The life trajectory of person with mild intellectual disability

The presented paper discusses he use of a life-event history approach to understand the life trajectories of people with mild intellectual disabilities. There were recognized and analysed life events which had a very strong impact on participants’ life and directly affected their social fate. The critical events that appeared to influence one’s life was identification of disability and the time it was no longer valid. To make some generalizations and postulates within formulated conclusions, this paper is a contribution to promote equal opportunities and prevent social marginalization of people with mild intellectual disability

Directions of scientific discourse change determining the way narratives of people with intellectual disabilities are viewed

The interest in narrating by people with intellectual disabilities could be considered in terms of particular changes: narrative turn in science, emerging of interpretive paradigm in social science research, social communication theory development and paradigmatic change in the way of thinking about disability, either in a theoretical or practical context. The presented paper aims at showing the possibility of application of biographical methods in research on people with intellectual disabilities as the avenue of their emancipation. This is a significant issue, due to the fact that this social group remains excluded from a biographical research. Anyway, all theoretical implications of a new concept of disability highlight the need to promote and increase their participation in culture, providing them with the opportunities to talking about themselves the ways they usually speak. All the more so, because the narrative is not currently treated narrowly, as a structure of expression, but rather broadly, as the basic way of understanding being a human.

(Un)happy parents – reflections of parents of adult children with intellectual disabilities in biographical reconstructions

The article is based on analysis and interpretation of narratives from parents of adult children with intellectual disabilities collected in the biographical study. Applying biographical method allowed to show the meanings parents ascribe to everyday life with their adult children with intellectual disabilities. The research has revealed two important factors influencing adulthood: disability and its consequences and social perception of people with disabilities.

Adult people with intellectual disabilities – (im)possible changes within family situation

Adulthood of people with intellectual disability persistently remains the area of polemics. The article attempts to answer how adult people with intellectual disabilities, who have been living in their family homes, describe adulthood. Their narratives revealed the families sometimes restrict to facilitate a successful passage into adulthood and establishing autonomy. Parents are often unaware their adult children, if not allowed the transition into adulthood, remain condemned to live their live in institutions or experience loneliness among able – bodied.

Occupational Therapy Workshop in the experiences of adults with moderate and severe intellectual disability

The article is devoted to the support for adults with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities in their own perspective. The presented text aims to illustrate the revealed and interpreted meanings participants ascribe to the occupational therapy workshop as the very important place to receive support.

A person with intellectual disability on the passage to adulthood

There are major expectations associated with the period of adulthood, determined by biological, legal, social and cultural factors, necessary to become successful, which is not an easy task. Hence the transition into adulthood requires many developmental changes and challenges, particularly important for setting the stage for continued development through the life span. Adolescence and adulthood of people with intellectual disabilities appears a big challenge for parents and teachers, especially if perceived through expectations towards them. People with profound intellectual disability remain in a very specific circumstances, since their needs and developmental changes associated with becoming adolescent or adult are not noticed.

Justifying the need of sexual education of people with intellectual disability – reflection in the context of the own research

This article is devoted to sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities in the educational context. The author points out the need of sexual education developed not only for the intellectually disabled ones, but also for parents/carers and the social environment. It outlines the concepts of “justifying” the sexuality of persons with intellectual disabilities as well attempts to show the legitimacy of sexual education. In the paper the author discusses findings of her research on the experiences of sexuality by persons with severe and profound intellectual disability.

Being a therapist of adults with intellectual disabilities. Considerations on adulthood with intellectual disabilities and its support

The idea of the text is to show and analyze the meanings therapists apply to supporting adulthood of persons with intellectual disability and the role they play in this support. Therapists are all specialist who construct support in adulthood and carry it out during workshops of occupational therapy or at community self-help homes. In the author opinion these are therapists who create the shape of the placements, the culture of the organization and its specific “adulthood supporting” climate. Therapists and their styles of functioning, individual philosophy of rehabilitation and the way they understand ( adulthood of people with) intellectual disability and realize their professional roles and tasks – are the most significant factors modelling the process of rehabilitation. The text is hence an inquiry aiming to answer the following questions: how the therapists define adulthood, exposing adulthood of persons with intellectual disability? What are the meanings they apply to professional roles realized in practice? How do they understand the process of supporting adulthood?

Creativity of people with intellectual disability – an attempt of theoretical and empirical synthesis

The article is devoted to the issue of diagnosing creativity in individuals with intellectual disability in reference to the assumptions of a social model of disability. The paper discusses the issues of terminology and conceptual framework of intellectual disabilities as well as points out some disadvantages of existing analyses and available data of creativity of people with intellectual disabilities. The results of the analyses have provided some suggestions for further research on the presented issue.

