What causes intellectual disability?

Intellectual disability can result from metabolic, infectious, chromosomal, environmental, nutritional, toxic (prenatal alcohol or drug exposure), or other causes, and may originate prenatally, during birth, or from serious childhood illness.

What are the symptoms of intellectual disability?

Intellectual disability impairs intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, causing deficits in communication, self‑care, social skills, basic academics, and daily living; impairment is identified when at least two areas fall below age‑expected levels.

How does cognitive stimulation help people with intellectual disability?

Cognitive stimulation enhances existing abilities, develops weaker skills, and teaches compensatory strategies to maximize functional independence and promote greater autonomy in daily life.

What activities are recommended for children with intellectual disability?

Recommended activities include visual discrimination (Find the Different Picture), instruction‑following games (Find Toby), coloring tasks, memory matching (Animal Pairs), and sequencing exercises (Step by Step) for cognitive stimulation.

How can activities be adapted for children with intellectual disability?

Activities can be customized by difficulty levels, matrix size, exposure time, number of steps, element similarity, timers, and format (digital or paper) to match each child's abilities and goals.

Who can use the NeuronUP cognitive stimulation program for intellectual disability?

NeuronUP's program is designed for neuropsychologists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists to adapt activities to individual needs and support generalization across daily contexts.

Activities for children with intellectual disabilities

Intellectual disability (ID) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, which manifest during the developmental period. In this article we will explain the causes and symptoms of intellectual disability and propose activities for children with intellectual disability carried out by NeuronUP under the principle of generalization.

Causes of intellectual disability

ID can be due to multiple causes:

Metabolic,
Infectious,
Chromosomal,
Environmental,
Nutritional,
Toxic: intrauterine exposure to alcohol, cocaine or other drugs,
And other various causes.

Additionally, it can originate at different times:

Before the baby is born,
during birth,
due to a serious illness in childhood.

Symptoms of intellectual disability

The social and practical skills are affected, that is, the daily living skills needed to live, work and play in the community: communication, social and interpersonal skills, self-care, domestic life, self-control, basic academic skills (reading, writing and basic mathematics), work, leisure, health and safety.

An impairment in adaptive capacities is considered to exist if there is a deficit in at least two of these areas compared with children of the same age and culture.

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Cognitive stimulation in people with intellectual disability

Cognitive stimulation is recommended for all people with intellectual disability in order to enhance their existing abilities, attempt to develop to the fullest those they lack and provide strategies to compensate for those they cannot develop. In this way, the aim is for them to have a life that is as functional and autonomous as possible.

NeuronUP’s cognitive stimulation program allows neuropsychologists, occupational therapists and speech therapists to adapt each activity to the particularities and needs of children with intellectual disability.

The examples of activities for children with intellectual disability described here have been developed by NeuronUP under the principles of generalization.

Activities for children with intellectual disability

1. Find the Different Picture

What does it involve?

Children have to Mark the different image from a series.

NeuronUP Activities - Find the Different Picture — NeuronUP activity *Find the Different Picture*

What does this activity work on?

Processing speed.
Selective attention.

Play by levels

In the easiest levels the difference will be more evident, while in the more advanced levels it will be more difficult to see the difference at first glance.

Format

In addition, this worksheet is available both in digital and in paper.

2. Find Toby

What does it involve?

This game for children with intellectual disability consists in following the instructions as quickly as possible until finding the object.

NeuronUP Activities - Find Toby — NeuronUP activity *Find Toby*

What does this activity train?

This cognitive stimulation exercise targets the following cognitive functions:

Processing speed,
sustained attention,
working memory,
planning.

Play by levels

In the easiest levels the user will have fewer instructions to find Toby and the grid will be smaller, while in the more difficult levels the instructions will multiply and the grid will be larger.

Activity customization

In addition, you will be able to customize the activity to suit each child’s abilities.

Parameters

You can select the matrix size, the stimulus exposure time, the start (fixed or random) and the maximum errors.

General aspects

You can adjust general aspects such as the number of exercises, the maximum time, whether or not you want a visible timer for the activity, modify the instructions, etc.

3. Painting and coloring

How is it played?

The child has to color the drawing following the model.

NeuronUP Activities - Painting and coloring — NeuronUP activity *Painting and coloring*

What does this activity work on?

Visual gnosias,
selective attention.

Play by levels

In the easiest levels the child will have to color fewer areas and will have fewer colors to choose from, while in the more advanced levels there will be more parts to paint and more colors to choose from.

Format

In addition, this worksheet is available both in digital and in paper.

It consists of finding the pairs among a set of cards placed face down.

4. Animal Pairs

What does it involve?

This activity consists of finding the Animal Pairs among a set of cards placed face down.

Activities for children with intellectual disability — NeuronUP Activity: Animal Pairs

What does this activity work on?

Episodic memory.
Selective attention.
Working memory.

Play by levels

In the easiest levels the user will have fewer cards and the animals will be more different, while in the more difficult levels there will be more cards and the animals will be more similar

Activity customization

In addition, you will be able to customize the activity to suit each child’s abilities.

Parameters

You can select the number of cards, the memorization time, the similarity between elements, the movement of elements and the numbering on the back.

General aspects

You can adjust the number of exercises, the maximum time, whether or not you want a visible timer for the activity, inactivity alert, modify the execution instructions, etc.

5. Step by Step (Picture-Only)

What does it involve?

This worksheet for children with intellectual disability consists of ordering the different steps necessary to carry out an activity. In this case the steps must be ordered so that Marta washes her hands.

NeuronUP Activities - Step by Step - Paper — NeuronUP activity *Step by Step*

What does this activity work on?

Planning.
Reasoning.

Play by levels

There are five difficulty levels. In the easiest levels the child will have to order fewer steps, while in the more complicated levels there will be many more steps to order.