


































Frontiers of Contemporary Education 
ISSN 2690-3520 (Print) ISSN 2690-3539 (Online) 

Vol. 4, No. 1, 2023 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce 

11 
 

Case Study 

A Case Study in a Student with Mental Retardation: Findings and 

Proposed Intervention 

Anna Boukorou
1
 

1
 Principal at the Special High School of Lemnos, Greece 

 

Received: February 25, 2023      Accepted: March 6, 2023     Online Published: March 27, 2023 

doi:10.22158/fce.v4n1p11                URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/fce.v4n1p11 

 

Abstract 

Mental retardation is a complex pathological condition of the individual, which hinders his/her overall 

individual and social development. In this context, the role of the school is considered particularly 

important, as overcoming the individual difficulties faced by a student with mental retardation requires 

the assessment of his/her educational needs and the preparation of an individualized education program 

that will respond to his/her particularities. The case study of a student with mild mental retardation 

through participatory observation contributed to the evaluation of the difficulties she faces and to the 

preparation of her individualized education program. 

Keywords 

mental retardation, case study, participatory observation, intervention 

 

1. Introduction 

Mental retardation is a complex pathological condition of an individual, characterized by deficiencies or 

significant limitations in his mental functionality, which are a brake on his subsequent individual and 

social development. In particular, as typically stated: “Mental Retardation is not something you have, 

like blue eyes or a weak heart. Nor is it something you are, like short or thin. It is not a medical disorder…. 

Not even a mental illness. Mental retardation refers to a particular state of functioning” (Luckasson et al., 

1992, p. 9). 

Mental Retardation based on the latest, improved definition by the American Society on Mental and 

Developmental Disabilities “is a difficulty characterized by significant limitations in mental 

functioning and adaptive behavior as expressed in perceptual, social and practical skills...” (Luckasson 

et al., 1992, p. 8). Since this includes a wide range of different levels of individual abilities and 

perceived difficulties, four levels of mental retardation were created to facilitate research (APA, 2000): 

mild mental retardation, moderate, severe and profound. 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce           Frontiers of Contemporary Education             Vol. 4, No. 1, 2023 

12 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

The research in this field utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data, for the recruitment of which 

there is an abundance of used scientific methods. Participatory observation is among the qualitative 

methods of psychopedagogical research, the method that “used in conjunction with other data 

collection methods, e.g., in-depth interviews and historical data, while the complementary use of the 

standardized interview and the standardized questionnaire is not excluded, when descriptive 

quantitative data is needed” (Kyriazi, 2002, p. 245). 

 

2. Description of the Procedure and General Presentation of the Student  

Participatory observation method was used to carry out this work. The process lasted one week and was 

conducted in a Special Education School of secondary education in the Greek territory. The person 

conducting the specific research, serves as the director on duty at the specific school, where students 

with special educational needs attend, and for the specific research she interacted for three teaching 

hours on a daily basis-within the framework of the school’s operation-with the selected student. 

Helen (fake name) is a 16-year-old student of the 3rd grade of the Special High School. Based on her 

opinion from the Mental Health Center, she was diagnosed with mild mental retardation. Her physical 

development is normal and she does not face sensorimotor problems. The interaction with the student 

involved activities in several areas: the student was given a text, which she was asked to read, followed 

by vocabulary, spelling, text comprehension, language expression exercises. Also, an experiential game 

was carried out, in the context of which the student was assigned to assume the role of a store cashier 

with the instruction to give change from her cash register according to the products purchased by her 

teacher conducting the research. Furthermore, she was asked to solve numerical problems with 

two-digit numbers, while she was given cards of the seasons, where she herself had to dress her doll 

accordingly (e.g., in winter she should wear a jacket, boots, etc.), of the time, where she had to match 

actions (e.g., in the morning I go to school) as well as picture cards from her place, her country and 

Europe, which she had to identify. Finally, her behavior in the field of social skills was recorded 

through the group games organized in the courtyard (treasure game, volleyball). 

