Mild Intellectual Disabilities: Legacies and Trends in Concepts and Educational Practices

Intellectual disability has been considered a high incidence disability in special education since the inception of the field in the United States. The purpose of this article is to evaluate current educational programs and practices for students who historically and commonly have been referred to as having mild mental retardation. The article examines mild intellectual disabilities within the context of historical trends, current developments, and future directions in terminology, definition, prevalence, educational environments, and transitional services. Recommendations for educational practices and future research directions are discussed. The field of mild intellectual disabilities (ID) has provided a foundation for the broader field of special education. A significant amount of the initial research and program development done in the field was concerned with individuals who were labeled at the upper end of the mental retardation or intellectual disabilities spectrum. Further, many of the leaders who shaped the field of special education initiated their work in this area (Polloway, 2000). Forty-two years ago, Dunn (1968) published his seminal work challenging educational practices for this population. He focused his attention on the practices that had enabled a segregated service delivery system to develop in which students with intellectual disabilities were educated in isolation from their peers in general education. In addition to drawing attention to practices related to individuals termed at that time educable mentally retarded, his article also served as the touching off point for subsequent discussions of mainstreaming, the least restrictive environment, and ultimately school inclusion. Fifteen years after the publication of the Dunn (1968) article, Polloway and Smith (1983) further assessed the state of the field by addressing considerations related to population, programs, and perspectives. In their article, these authors relied on federal data that provided a national perspective on the prevalence of intellectual disabilities within public schools, and served as a basis for an examination of placement and educational programs. Since Polloway and Smith (1983) presented their analysis of the field, significant changes have occurred. This period of time has seen the implementation of numerous educational initiatives impacting students with disabilities in general, such as those related to: the development of inclusive classroom settings; the creation of a multi-tiered intervention model for reconsidering education for all students; the emphasis on providing access to the general education curriculum; and the tenets of No Child Left Behind and successive reauthorizations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Nevertheless, in spite of these advances and initiatives impacting special education in general, Tymchuk, Lakin, and Luckasson’s (2001) use of the term “the forgotten generation” continues to have merit for considering in particular the population of individuals who have mild intellec-