Disorder caused by grossly expressed incorrect conditions of upbringing. Definition of mental retardation in children: symptoms and treatment methods

Sometimes students are difficult to teach and educate, and main reason This is due to a special, in contrast to the norm, state mental development personality, called in defectology “mental retardation” (MDD). Every second chronically underachieving child has mental retardation.

Essence of the disease

IN general view this condition is characterized by slow development of thinking, memory, perception, attention, speech, and the emotional-volitional aspect. Due to limitations in mental and cognitive capabilities, the child is not able to successfully complete the tasks and demands placed on him by society. For the first time, these limitations are clearly manifested and noticed by adults when the child comes to school. He cannot conduct sustainable, purposeful activity; gaming interests and gaming motivation predominate in him, while pronounced difficulties arise in distributing and switching attention. Such a child is not able to exert mental effort and strain when performing serious tasks, which quickly leads to school failure in one or many subjects.

A study of students with mental retardation showed that the basis of school difficulties is not intellectual disability, but impaired mental performance. This manifests itself in difficulties concentrating on cognitive tasks for a long time, in low productivity during study, in excessive fussiness or lethargy, and in disturbances in switching attention. Children with mental retardation have a qualitatively different structure of the defect, in contrast to mentally retarded children; in their impairment there is no totality in the underdevelopment of mental functions. Children with mental retardation are better able to accept help from adults and are able to transfer the demonstrated mental techniques to a new, similar task. Such children need to be provided with comprehensive assistance from psychologists and teachers, which includes an individual approach to learning, classes with a teacher of the deaf, a psychologist, along with drug therapy.

Constitutional ZPR

Developmental delay has a form that is determined by heredity. Children with this type of mental retardation are characterized by harmonious immaturity of the physique and at the same time of the psyche, which indicates the presence of harmonious psychophysical infantilism. The mood of such a child is predominantly positive; he quickly forgets grievances. At the same time, due to the immature emotional-volitional sphere, the formation of educational motivation is not possible. Children quickly get used to school, but do not accept the new rules of behavior: they are late for lessons, play during lessons and involve their neighbors in games, turn letters in notebooks into flowers. Such a child does not divide grades into “good” and “bad”; he is happy to have them in his notebook.

From the very beginning of school, the child turns into a persistently underachieving student, for which there are reasons. Due to his immature emotional-volitional sphere, he only does what is related to his interests. And due to the immaturity of intellectual development, children of this age have insufficiently formed mental operations, memory, speech, they have a small stock of ideas about the world and knowledge.

For constitutional mental retardation, the prognosis will be favorable with targeted pedagogical influence in an accessible playful form. Developmental correction work and an individual approach will eliminate the problems described above. If you need to leave children for the second year of study, this will not traumatize them, they will easily accept the new team and get used to the new teacher painlessly.

Somatogenic ZPR

Children of this type of disease are born to healthy parents. Developmental delay occurs due to past diseases that affect brain functions: chronic infections, allergies, dystrophy, persistent asthenia, dysentery. The child's intelligence was not initially impaired, but due to his absent-mindedness he becomes unproductive in the learning process.

At school, children of this type of mental retardation experience serious difficulties in adaptation, they cannot get used to a new team for a long time, they are bored and often cry. They are passive, inactive and lacking initiative. They are always polite with adults and perceive situations adequately, but if they are not influenced by guidance, they will be disorganized and helpless. Such children have great difficulties with learning at school, arising from reduced achievement motivation, lack of interest in the proposed tasks, and an inability and unwillingness to overcome difficulties in completing them. In a state of fatigue, the child’s answers are thoughtless and absurd, and affective inhibition often occurs: children are afraid to answer incorrectly and prefer to remain silent. Also, with severe fatigue, headaches increase, appetite decreases, pain occurs near the heart, which children use as a reason to refuse work if difficulties arise.

Children with somatogenic mental retardation need systematic medical and pedagogical assistance. It is best to place them in sanatorium-type schools or ordinary classes create a medicinal and pedagogical regime.

Psychogenic mental retardation

Children of this type of mental retardation have normal physical development and are somatically healthy. Research has shown that many children have brain dysfunction. The reason for their mental infantilism is a socio-psychological factor - unfavorable upbringing conditions: monotonous contacts and living environment, emotional deprivation (lack of maternal warmth, emotional relationships), deprivation, poor individual motivation. As a result, the child’s intellectual motivation decreases, superficiality of emotions, lack of independence in behavior, and infantilism in relationships are observed.