 

3. Recording of the Observations 

Based on the observations, which were recorded in a diary every day after the end of the activities, the 

particular student was found to: 

In terms of her language skills, she herself is governed by relatively good listening comprehension and 

discrimination but has quite a bit of difficulty in understanding the text when she reads it herself. Her 

range of knowledge and vocabulary are particularly limited (she didn’t know what “excited” means) 

and has particular difficulty in understanding abstract concepts of a general content (she didn’t 

understand the meaning of “homeland”, “freedom”). She is capable of classifying into groups, 

categorizing, lining up cards in logical sequences and understand the concept of cause and effect. 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce           Frontiers of Contemporary Education             Vol. 4, No. 1, 2023 

13 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

Her reading ability is satisfactory but the substitution of similar words was often observed (instead of 

“ran” she read “run”, instead of “wrote” she read “write”, etc.). She does not recognize punctuation, so 

her speech when reading becomes difficult to understand. Her spoken word is often slurred, she is very 

rushed to answer and often gets off topic. She does not like to dramatize roles in a story, because she 

finds it difficult, as she stated. 

In numerical calculations, she faces particular difficulties, as she has great difficulty in all operations, 

especially in those of division and multiplication. The subdivisions of the euro make it particularly 

difficult for her and most of the time she did not give the change correctly. Also, it appeared that she 

does not understand the concept of season and time as she dressed her doll in winter with short pants, 

while she did not recognize either the photo of the map of Greece, or the photo of her island. 

Finally, in terms of social skills, she understands and decodes communication messages correctly and is 

generally cooperative. She likes to be a leader, since she demands that her classmates to do things by 

giving them orders, but when she is not pleased, she is stubborn and stops listening to any order, she 

refuses to enter the classroom, she turns her back and has no eye contact. She has frequent outbursts of 

anger and alienation from her classmates and teachers, often for no apparent reason, and -sometimes- 

she appears to confuse reality with fantasy: As she stated, the previous day a famous greek singer, N.V., 

took her by his car and gave her a ride. In fact, it was observed that during her anger and experiencing 

negative emotions she renounces reality, her identity and her role as a student at school (“I am Lisa 

Karakazou! I am not Helen! I am not your student!”), while she often talks about herself disparagingly, 

even abusively (“I’m dumb!”). 

The above findings are consistent with the corresponding literature reports, as the difficulty of people 

with mental retardation in acquiring new knowledge is justified due to the observed deficits in 

short-term memory, the disadvantageous development of procedural skills of attention-perception 

(Pennington & Luszcz, 1975) and the difficulty in choosing the appropriate mnemonic technique 

(Westling, 1986). Their perception is blunt, the capacity for generalizations is limited and their 

attention is constantly distracted (Stavrou, 2002). Their limited ability to think logically prevents 

people with mental retardation from grasping the concepts of morality and justice, while the disorder 

extends to emotion, as cortical control is at a low level, an element that justifies unexpected outbursts 

of anger, which are immediately replaced by unwarranted enthusiasm (Kypriotakis, 1989). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce           Frontiers of Contemporary Education             Vol. 4, No. 1, 2023 

14 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

4. Proposed Intervention 

Helen’s particular deficits require individualized, targeted teaching in specific areas, which should be 

built on her positive elements, her virtues, her gifts. After all, every human being has limitations and 

possibilities and no one is completely deficient, but only partially (Wolfensberger, 1988, p. 63). 

Emphasizing, therefore, her potential and developed skills and covering up to a certain extent her 

weaknesses, teachers should contribute to improving the functionality of the student and mitigating the 

observed weaknesses. 

In particular, it is required that she practices at the reading level in combination with muscle relaxation 

exercises, in order to eliminate the anxiety that governs her and to be more focused and calm when 

reading. Activities to strengthen her vocabulary, learning mnemonic techniques and frequent 

repetitions are needed to consolidate the newly acquired knowledge. Also, motivation for further 

learning is required, as the range of her knowledge is particularly limited. The student must be 

facilitated to undertake extracurricular activities, which will contribute to her responsibility, the 

development of her communication skills and the strengthening of her self-esteem.  

