligence, however, ID persons are no different from the able bodies. ID is a permanent defect that cannot be cured. Fortunately, ID persons’ potential can be explored and developed through education and training at an early stage. There are numerous ID classification levels and the standard varies from country to country. In Hong Kong, ID persons are categorized as follows:

Category	IQ
Mild	50 – 69
Intermediate	25 – 49
Severe	25 or below

The causes of intellectual disability can be categorized into prenatal and postnatal.

2.1 Prenatal causes

include those that are caused before birth including:

• Abnormal genes
• Foetus infected by virus

2.2 Postnatal causes

refer to the ones after a baby was born including:

• Abnormal labour and delivery of the baby
• Appropriate treatment is not received during sickness

3.1 Learning

Compared with the able bodies, ID persons are weak in knowledge acquisition and comprehension and thus require a longer time to learn new things. For example, it may cost them 20 times or more to learn a movement that only costs 10 times for the able bodies. Under this circumstance, they can only learn things one by one. Besides, other characteristics in learning are as follows:

• They can be easily distracted so it is hard for them to focus on and concentrate in doing one thing for a long time.
• They have weak memory and require frequent reminder.
• They possess weaker adaptive skills.
• Their motion of learning relies on stimulation rather than self-motivation.
• They are weak in understanding and comprehension so it is hard for them to perform abstract and logical analysis and thinking.
• Their ability to mimic is lower than the able bodies.

3.2 Appearance

Except those who are with Down Syndrome, their appearances are not different from the others.

3.3 Emotion

They are very strict-forward and can be easily satisfied. They also love to meet new friends.

3.4 Communication

They are rather weak in expressing themselves so we should use simple and short sentences to communicate with them.

3.5 Behavior

As they are of weak judgement and lack self control, we should correct their misbehavior immediately.

1. Patience

ID persons are rather slower than the able bodies in reacting to actions and words. Thus, we should give them time to absorb the idea, express verbally and finish the instruction with patience.

2. Enthusiasm

Our enthusiasm will encourage ID persons to perform better.

3. Love and Care

Coaches should be equipped with love and care to take care of ID athletes, especially to those with intermediate and severe grade of ID, who are weak in self-care and self-defense.

4. Accepting Limitations

Since most of the ID persons are of multi-disabilities such as autism and hearing loss, we should not jeer at them for their “weird” behaviour. This would make a negative impact on their confidence in learning, emotions and even social life.

5. Justice

We should treat ID persons equally regardless of their appearance.

6. Accepting Uniqueness

We should meet the need of ID persons according to their unique behaviours and living styles, which are formed by prenatal factors (eg. genes) and postnatal environment.

7. Equal Opportunity

ID persons are also members of the community. We should respect their rights and freedom so that they can enjoy a dignified life with equal opportunities.

8. Offering Learning Opportunity

We should provide ID persons with opportunities to learn from actual work (activities) and from working with us. Also, we should avoid helping them to finish their task/assignment unless they are unable to do so because overprotection only encourages their dependence and inertia.

9. Indoctrination of Righteous Knowledge

We should teach ID persons righteousness as they often need guidance when making judgment. We should also keep our accusations in consistency to avoid any confusion.

10. Setting Appropriate Expectation

We have to be realistic and stay positive when anticipating progress for ID persons. Our goal is to boost up their morale to strive for the best within their capacity. Hence, our expectation should be set at an appropriate level instead of covering up or altering the defect they have.

Key Points when Assisting the ID Persons in Learning

• Your refusal to an approaching ID person may make he or she feels uneasy.
• We should listen to ID persons patiently since they sometimes find it difficult to express their feelings.
• We should give ID persons adequate time to adapt to changes which they are usually scared of.
• We should ignore the misbehavior of ID persons but appreciate and reward to their righteous ones.
• Instructions, which can be repeated with the same wordings, to ID persons should be clear and consistent.
• You should require ID persons to keep their promises and do not give up on this easily for they do not understand or forgot what you have said.