Indonesian Journal of Cultural and Community Development
Vol 2 (2019): March
Reviews

Let’s Talk about Sex: Teaching Adolescents with Intellectual Disability about Sexuality Education


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  • Anis Raihan Dzeidee Schaff*,
  • Fitri Suraya Mohamad
Anis Raihan Dzeidee Schaff
Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Indonesia *
Fitri Suraya Mohamad
Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Indonesia

(*) Corresponding Author
Picture in here are illustration from public domain image or provided by the author, as part of their works
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21070/ijccd.v2i0.51
Published March 25, 2019
Keywords
  • intellectual disability,
  • sexuallity education,
  • special education
How to Cite
Schaff, A. R. D., & Mohamad, F. S. (2019). Let’s Talk about Sex: Teaching Adolescents with Intellectual Disability about Sexuality Education. Indonesian Journal of Cultural and Community Development, 2, 10.21070/ijccd201951. https://doi.org/10.21070/ijccd.v2i0.51

Copyright (c) 2019 Anis Raihan Dzeidee Schaff, Fitri Suraya Mohamad

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores the experiences of teachers who are responsible for teaching adolescents with intellectual disability about sexuality education at a secondary school in a special education programme in semi-rural Sarawak. The study investigates the teaching approaches to teach cognitive and social-behavioural aspects of sexuality education. It also documents challenges in teaching adolescents with intellectual disability about sexuality education. Findings revealed that cognitively, the adolescents’ comprehension and memory are greatly aided by the use of concrete materials, modelling strategy, and constant repetition; attention and focus in class are obtained by the use of multimedia and storytelling approach; and interestingly, the understanding about sexuality is affected by the language used in content delivery and classroom dialogue.  In the social-behavioural aspect, the findings revealed the importance of teachers and students’ comfort when talking about sexuality, mixed gender classes, peer guidance, and the adolescents’ intrapersonal intelligence. All these aspects are key in ensuring that the adolescents are able to reach an understanding and acceptance towards learning about sexuality education. The study also discovered that limitation of teaching materials, the adolescents’ unsupervised usage of the technology, and the sensitivity of sexuality education within the local home setting are among the main challenges faced by the teachers in teaching about sexuality education. The study also uncovered how the adolescents’ limited mental capabilities particularly in the social-behavioural domain has resulted in the adolescents displaying tendencies toward sexually risky behaviours which in turn, exposed them to sexually risky situations.

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