An exploration into the support services for students with a mild intellectual disability

Abstract

Quality support services play a significant role in the overall development of students with an intellectual disability. This qualitative study sought to examine to what extent the support services provided in South Australian schools for students with an intellectual disability influenced these students’ problem-solving skills, family, social and academic lives. Interviews were conducted with students with an intellectual disability, their parents and their teachers. These data reflected a range of viewpoints from which to examine the problem under investigation. Students with an intellectual disability and their parents found that the support services had no real influence on students’ abilities to solve problems, or on their social and family lives. Teachers, on the contrary, considered that students’ problem-solving skills had been helped by the support given, their social lives to a more limited extent and their family lives were not influenced by the support. According to students with an intellectual disability and their teachers, the support influenced the academic lives of students positively; however, parents considered a limited influence of the support on this aspect as well. The interviews were particularly useful in evaluating the support services that students with an intellectual disability received.