Knowledge, intellectual disabilities,and bilingualism

Abstract

Aims: The scientific study deals with the problem of bilingualism in the population of the children with mild intellectual disabilities on educational treatment. The study is based upon Lajos Genc and Tove Skutnab Kangas theory of bilingualism. We try to assess the differences between reading and writing in different categories of bilingual children with intellectual disabilities, such general school achievement in monolingual and bilingual children. Methodology: The research included the 124 children with mild intellectual disabilities, who are attending primary schools in Belgrade, Serbia. The research was done by trained experts in special education and psychologists who used clinical, development scales of writing and reading of the neuropsychological battery Luria-Nebrasca for children. Results: The results of the research point up to the conclusion about the existence of significant relationship between balanced bilingualism and reading and also the relationship between dominant bilingualism and writing in the population of children with intellectual disabilities. Conclusions: The study points up to the significance of application of rehabilitation procedures upon the standard school treatment of this population of children.