The purpose of this study is to explore the educational activities of the intellectual disability students and to identify the research trends based on the areas of characteristics and sub-factories of the intellectual disability students. 31 studies of students with intellectual disabilities were selected to analyze the characteristics of these students, which were used as dependant variables. The results of the study showed that a majority of studies on the characteristics of students with special needs were conducted around the year 2013. There were many studies conducted with elementary school students and many based on a single subject study. The review of literature found five areas that the studies looked into; cognitive, social-emotional, language acquisition, physical, learning. Within these areas, the studies focused on consciousness and meta cognition, peer relations and problem behavior, reading, physical activities, task performance respectively. These studies that explored these particular areas were effective in capturing the characteristics of the students with intellectual disabilities. Based on the findings of the current review, educational courses for students with intellectual disabilities should be implemented and modified with consideration for the areas that were found to be effective in educating students with intellectual disabilities.