Chances to dynamise creative adaptation of young people with light level of intellectual disability

The article describes the possibilities of dynamising the creative adaptation of young people with light intellectual disabilities, which is operationalised by questions: How do I deal with difficult situations? How do I express my needs and defend my rights? How does my future look like? The text is based on a pedagogical experiment, carried out according to the Solomon four-group design and involving two experimental groups and two control groups (n = 60). The results of psychoeducational activities that develop participants’ knowledge about themselves and others include: a significant increase in task-oriented strategies of coping in difficult situations and creation of richer visions of their own future.

The theatre as a workplace for adults with Down syndrome – the emancipatory potential of the vocational activation project “Przystanek Szekspir” (“The Shakespeare Station”)

States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others” (Article 27 of the CRPD). Improving emancipation of persons with disabilities combined with recognizing and promoting of their rights to human living constitutes a basis to reconstruct the social policy model. The concept of emancipatory policy, life policy and policy of choice that have emerged, enables persons with disabilities gain more autonomy and eventually to pursue one’s life projects (Giddens, 2010). One of the postulates of emancipatory policy is to guarantee access to the labor market, employment or work as well as to eliminate or reduce any disparities. In Poland, despite active labor policies and encouragement for employers, nearly 60% of adults with disabilities are unemployed, even though only a small percentage of them are people with intellectual disabilities. The aim of the paper is to present the preliminary findings of qualitative research related to the innovative project of vocational activation of persons with Down   Syndrome, run by Foundation “Ja Te¿” in collaboration with the University of Gdańsk. The “Przystanek Szekspir” project has been launched to aim at overcoming outdated stereotypes of persons with Down syndrome and to supporting individual autonomy and freedom to make their own choices.Within the project, young adults have been trained and then have found employment employed in the Audience Services in the GdańskShakespeare Theatre. Apart from presenting the assumptions, aims and project’s execution, the authors discuss the findings of the research, the objective of which was to answer the following questions: What experiences and individual/personal meanings ascribed to work/ working emerge from narratives of persons with Down syndrome? How do the audience and workers perceive the work of persons with Down syndrome in the theatre?

Intellectual disabilities and mental disorders

The presented paper is a theoretical review aiming to understand the interface between the intellectual disability and mental disorders. The conducted review clarifies etiology and epidemiology of mental disorders, describes their symptoms and clinical characteristics (behavioral disorders, personality disorders, emotional disorders, eating disorders, psychotic disorders) as well as treatment options.

Selected determinants of health related behaviors  of people with mild intellectual disability

The article presents the findings of a study aimed at, among others, determining the level of health related behaviors of people with mild intellectual disability in the following areas: proper eating habits, preventive health behaviors, positive attitude, health habits. The study was focused on describing the interdependence between health related behaviors and cognitive-affective factors such as: the feeling of coherence, personal competence, self-perception and perception others. Canonical analysis was applied, which allowed to determine the level of interdependence of a pair of canonical variables, health related behaviors and cognitive-affective factors. On the basis of the analysis two configurations of interdependence between the analyzed sets of canonical variables were identified, and therefore two interpretative variants of the obtained relations can be taken into consideration. The study comprised 81 students (33 women and 48 men) with mild intellectual disabilities, attending special vocational schools in three cities in the  Podkarpackie Voivodeship: Jarso³aw, Le¿ajsk, Ropczyce. Four research tools were used: Index of Health Behaviors (Inwentarz Zachowañ Zdrowotnych (IZZ)) by Z. Juczyñski, Questionnare for determining the feeling of coherence (Kwestionariusz do pomiaru poczucia koherencji) SOC-13M adapted by M. Zwoliñski, I. Jelonkiewicz and K. Kosiñska-Dec, Personal Competence Scale (Skala Kompetencji Osobistej (KompOs)) by Z. Juczyñski and Scale of Self-perception and Perception of Others (Skala Spostrzegania Siebie i Innych Ludzi) by J. Kochañski and J. Kirenko (SSSiIL).

Numicon Method in education ofchildren with and without special educational needs. Research report

The introduction to the text is a theoretical basis of the Numicon method. The key content of the text is a presentation of British and Polish research on evaluating the Numicon system. The British quantitative research has shown the results of children’s number skills in mathematics and the observations of teachers using the Numicon as a tool. The Polish study, employing the narrative interview as a research method, explored the experience of three Polish teachers who use Numicon in teaching practice. The findings of a research pointed out two areas: the advantages and disadvantages of the Numicon method.