Understanding Appropriate and Applicable Sex Education Instruction for People With Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Although individuals with intellectual disability need sex education, little is known about the instructional practices of sex educators. To fill this gap and explore how instruction is appropriate and applicable to individuals with intellectual disability, we interviewed 58 U.S. sex educators about their instruction. Using thematic analysis, we identified four themes: (a) Deciding how to individualize: “A lot of my students have receptive skills, but don’t have a lot of verbal skills. I don’t need them verbal,” (b) Applicability to real life: “I want to teach them behaviors they can use,” (c) Conceptualizations of age: “Depends on the age and how much the person’s going to understand,” and (d) Strategies and challenges of assessing practice: “I don’t know how to measure sexuality.” Study findings elucidate the lived experiences of sex educators so we might learn and better support individuals with intellectual disability.