Activities for Children With Severe Intellectual Disabilities

Learning Activities

• Different disabilities hinder learning in different ways, but in most cases, children with severe intellectual disabilities experience problems with language development and have little or no speech. They rely on visual aids, such as gestures and pictures, to communicate with others. Depending on your child̵7;s disability, you may be able to teach her sign language, picture exchange communication or another non-verbal form of communication. Help your child make sense of the world around her by using sequencing cards to promote her understanding of the order of events. Encourage your child to use puppets and other tactile props to communicate wants and needs, or use them yourself to teach her basic concepts. Read stories together to promote your child̵7;s language development and her ability to associate pictures with words.

Sensory Activities

• Encourage your child to explore and discover her environment with sensory activities that promote information processing through the five basic senses. Take your child for a nature walk through a park or around the block. Encourage her to look, listen, smell and touch different elements of the natural world -- the sound of a robin̵7;s song, for example, the silky texture of a rose petal or the sweet smell of a honeysuckle bush. If your child is capable of speech, encourage her to use words to describe what things sound, smell and feel like.

Creative Activities

• The creative arts provide a meaningful way for a disabled child to express emotions and ideas in a way that has no element of ̶0;right̶1; or ̶0;wrong.̶1; Help your child develop motor coordination and encourage his creative thinking abilities with finger- or sponge-painting activities. Assist your child in creating rubbings with charcoal or chalk pastels by guiding his hand over the paper. Or, lay a protective cover down on the floor, place a large sheet of sturdy paper in the center and give your child squeeze bottles filled with paint or pre-dipped paintbrushes to squirt and splatter onto the paper. Practice fine motor skills by helping your child glue large seashells or stones onto a plain wooden jewelry box or ornament for a special keepsake, or give your child clay to form and shape as he sees fit.

Social Activities

• Children with severe intellectual disabilities have a harder time socializing with other people than typically developing children do, due to delays in language and cognitive development. Encourage your child̵7;s ability to interact with others with simple games like peek-a-boo or a playful game of chase. Give your child opportunities to interact with other family members through simple tasks such as bringing the paper to Grandpa or handing lunchboxes to siblings in the morning. Arrange for a play date in the park with a mother-child pair also living with an intellectual disability, or take your child to community events such as parades and festivals.