This childhood anomaly often develops in dysfunctional families. In an asocially permissive family, there is no proper supervision over the child; there is emotional rejection along with permissiveness. Due to the lifestyle of the parents, the baby experiences impulsive reactions, involuntary behavior, and his intellectual activity is extinguished. This condition often becomes fertile ground for the emergence of stable antisocial attitudes; the child is pedagogically neglected. In an authoritarian-conflict family, the child’s atmosphere is saturated with conflicts between adults. Parents influence the child through suppression and punishment, systematically traumatizing the child’s psyche. He becomes passive, dependent, downtrodden, and feels increased anxiety.

are not interested in productive activities and have unstable attention. Their behavior reveals bias, individualism, aggression, or excessive submissiveness and accommodation.

The teacher must show interest in such a child, in addition, there must be individual approach and intensive training. Then children will easily fill the gaps in knowledge in a regular boarding school.

ZPR of cerebral-organic nature

IN in this case a disorder of personality development is caused by a local disorder of brain functions. Causes of abnormalities in brain development: pathology of pregnancy, including severe toxicosis, viral flu suffered by the mother, alcoholism and drug addiction of parents, birth pathologies and injuries, asphyxia, serious illnesses in the 1st year of life, infectious diseases.

All children of this type of mental retardation have cerebral asthenia, which manifests itself in excessive fatigue, decreased performance, poor concentration and memory. Thought processes are imperfect, and the productivity indicators of such children are close to those of oligophrenic children. They acquire knowledge in fragments, and they quickly forget, so in the end school year students turn into persistent underachievers.

The lag in the development of intelligence in these children is combined with an immature emotional-volitional sphere, the manifestations of which are deep and crude. Children take a long time to learn the rules of relationships and do not correlate their emotional reactions with certain situation, are insensitive to misses. They are led by a game, so a conflict constantly arises between “I want” and “I must.”

Teaching children of this type of mental retardation according to the regular program is futile. They need systematic, competent correctional and pedagogical support.

• Causes of mental retardation
• Symptoms
• Treatment

Mental retardation in children (the disease is often referred to as mental retardation) is a slow pace of improvement of certain mental functions: thinking, emotional-volitional sphere, attention, memory, which lags behind generally accepted norms for a particular age.

The disease is diagnosed in the preschool or primary school period. It is most often discovered during pre-entry testing before school entry. It is expressed in limited ideas, lack of knowledge, inability for intellectual activity, the predominance of gaming, purely childish interests, immaturity of thinking. In each individual case, the causes of the disease are different.

Causes of mental retardation

In medicine, they are determined different reasons delayed mental development in children:

1. Biological:

• pregnancy pathologies: severe toxicosis, intoxication, infections, injuries;
• prematurity;
• intrauterine fetal hypoxia;
• asphyxia during childbirth;
• infectious, toxic, traumatic diseases at an early age;
• genetic predisposition;
• trauma during childbirth;
• lagging behind peers in physical development;
• somatic diseases (disturbances in the functioning of various organs);
• damage to certain areas of the central nervous system.

2. Social:

• restriction of life activity for a long time;
• mental trauma;
• unfavorable living conditions;
• pedagogical neglect.

Depending on the factors that ultimately led to mental retardation, several types of disease are distinguished, on the basis of which a number of classifications have been compiled.

Types of mental retardation

In medicine, there are several classifications (domestic and foreign) of mental retardation in children. The most famous are M. S. Pevzner and T. A. Vlasova, K. S. Lebedinskaya, P. P. Kovalev. Most often in modern domestic psychology use the classification of K. S. Lebedinskaya.

1. Constitutional ZPR determined by heredity.
2. Somatogenic ZPR acquired as a result of a previous disease that affected the child’s brain functions: allergies, chronic infections, dystrophy, dysentery, persistent asthenia, etc.
3. Psychogenic mental retardation determined by socio-psychological factors: such children are brought up in unfavorable conditions: monotonous environment, narrow circle of friends, lack of maternal love, poverty of emotional relationships, deprivation.
4. Cerebral-organic mental retardation observed in cases of serious pathological abnormalities in brain development and is most often determined by complications during pregnancy (toxicosis, viral diseases, asphyxia, parental alcoholism or drug addiction, infections, birth injuries, etc.).

Each of the types according to this classification differs not only in the causes of the disease, but also in symptoms and course of treatment.

Symptoms of mental retardation

A diagnosis of mental retardation can be made with confidence only at the threshold of school, when obvious difficulties arise in preparing for the educational process. However, with careful monitoring of the child, symptoms of the disease can be noticed earlier. These may include:

• skills and abilities lagging behind peers: the child cannot perform the simplest actions characteristic of his age (putting on shoes, dressing, personal hygiene skills, eating independently);
• unsociability and excessive isolation: if he avoids other children and does not participate in common games, this should alert adults;
• indecision;
• aggressiveness;
• anxiety;
• During infancy, such children begin to hold their heads later, take their first steps, and speak.

