Explain intellectual disability diagnosis and assessment plan to parents — CASC communication station

Station brief

Format. Communication station, approximately 7–10 minutes active time after reading. You are the psychiatry registrar in the developmental clinic. [1]

Candidate instructions. Explain the intellectual disability diagnosis, how severity is decided, what cause-finding tests are for, whether medicines raise IQ, and what supports are available. Check understanding and offer follow-up. The examiner plays both parents. [1]

Candidate scenario

Your patient, age 9, has developmental-onset difficulties with learning and daily skills. Psychology reports intellectual functioning well below age expectations and adaptive deficits at home and school. Parents ask: "Is she just lazy? Does a number on an IQ test label her for life? Can gene tests blame us? Is there a smart drug? Will she ever live independently?" [1][3]

Marking domains

• Empathy, structure, agenda-setting; reject blame and "laziness" framing
• Accurate plain-language triad: thinking/learning difficulties and everyday skill difficulties and started in development
• Severity described by support needs/adaptive skills, not IQ number alone
• Cause workup: looking for genetic and other medical explanations that may guide care; microarray/fragile X as examples of first-line genetic tests without over-promising a single answer
• Clear statement that no medicine treats core intellectual disability
• Education, therapies, disability supports, family support; transition thinking
• Health surveillance message (people with ID need active physical health care)
• Checks understanding; written information; follow-up [1][2][3][4]