Symptoms and types of mental retardation in children

In today's world, the importance of intelligence to achieve success in most spheres of human activity cannot be overestimated; therefore, most parents are so hard to hear when they hear the diagnosis of “mental retardation” addressed to their child.

However, the situation is not so depressing - even such a kid is fully capable of reaching an acceptable level of development and being an independent person in adulthood; all that is needed is to properly build an educational and educational process.

Mental retardation, also known as oligophrenia, is the pathological lag of a child from its peers in all areas of intellectual activity. There are numerous signs to distinguish ordinary failure due to restlessness or bad behavior from oligophrenia.

Violations are noticeable even by the perception of the world. Tasks that seem simple to ordinary people are a real challenge for such a child. - for example, it is difficult for a child to distinguish in general similar objects (a compass and a clock, a cat and a squirrel), he does not perceive objects that are only partially visible, may not understand the difference between light and shadow, and may not even be able to distinguish the facial expressions of other people.

Motor activity is not distinguished by grace. - there is no smoothness in movements, they are sharp and angular, they lack accuracy. The latter means that such a child will have special educational needs, at least at the stage of vocational education, and if the disease has become severe, it is possible that a person with mental retardation cannot work at all.

When oligophrenia is very memory suffers which does not always allow to be trained in a comprehensive school - both because of the global lag of the child in the study of disciplines, and because of an incorrect reaction to such performance on the part of classmates.

Oligophrenia is hard to remember information from the first time, but even after repeated repetitions, it is usually forgotten very quickly. In general, the alogical principle is characteristic for the memory of such a patient - it is difficult for the patient to remember what he is trying to beat into his head, but he can remember some signs of a phenomenon or object as if by chance. The abstract logic is especially difficult, but with the memorization of mechanical movements the situation is a bit better.

Oligophrenia is also very noticeable. thinking, more precisely, by its significant lag. It is hard for a child to come to any conclusions of his own - at best, he just remembers that he was once told about this situation, but he is not capable of some new thought.

If the difference between subjects for children suffering from mental retardation is still relatively obvious, then they usually do not see common features even in the case when they are very noticeable; because of this they in particularthey do not understand the meaning of sayings and other similar figurative expressions, since they are taken strictly literally. For the same reason, you can force such a child to learn a lesson by heart, but he will not be able to apply this knowledge in practice, since he does not see in it a common sense.

The formation of basic learning activities is further complicated. total lack of critical thinking - the baby is always confident in his own right, it is difficult to convey to him both the very possibility that he is mistaken and the specific essence of the error. There is a general incoherence of thinking and its functioning according to stereotypical schemes, it is generally very limited and does not imply any adequate planning or forecasting.

Not surprisingly, with all the above suffers and speech. Only one in five oligophrenics does not suffer from speech disorders, and all others have slurred speech, incorrect pronunciation of words and the construction of sentences, general nasalism, and sometimes these symptoms are complemented by stuttering.

The speech of a mentally retarded person is characterized by monotony, a complete lack of expression, necessary pauses, and mock emotions. Scientists have come to the conclusion that such problems are largely caused by poor perception - the child himself hears others, because it is difficult for him to learn to speak better.

Intensive studies can give a positive result, but, as a rule, they do not lead the patient to the level of healthy ones, and the impossibility of normal communication only aggravates the overall picture of underdevelopment.

The behavior of oligophrenia is unstable, the norm for him is mood swings as well as inadequate reaction to what is happening - the perception of serious events as minor troubles, and vice versa. Any emotions are hypertrophied.

Since oligophrenic is always sure of his own rightness, only those people who praise him are pleasant to him, whereas he even perceives well-reasoned and friendly criticism as attacks.

Oligophrenia can be both congenital and acquired in early childhood. Since this disease has been studied by experts for a very long time, they managed to establish the specific causes of the development of pathology.

Alone among them is the use of alcohol and drugs by both parents, especially the mother during pregnancy. Of those factors that greatly increase the likelihood of oligophrenia after birth, malnutrition is the most prominent, having a negative effect on the formation of the nervous system and higher mental activity.

Other common risk factors include the following:

• The use of potent drugs that inhibit the development of the nervous system both during pregnancy and in childhood.
• Severe infectious diseases during gestation - scarlet fever, rubella, influenza, and so on.
• Incorrect metabolism in the mother's body.
• Birth injuries to the brain.
• Cases of oligophrenia in family history.
• Phenylketonuria and other pathologies of protein metabolism in the body of an unborn child.
• Excessive technogenic pollution of the environment.

