The IQ scores of 40-60 are considered significantly subaverage, which means that the IQ test performance of Ed Murphy was under the expectations. People with this level of IQ are expected to be very limited, including intellectual skills and adaptive behavior. In other words, they are not expected to communicate well, to understand what people around them explain, to solve problems, or to socially interact appropriatelly. However, reading the report of Ed Murphy, one can see that he is much more than the label. On one hand, he said that his mind was slow to understand and to learn new things that were easier to the others, and he also recognized he used to daydream, although he understands that this characteristic is not exclusive to people who were considered "retarded". On the other hand, he realized later on that he has language abilities, mostly because he could really focus on television shows, showing a great capacity of memorization. Looking at the discrepancies of what the label tell us and what Ed Murphy tells us, it is possible to conclude the importance of listening the students about their needs. Ed is very clear about his frustration about the people who were supposed to be helping him. He felt discriminated, and labeled in a way that he could never get out of this …show more content…
Knowing their needs is important to adapt the practices and to respect them as individuals. According to the author (Raymond, 2012), the perception of the students about the services they receive determine the outcome of the education efforts. For that, the teachers ' role is to guarantee that the student does not feel inferior, unequal, wich would be the negative conotation of the special education placement (Raymond, 2012). Instead of focusing on their difficulties, teachers should focus on reducing the gaps with more inclusive