ABSTRACT
The acceptance of sexuality in individuals with developmental disabilities is still a difficult and sensitive issue. Reluctance of caregivers to teach the necessary skills that would allow an adolescent independently to manage the responsibilities of sexuality ignores the natural course of human development. In 1995 the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that by 15 years of age, 24 per cent of females and 27 per cent of males in the general population have had sexual intercourse. By the age of 16, this number has risen to 39 per cent of females and 45 per cent of males. Each year, 19 per cent of those who have had sexual intercourse will become pregnant and about one in four sexually experienced teens contract a sexually transmitted disease (AGI, 1999).