The sooner mental retardation is found in a child, the better for him, because then experts will be able to initially build the learning process correctly and maximize the opportunities for a normal future little patient. However, the warning signs would be noticed much faster by those who usually are not very familiar with them - the parents.

It is obvious that any oligophrenic is characterized by significantly reduced intelligence and inability to adapt normally to society, however, there are other characteristic markers:

• Regular unmotivated behavior. Oligophren, even for himself, cannot always explain why he behaves strangely. A striking example can be either a sharp change in mood or an inadequately bright (or faded) reaction to what is happening around.
• Exposure to external suggestion when forming an opinion. Since oligophrenic thinking is underdeveloped, it is not able to build complex logical chains, and therefore it has practically no own conclusions or conclusions, and, therefore, no own opinion either. All the information that he has was received from outside, so he is unlikely to argue with any new information, even if it seems absurd to a healthy person. The only thing such a child is absolutely sure is that it is in its own right in any situation.
• Inability to predict. Because of the inability to build even simple logical chains, oligophrenic cannot predict the actions of others even in the simplest situations. This is further promoted by the fact that a mentally retarded person does not know how to draw analogies, therefore he does not use even previously acquired experience if the situation then and now is different at least by something.
• High impulsivity.
• Bad learning ability. Even the simplest skills and abilities to inculcate a sick child are very hard. He either categorically does not understand what is being explained to him, or he too quickly forgets what he learned, and globally.
• Inability to adapt in a team. The reasons for this phenomenon can be many, including those not related to oligophrenia, but if we are talking about a child with diagnosed mental retardation, then one of the main reasons is that the child never masters the team because of his bad memory. The environment is almost every day again unfamiliar to him, because it is difficult for him to remember even minimal information about his comrades, starting with names and interests. Oligophren does not know how to predict the reaction of others to his actions, therefore he easily offends potential friends, although he does so unconsciously. The sharp rejection of even justified criticism and problems with speech only increase the chasm, especially since children are cruel in nature and can easily make fun of an eccentric kid.
• Constant churning of the daily routine. This factor also does not necessarily indicate oligophrenia, however, in a child with mental retardation, this is due to the fact that he does not remember the order of tasks and procedures that must be performed during the day. He cannot plan his own day, so he disrupts the planned schedule if he is not followed.
• Inability to learn effectively. A child gets worse grades than average in his class, is not able to sit in one place for a long time, is not very attentive and gets tired quickly.
• Complex of associated diseases, also provoked by impaired development of the nervous system: headaches, convulsions, nervous tic and paralysis.

Without accurate diagnosis, including mentioning a specific stage, correct treatment cannot be organized. The diagnosis of oligophrenia must be taken very responsibly, because this diagnosis is made once for the whole life and is never revised.Even if the child manages to work out the correct model of behavior in society, he will still be at least a little different from the others, so doctors tend to consider such a disease as incurable, only well-disguised.

Primary diagnosis of mental retardation is carried out by an objective assessment of the child’s intellectual level. For this purpose, standardized tests are used to determine the degree of development of intelligence in a numerical expression. Most often, the Wechsler test is used for these purposes, and the results of a child with suspected oligophrenia are compared with the results of other healthy children of his age, on the basis of which a positive conclusion can be made.

If the two previous methods are designed for those children that have already reached a certain conscious age, then there are such diagnostic methods that allow you to determine oligophrenia in the fetus at the stage of pregnancy. This practice is usually recommended (but not mandatory) for pregnant women over 35 years old, since it has been proven that such mothers on average are more likely to face the problem of oligophrenia in newborns.

Usually, experts analyze the chorionic villi, as well as investigate amniocentesis, but there are other ways - in particular, an ordinary ultrasound or a mother's blood test for alpha-fetoprotein, as well as a screening examination. Such a diagnosis does not always guarantee an absolute positive result, but may indicate its high probability at the stage when it is not too late for an abortion. In this case, doctors usually recommend terminating the pregnancy, and then re-becoming pregnant, but under the initial supervision of specialists.

Depending on the scale of mental retardation, oligophrenia is divided into three main degrees, each of which has its own characteristic features. Actually “Mental retardation” is only a generalized concept, whereas the diagnosis is usually made precisely by the name of the degree of retardation. They should be considered in more detail.

Let's start with a mild degree, which as a whole still allows for a full-fledged human life in society. In people with debility, the level of IQ is at the level of 50-60, while the average indicator of a healthy person is 90-110.

