Research On Language Ability Of Students At Schools For The Intellectual Disability

The purpose of this research is to identify the language ability of students in schools with intellectual disabilities through deeply investigation, so as to make some suggestions to the construction of speech and communication curriculum.In this study,186students ranged from grades1-9in10schools with intellectual disabilities participated in the assessment of language and communication abilities for children with special needs. The research mainly investigates students’ ability on characteristic of language and on its difference depends on grade, type and degree of disorder. The findings are as follows:1. the overall characteristics of language abilities of students in schools with intellectual disabilities:the language abilities of students in schools with intellectual disabilities at a low level as it only get a50%rate for the whole assessment; the language abilities at a different level among different language domains;the language understanding is superior to language expression.2. There is significant gap among students of different grades in language abilities. There is no significant gap between the low and secondary grade. The high grade is considerable superior to the low and secondary grade. In detail, there is no significant difference in the abilities of physiology function of hearing and speaking, speech sound, communication attitude and habit and non-verbal interaction among different grades. However, there is extremely significant gap in the abilities of lexicon, syntax, pragmatics and conversion of students from grade1.3. There was significant difference in language abilities among students with intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and autism. The language abilities of students with intellectual disabilities are the best, followed by the cerebral palsy; the worst are the students with autism.4. There was considerable variability in language abilities among students with different IQ. The students with higher IQ had higher level of social ability. Based on these findings, the author put forwards some recommendations in the construction of speech and communication intervention curriculum and the teachers’ training.