Wehmeyer (2001, p. 5) often cites Deci’s (1975) theory of cognitive appraisal thus emphasizing the 

importance of self-definition and affirmation of one’s worth through the management of challenges, 

which trigger and control a variety of behaviors. In other words, the individual’s involvement in 

activities from which it derives satisfaction contribute to his self-definition, self-esteem and the 

reduction of learned helplessness (Wehmeyer, 2001, p. 27), which leads them to leave decisions 

concerning their lives to third parties. On the contrary, the absence of such activities reduce the 

opportunities for socialization, which could mobilize creativity, imagination and overall promote the 

individual (Bitzarakis, 2008). 

In addition, practice in numerical calculations is required through role-playing and dramatization, 

which will contribute to make her responsible, while the presentation of audio-visual material and an 

experiential game would be helpful for her understanding the seasons, time, geography. 

Finally, at the level of her interpersonal relationships, it is necessary to cultivate reciprocity, which is a 

prerequisite for establishing friendly relationships but it’s not self-evident as a concept in mental 

retardation (Lunsky, 2006, p. 132), which will help her “how to contribute herself to a relationship, to 

respect the existence of others, to listen to them” (Lunsky, 2006, p. 146). Emotion’s management 

exercises must be applied and a special effort must be made by her teachers in order to eliminate her 

low self-image through constant rewarding and motivation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce           Frontiers of Contemporary Education             Vol. 4, No. 1, 2023 

15 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

5. Conclusions 

In conclusion, the emphasis, not only in the case of Helen but also of all people with mental retardation, 

it must be given to the way they interact with their environment, to their needs and not to their 

inadequacies (Tzouriadou, 2008, p. 10) as an “expression of limitations on individual functioning 

within a particular social environment” (Schalock, 2004, p. 213). 

 

References 

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th 

ed.). Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 

Bitzarakis, P. (2008). An effort for coexistence: Integration into the family, the neighborhood, the city, of 

the students of the 4th special education school of Thessaloniki. In Society and mental 

health—Scientific Periodical Report on health and social exclusion issues (Issue 7, Thematic Unit: 

Disability, Special Education and Education, pp. 69-95). 

Kypriotakis, A. (1989). Special children and their education. Heraklion: Psychotechnics 

Kyriazi, N. (2002). Sociological Research. Athens: Greek Letters. 

Luckasson, R. et al. (1992). Mental retardation: Definition, classification, and systems of support. 

Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation. 

Lunsky, Y. (2006). Individual differences in interpersonal relationships for persons with mental 

retardation, στο Switzky, H. (Ed.). International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, 31, 

117-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0074-7750(05)31004-4 

Pennington, F. M., & Luszcz, M. A. (1975). Some functional properties of iconic storage in retarded 

and nonretarded subjects. Memory & Cognition, 3(3), 295-301. 

https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212914 

Schalock, R. L. (2004). The concept of quality of life: What we know and do not know. Journal of 

Intellectual Disability Research, 48(3), 203-216. 

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2003.00558.x 

Tzouriadou, M. (2008). Mental Retardation, in the educational material of the EPEAEK II project: 

Invention-Specialization of Teachers-SEN and production of educational material for mild mental 

retardation (pp. 1-25). 

Wehmeyer, L. M. (2001). Self-Determination and Mental Retardation, στο Glidden, L. M. (Ed.). 

International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, 24, 1-48. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0074-7750(01)80004-5 

Westling, D. L. (1986). Introduction to Mental Retardation. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.  

Wolfensberger, W. (1988). Common assets of metally retarded people that are commonly not 

acknowledged. Mental Retardation (edited by American Association on Mental Retardation), 

26(2), 63-70. 

 

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0074-7750(05)31004-4
https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212914
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2003.00558.x
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0074-7750(01)80004-5