From the side, it is almost impossible to determine a moron at first sight, it is very similar to an ordinary child, but suffers distraction and inability to concentrate attention, and its memory is weakened. In this case, such a child can be taught to read, write and count without even using special techniques, however, in general, the baby is deprived of curiosity.

Defects of development are noticeable even before school - the child plays very primitively and speaks in very simplified sentences, without using those words that are not useful in everyday life. Communicating with peers moron hard, they can not recognize other people's emotions and withdraw into themselves, focusing only on the parents. Independent decision making and self-analysis are difficult.

This moderate degree of mental retardation is characterized by an increase in the symptoms described above. The level of IQ is within 35-49, the baby can take care of himself, learn to write, read, and count, but he is no longer able to get a full-fledged education, and he is not recommended to live in such a separate residence.

Such a child will not be able to study in an ordinary school, and he will be able to work only where extremely primitive repetitive movements are required of him, because the motility of imbeciles is perceptibly inhibited.

This is a deep form of mental retardation, which requires constant monitoring by adults, and even better, specialists, so these children are advised to be placed in a special hospital.

IQ is limited to an extremely low limit - 34, and here even the best profile teachers throw up their hands - there is practically no hope to teach such a child at least to primitive things. Such a kid is either satisfied or unhappy - he has no other emotions.

Of the speech, there are perhaps only individual words indicating the most basic needs; independent movement is also extremely limited. Idiocy is accompanied by other pronounced pathologies, such as violations of the shape of the skull and skeleton, paralysis, and so on.

Only in the most severe forms of mental retardation requires constant hospitalization, but milder degrees usually provide only periodic courses of inpatient courses, and even in the presence of exacerbations.

In order to more fully reveal the possibilities of the oligophrenic child, both special medications and special training — adapted textbooks and exercises — are used.

As a rule, drug treatment has a pronounced symptomatic character.

By themselves, the medicaments practically do not give a full effect, therefore a thoughtful and well-coordinated work of many specialists, such as a speech therapist, a psychologist, and special teachers, is necessary. Non-standard methods are used for teaching, for example, correctional didactic games and special pictograms.

An important function is performed by playing exercises, which allow further stimulate the development of the nervous system and develop motor skills. The recommendations of professionals often also include increased attention to beauty - in particular, proved the positive influence of music on oligophrenics, because it encourages mental activity, provoking development, and contributes to an increase in interest in the world around it.

Social adaptation is an extremely important problem that each family with a child-oligophrenic solves, since it is usually seen as the main goal of the whole treatment.

Oligofren will never be a healthy person, but its unusualness may not be evident or perceived by others as nothing more than a strange oddity. If parents and teachers managed to achieve such a result, then they can be congratulated. Psychologists insist that, at least in the case of moron such a result is possible.

In this case, the task is somewhat complicated by the fact that in fact not only the child himself, but also his parents must undergo special training in order to know how to behave correctly.

Some parents despair and believe that it is impossible to achieve any progress, so do not try to do anything at all. Others, on the contrary, are hypertrophically trying to help their child, which is also not entirely correct, since it is impossible to raise a normal child by hiding its obvious peculiarity from him, as well as constantly pointing at it.

Often parents blame themselves for the illness of the baby, and this usually happens in situations where their guilt is in fact indirect.This is also not a way out, because the result is self-blame, which does not bring anything good except general dissatisfaction with life and depression.

With this attitude, in most cases, decent social adaptation is quite likely.

With due diligence, parents can minimize the likelihood of developing mental retardation in a child even before he is born. First of all, it is necessary to plan pregnancy only when both potential parents are healthy.

Mothers are strictly forbidden the use of alcohol and drugs of the psychotropic group both during and before pregnancy.

It will also be completely superfluous to be examined together in order to identify possible chronic diseases, to conduct gene research.

For a general normalization of all body functions, even a special diet can be suitable - balanced at the preparatory stage for pregnancy, and as nutritious as possible, but without harmful components already during gestation.

After the birth of the child, it should be understood that the visit to the doctor can be preventive, and not necessarily provoked by the apparent presence of health problems. It is easier to stop any disease at the stage when it has not yet had time to acquire critical forms, so even if the child seems to be completely healthy, he must be taken to a doctor from time to time to once again confirm his excellent health condition or detect any suspicious symptoms in time.

About the features and treatment of mental retardation, see the following video.