Welcome back to NeuroCurious—where we explore the brain, behavior, and the human experience.

Today, I want to challenge a really common assumption:

When a child has an intellectual disability…Are behaviors just a part of the disability?

Or… are we missing something deeper?

Because for many families, what looks like defiance, aggression, or shutdown is actually something else entirely— something misunderstood, and often untreated.

Millions of children in the U.S. has an intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), is what mental health professionals use to effectively diagnose clients.

Diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability include deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning across the conceptual ...