Synonyms
Developmental delay; Developmental disability; Intellectual developmental disorder; Mental retardation
Definition
Intellectual disability continues to evolve in both classification and conceptualization to better describe the affected individuals. Initially the terms feebleminded, moron, imbecile, and idiot were technical terms used by medical professionals and noted by the founding of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feebleminded Persons in 1876. He etymology of “feebleminded” is derived from the Latin flebilis meaning “to be lamented” and identified someone who required care and intervention not necessarily cognitive disability. Not until 1961 was the term mental retardation officially adopted as a medical term and “referred to significantly sub average general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifest during the developmental period” (Grossman 1983). In 2013 the Diagnostic and...
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Koth, K.A., Farris, J.R., Nicholson, J.S., Borkowski, J.G. (2018). Intellectual Disability. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1566
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