Intellectual Disability
Most evidence-based interventions in this field fall under one principle: systematic instruction. Teach in planned steps, with predictable support, and decide from data — not from impressions.
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- available resources
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- Pedagogical Strategies
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Systematic instruction
Teach in defined steps, with planned support and a clear criterion for moving on. It is the umbrella covering most evidence-based interventions in this field.
- Define beforehand what counts as 'learned': how many times, under what conditions
- Plan the support and its removal from the start, do not improvise
- Teach it the same way until it is consolidated — varying early confuses
- Record every trial; the decision to move on comes from the record, not from a hunch
Explicit instruction
State what will be taught, demonstrate it, practise together and only then ask them to do it alone. Nothing is left implicit for the student to discover.
- State the objective in one sentence at the start: 'today we will learn to...'
- Demonstrate while thinking aloud
- Practise together before letting go — guided practice is the most skipped stage
- Check understanding from everyone, not only from those who raise a hand
Time-delay prompting
Give the answer alongside the question at first, then gradually increase the delay before helping, until the student answers alone.
- On the first trials, ask and answer immediately together
- Then wait 2 seconds before helping, then 4, then 6
- If they get it wrong twice in a row, go back to the previous delay
- Never let a trial end in error without the correct answer appearing
Task analysis and chaining
Break the skill into steps and teach one at a time, chaining forwards from the first or backwards from the last.
- Backward chaining tends to motivate more: the student always finishes the task
- Do the task yourself to discover the real steps
- One step at a time; do not advance out of calendar pressure
- Keep the step list visible as a permanent support
Reading with all five components
Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension — all five, more explicitly and intensively. Reducing reading to functional sight words limits how far the student can go.
- Do not replace decoding instruction with a memorised word list
- More time and more repetition, not less content
- Work on comprehension from the start, even with very short texts
- Vocabulary is taught explicitly, not only through exposure
Manipulatives and graphic organisers
In mathematics, make the operation concrete and visible before requiring the symbol — the literature supports combining explicit instruction, systematic prompting and visual support.
- Concrete first, then drawn representation, only then the symbol
- Use the same graphic organiser all year, not a different one per topic
- Keep the manipulative available during assessment too
- Say out loud what the manipulation represents
Data-based decision making
Collect one simple measure regularly and change the intervention when the data — not the impression — shows it is not working.
- Choose a measure that takes under a minute to record
- Measure at the same moment and in the same way every time
- Decide in advance how many weeks without progress trigger a change
- Change one thing at a time, otherwise you cannot tell what worked
Participation in the general curriculum
Adapt how the student accesses and demonstrates the class content, instead of replacing it with a parallel activity unrelated to the lesson.
- Same lesson, same topic: what changes is the level of complexity and the response format
- An isolated parallel activity distances the student from both class and content
- Offer more than one way to demonstrate learning
- Plan the adaptation together with the lesson, not after it already exists
Backward chaining of a routine
Teaches a full routine starting from the last step, so the student always finishes the task and feels the completion.
Materials
Objectives
Implementation
You do every step but the last; the student does the last one. As each is consolidated, they take on one more step, moving backwards.
Time delay for vocabulary
Teaches new words by giving the answer alongside at first and widening the delay until the student answers alone.
Materials
Objectives
Implementation
Start with zero delay and move to 2, 4 and 6 seconds as accuracy stabilises.
From concrete to symbol in maths
A three-stage sequence for one operation: manipulate, draw, and only then write with numbers.
Materials
Objectives
Implementation
Do the same operation in all three representations, in the same lesson, naming the correspondence between them.
Weekly measure of one skill
A minimal, constant record that reveals whether the intervention is working — before the term ends.
Materials
Objectives
Implementation
Choose one objective measure, collect it on the same weekday and plot it on the chart with the student.
Intellectual Disability
Unova Cursos
Foundations of Inclusive Education
Instituto Rodrigo Mendes
Data-based intensive intervention
National Center on Intensive Intervention
AVAMEC — the Ministry of Education training platform
Ministério da Educação
15 distance courses in special education
Ministério da Educação
Escola Virtual.Gov
Enap / Governo Federal
Escola Virtual — Fundação Bradesco
Fundação Bradesco
Evidence-based practices for severe disabilities
A CEEDAR document mapping which practices have research support and how to implement them.
Published by: CEEDAR Center — University of Florida · EN · PDF
Open materialInstructional practices for significant disabilities
A TIES Center report on what research shows for students with the most significant disabilities.
Published by: TIES Center / ICI — University of Minnesota · EN · PDF
Open materialPlanning literacy instruction
Why reducing reading to functional sight words limits the student, and what to do instead.
Published by: National Center on Improving Literacy · EN · Site
Open materialProgress Center — instructional practices
An organised collection of evidence-based instructional practices, with support materials for teachers.
Published by: Progress Center — American Institutes for Research · EN · Site
Open materialNational Center on Intensive Intervention
Data collection and analysis tools for individualising interventions that are not working.
Published by: NCII — American Institutes for Research · EN · Site
Open materialUniversal Design for Learning Guidelines
How to plan the lesson so the student takes part in the general curriculum from the start.
Published by: CAST · EN · Site
Open materialThe Inclusive Mainstream School
MEC/SEESP booklet on organising the mainstream school from an inclusion perspective.
Published by: MEC / SEESP · PT · PDF
Open materialDIVERSA — inclusive education in practice
Practice reports and materials in Portuguese, from Instituto Rodrigo Mendes.
Published by: Instituto Rodrigo Mendes · PT · Site
Open materialSpecial Education from an Inclusion Perspective
Foundations of inclusive special education, an official Ministry of Education publication.
Published by: MEC / SEESP · PT · PDF
Open materialBrazilian Ministry of Education portal
Legislation, policies and official publications on special education from an inclusive perspective.
Published by: Ministério da Educação · PT · Site
Open material