Habilidades sociales y rendimiento académico en un adolescente con discapacidad intelectual

Abstract

Intellectual disability is a problem that day after day is increasing in various contexts, so that its greatest incidence is found within educational institutions, becoming a problem with great impact. Within this context, the emergence of several cases of adolescents suffering from this type of disability has been evidenced, becoming one of the main factors in causing the absence of social skills and low academic performance in students, likewise, it is the cause of limitations in intellectual functioning and considerably affects the evolutionary development of the students, so that they trigger problems in the acquisition of knowledge and hinders the interaction with their peers and / or educators. The study poses the following problem: ¿What is the relationship between social skills and academic performance in an adolescent with intellectual disabilities? The general objective of the study is to analyze the relationship between social skills and academic performance in an adolescent with intellectual disabilities; consequently, the specific objective is to describe social skills in an adolescent with intellectual disabilities and to evaluate academic performance in an adolescent with intellectual disabilities. For the methodology of this research work, we have taken as the object of study a 13-year-old adolescent with intellectual disability, the instruments used were the Raven's progressive matrix test and the observation guide, these instruments allowed us to observe the characteristics of the adolescent and the intellectual level he/she has, likewise, the structured interview and the observation guide directed to the mother were used, which allowed us to collect relevant information on academic performance and social skills. Regarding the results obtained, it was found that the adolescent with intellectual disabilities has a moderate intellectual range, allowing us to verify the presence of a low capacity for abstract and logical reasoning, which significantly affects the adolescent's academic performance. As for social skills, there are problems in the way of communicating, organizing, and relating to other people, making it difficult to perform on stage, integrating with other people and even negatively influencing the adolescent's teaching and learning process. This study leads to the conclusion that there is a relationship between social skills and the academic performance of an adolescent with intellectual disabilities, since not being able to create a social bond with peers and/or educators would hinder the teaching-learning process, resulting in poor academic performance. Therefore, by not having a proper development of social skills and, along with this, the lack of responsibility in the performance of the various academic tasks set by the teacher, a significant deterioration in the adolescent's learning will occur, leading to limitations in memory, attention, comprehension, and executive functions. Similarly, he/she will present problems in communication and interaction with the members of the different contexts in which he/she develops.