With mental retardation in children, manifestations of mental retardation and signs of impairment in the emotional-volitional sphere, which is very important for the child, are equally possible. Often there is a combination of them. There are cases when a child with mental retardation is practically no different from the same age, but most often the retardation is quite noticeable. The final diagnosis is made by a pediatric neurologist during a targeted or preventive examination.

Differences from mental retardation

If by the end of junior (4th grade) school age signs of mental retardation remain, doctors begin to talk about either mental retardation (MR) or constitutional infantilism. These diseases are different:

• with mental and intellectual underdevelopment, mental and intellectual underdevelopment is irreversible; with mental retardation, everything can be corrected with the proper approach;
• children with mental retardation differ from mentally retarded children in their ability to use the help that is provided to them and independently transfer it to new tasks;
• a child with mental retardation tries to understand what he read, whereas with LD there is no such desire.

There is no need to give up when making a diagnosis. Modern psychology and pedagogy can offer comprehensive assistance to such children and their parents.

Treatment of mental retardation in children

Practice shows that children with mental retardation may well become students in a regular general education school, rather than in a special correctional school. Adults (teachers and parents) must understand that the difficulties of teaching such children at the very beginning school life- is not at all the result of their laziness or negligence: they have objective, quite serious reasons that must be jointly and successfully overcome. Such children should be provided with comprehensive assistance from parents, psychologists, and teachers.

It includes:

• individual approach to each child;
• classes with a psychologist and a teacher of the deaf (who deals with children’s learning problems);
• in some cases - drug therapy.

Many parents find it difficult to accept the fact that their child, due to his developmental characteristics, will learn slower than other children. But this needs to be done to help the little schoolchild. Parental care, attention, patience, coupled with qualified help specialists (speech pathologist, psychotherapist) will help provide him with targeted education and create favorable conditions for learning.

The diagnosis of mental retardation is made mainly in preschool or school age, when the child faces learning problems. With timely correction and medical care, it is possible to completely overcome developmental problems, but early diagnosis pathology is quite difficult.

What is mental retardation?

Mental retardation, abbreviated as MDD, is a lag in development from the norms accepted for a certain age. With mental retardation, certain cognitive functions - thinking, memory, attention, and the emotional sphere - suffer.

Causes of developmental delay

ZPR may arise due to various reasons, they can be conditionally divided into biological and social.

Biological reasons include:

• damage to the central nervous system during fetal development: injuries and infections during pregnancy, bad habits of the mother, fetal hypoxia;
• prematurity, symptoms of jaundice;
• hydrocephalus;
• malformations and neoplasms of the brain;
• epilepsy;
• congenital endocrine pathologies;
• hereditary diseases - phenylketonuria, homocystinuria, histidinemia, Down syndrome;
• severe infectious diseases (meningitis, meningoencephalitis, sepsis);
• heart disease, kidney disease;
• rickets;
• violation sensory functions(vision, hearing).

Social reasons include:

• restriction of the baby’s life activity;
• unfavorable educational conditions, pedagogical neglect;
• frequent psychological traumas in a child’s life.

Symptoms and signs of developmental delay

Signs of mental retardation can be suspected by paying attention to the characteristics of mental functions:

1. Perception: slow, inaccurate, inability to form a holistic image. Children with mental retardation perceive information better visually than auditorily.
2. Attention: superficial, unstable, short-term. Any external stimuli contribute to switching attention.
3. Memory: visual-figurative memory predominates, mosaic memorization of information, low mental activity when reproducing information.
4. Thinking: disturbance of figurative thinking, abstract and logical thinking only with the help of a teacher or parent. Children with mental retardation cannot draw conclusions from what has been said, summarize information, or draw a conclusion.
5. Speech: distortion of articulation of sounds, limitation of vocabulary, difficulties in constructing a statement, impaired auditory differentiation, delayed speech development, dyslalia, dyslexia, dysgraphia.

Psychology of children with mental retardation

1. Interpersonal communication: children without developmental disabilities rarely communicate with lagging children and do not accept them in games. In a peer group, a child with mental retardation practically does not interact with others. Many children prefer to play separately. During lessons, children with mental retardation work alone, cooperation is rare, and communication with others is limited. Children who are lagging behind in most cases communicate with children younger than themselves, who accept them better. Some kids completely avoid contact with the team.
2. Emotional sphere: children with mental retardation are emotionally unstable, labile, suggestible and not independent. They are often in a state of anxiety, restlessness, and affect. They are characterized by frequent mood swings and contrast in the expression of emotions. Inappropriate cheerfulness and uplifting mood may be observed. Children with mental retardation cannot characterize their emotional state, have difficulty identifying the emotions of others, and are often aggressive. Such children are characterized by low self-esteem, uncertainty, and attachment to one of their peers.

As a result of problems in the emotional sphere and the sphere of interpersonal relationships, children with mental retardation often prefer loneliness; they lose confidence in themselves.

