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According to American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), we should consider the following conditions to determine whether an individual has an intellectual disability:

1. Significant sub-average limitation in intellectual functioning
Intellectual functioning – also called intelligence – refers to general mental capacity, such as comprehension, memory, use of information, problem solving, etc. People with intellectual disabilities are slower than average to perform in these areas.

2. Limitations in adaptive behaviour
Standardised tests can determine limitations in adaptive behaviour, which covers three types of skills as follows:

- Conceptual skills: language and literacy, calculation and number concepts, verbal comprehension and expression, etc.

- Social skills: Interpersonal skills, social responsibility, the ability to follow rules / obey laws and to avoid being victimised, etc.

- Practical skills: activities of daily living (personal care), occupational skills, travel / transportation, etc.

Significant limitations in adaptive behaviour impact an individual’s daily life and affect the ability to respond to the living environment.

3. The above two disabling conditions occur before the age of 18
Only significant limitations in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behaviour that originate before the age of 18 are classified as intellectual disability, which does not include any intellectual disabling conditions caused by disease and accident after childhood or by aging.

Intellectual disability is not a disease and there is no cure for it. Nevertheless, people with intellectual disability can learn to do many things. It just takes them more time and effort.

Reference:
Official website of American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
知多一點點 --- 認識智障人士 (2004) Hong Kong: Hong Chi Association, page 2

Standardised IQ (Intelligent Quotient) test is a major tool developed by certified professionals like psychologists in measuring a person's intellectual functioning or intelligence relative to others of approximately the same age. In Hong Kong, intellectual disability is categorised into the following three grades:

Category	IQ
Mild grade	50 - 69
Moderate grade	25- 49
Severe grade	24 and below

The majority of people have an IQ of 85 to 115, about 68% of the general population. In Hong Kong, approximately 2% of the population are considered to have intellectual disabilities with IQ below 70. 87% of them (IQ scoring 50 – 69) are only a little slower than average in learning new skills. The remaining 13% (IQ scoring below 50) need more support and care.

Reference:
知多一點點 --- 認識智障人士 (2004) Hong Kong: Hong Chi Association, page 3-4.

The growing social awareness of equal opportunity and humanitarianism gives rise to the normalisation movement in which intellectual disability is no longer considered an absolute, invariable trait of a person. With proper training and guidance, people with intellectual disabilities can also lead a meaningful life.

Respect – like you and me, people with intellectual disabilities have their feelings, strengths and weaknesses. They are equal members of the society who enjoy equal opportunities and rights as we do. We should appreciate their achievement with realistic expectation.

Acceptance of their limitations – people with intellectual disabilities take longer time to adapt to new environment and they face more challenges when learning new skills. Allow them to finish their task at their own pace.

Encourage them to lead more independent lives – being over-protective or ignoring their abilities will hinder their development. Be attentive and compliment them on proper behaviour; assist them to integrate into society.

Provide them with job opportunities – with professional training, people with intellectual disabilities can also become diligent employees who do not hop from job to job.

1. Attention
Pay attention to all of their expressions – not only "listen" to what they say and the sounds they make, but also study their gestures and facial expressions.

2. Response
Promptly respond to their expressions, whether verbal or non-verbal, to encourage them to communicate.

3. Opportunity
Prompt them to voice their needs. Do not do everything for them because they cannot speak well. Instead of asking questions, try to encourage them to start a conversation; otherwise, they may only know how to respond but to initiate.

4. Motivation
Make use of daily routines or special arrangements to inspire them to speak. Share their attention and interest, and talk about it with them.

5. Simple speech
Give a single instruction or question in simple sentence every time because they may feel confused by complicated message and over questioning at the same time.

6. Use of tools
Use of tools like PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) communication books and boards, speech synthesiser, and computer-assisted technology is beneficial to effective communication.

Reference:
親子溝通樂系列 (2007) Hong Kong: Hong Chi Association.
弱智教育培訓資料匯編 (1998) Hong Kong: Hong Chi Association, p 55-56.

1. Accept the child's special educational needs, provide them with proper training and have a reasonable expectation of their development.

2. Work closely with the training organisation to get to know more about the needs of the child and to seek emotional support from other parents.

The Child Assessment Service (CAS) of the Department of Health provides comprehensive specialised assessment services for children with developmental problems. There are now six Child Assessment Centres (CACs) under CAS located in different regions of Hong Kong. The assessment team comprises various professional disciplines, providing comprehensive assessment to children with special needs. After assessment, follow-up plans will be formulated according to the nature of the problems and the needs of the individual child, such as interim support for parents, referral to rehabilitation services and scheduling of review evaluations at CAS. Referral by a registered doctor or psychologist is required for receiving assessment services in CACs.

For children from birth to 5 years, Family Health Service has introduced a new scheme – the "Developmental Surveillance Scheme". It consists of a series of routine reviews conducted by health professionals, designed to achieve timely identification and referral of children with health and developmental problems.

Reference:
Official websites of Family Health Service and the Child Assessment Service of the Department of Health

1. Enhance children's game-playing skills

• Establish the idea of "object permanence"

• Build up the concept of  "turn-taking" to help the child understand the basic mode of oral communication

• Develop the "means-end" concept to facilitate the child's cognitive development

• Understand different object use and perform role play to develop the child's language and thinking skills

• Develop the child's ability to imitate action

2. Oral motor training

• Lip exercise

• Tongue exercise

• Breathing exercise

Reference:
親子溝通樂系列 (2007) Hong Kong: Hong Chi Association

Parents may consider if they, their children and the school have the capacities to achieve the following items while choosing a school for them. Well-equipped children may have few difficulties to study at mainstream schools.
 

Items	Yes or no?
1  Student
i）Personal care
- Can use the toilet and clean themselves
- Can manage their clothing
- Can put on their clothes, socks and shoes
ii）Motor skill
- Can use pen or pencil to write
iii）Communication
- Can understand basic instruction
- Can express their basic needs
- Can report people's words
iv）Emotion
- Can sit calmly in the seat
- Can get along with other children
- Can control their emotion
2  Family
- Can give enough guidance
- Can give enough emotional and psychological support
- Can help children to face school-work and emotional pressure
3  Professional support
- Is the school accessibly designed
- Can the school offer split-group teaching in accordance with students' ability
- Can the curriculum be adapted to suit students' ability
- Can the school provide professional support including speech therapy, occupational therapy, educational psychological service, social work service to students in need

Reference:
何去何從──孩子選校篇 (2005) Hong Kong: Hong Chi Association, page 18