According to the classification by K. S. Lebedinskaya according to the etiopathogenetic principle, ZPR can be of the following types:

1. Delayed development of constitutional etiology is uncomplicated psychophysical infantilism, in which the cognitive and emotional spheres are at an early stage of development.
2. ZPR of somatogenic etiology – occurs due to serious illnesses, carried over into early childhood.
3. Mental retardation of psychogenic etiology is the result of unfavorable upbringing conditions (overprotection, impulsiveness, lability, authoritarianism on the part of parents).
4. ZPR of cerebral-organic etiology.

Complications and consequences of ZPR

The consequences of mental retardation have a greater impact on the psychological health of the individual. If the problem is not corrected, the child continues to move away from the team, and his self-esteem decreases. In the future, social adaptation of such children is difficult. Along with the progression of mental retardation, writing and speech deteriorate.

Diagnosis of mental retardation

Early diagnosis of mental retardation is difficult. This is due to the fact that to confirm the diagnosis, a comparative analysis of the child’s mental development with age norms is necessary.

The degree and nature of developmental delay is determined collectively by a psychotherapist, psychologist, speech therapist, and defectologist.

Mental development includes assessment of the following criteria:

• speech and pre-speech development;
• memory and thinking;
• perception (knowledge of objects and parts of the body, colors, shapes, orientation in space);
• attention;
• gaming and visual activities;
• level of self-care skills;
• communication skills and self-awareness;
• school skills.

The Denver test, the Bayley scale, the IQ test and others are used for examination.

Additionally, the following instrumental studies may be indicated:

• CT and MRI of the brain.

How to cure mental retardation

The main help for children with mental retardation consists of long-term psychological and pedagogical correction, which is aimed at improving the emotional, communicative and cognitive sphere. Its essence is to conduct classes with a psychologist, speech therapist, defectologist, or psychiatrist.

If psychocorrection is not enough, it is supported by drug treatment with nootropic drugs at the core.

The main drugs for drug correction:

• Piracetam, Encephabol, Aminalon, Phenibut, Cerebrolysin, Actovegin;
• Glycine;
• homeopathic medicines – Cerebrum compositum;
• vitamins and vitamin-like products – vitamin B, Neuromultivit, Magne B6;
• antioxidants and antihypoxants – Mexidol, Cytoflavin;
• general tonics – Cogitum, Lecithin, Elcar.

Preventing developmental problems

To avoid CPR, you need to follow simple rules:

• create favorable conditions for pregnancy and childbirth;
• create a friendly environment in the family;
• closely monitor the child’s condition from the first days of life;
• promptly treat any kind of disease in the baby;
• engage with the child and develop him from an early age.

Of no small importance in the prevention of mental retardation is the physical and emotional contact between mother and baby. Hugs, kisses, and touches help the child feel calm and confident, navigate a new environment, and adequately perceive the world around him.

Doctor pays attention

1. There are 2 dangerous extremes to which many parents of children with mental retardation fall - overprotection and indifference. In both the first and second variants, personality development is inhibited. Overprotection does not allow the child to develop, since the parents do everything for him and treat the student like a little child. Indifference on the part of adults takes away the child’s incentive and desire to develop and learn something new.
2. There are special schools for children with mental retardation or separate classes in secondary schools based on a correctional and developmental model of education. Created in special classes optimal conditions for teaching special children – small capacity, individual sessions that allow you not to miss psychological characteristics child, useful for his development.

The sooner parents pay attention to mental retardation or stop denying it, the higher the likelihood of full compensation for deficiencies in the emotional and cognitive sphere. Timely correction will prevent future psychological trauma associated with the awareness of one’s inadequacy and helplessness in the flow of general learning.

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Mental retardation in a child is a specific condition that implies a slow rate of formation of certain mental functions, namely the processes of memory and attention, mental activity, which are delayed in formation compared to established norms for a certain age stage. This disease is more often diagnosed in children at the preschool stage, during testing and checking them for mental maturity and readiness to learn, and is manifested by limited views, lack of knowledge, inability to engage in mental activity, immaturity of thinking, and the prevalence of playful and childish interests. If signs of underdevelopment of mental functions are found in children at the senior school age stage, then it is recommended to think about whether they have. Today, the slow development of mental functions and methods of corrective influence of this condition are an urgent psychoneurological problem.

Causes of mental retardation in a child

Today, the problems of mental retardation throughout the world are recognized by psychologists as one of the most pressing problematic issues of psychological and pedagogical orientation. Modern psychology identifies three key groups of factors that provoke a slow pace of formation of individual mental processes, namely, the peculiarities of the course of pregnancy and the passage directly birth process, factors of a socio-pedagogical nature.

Factors associated with the course of pregnancy usually include those experienced by women. viral diseases, for example, rubella, severe toxicosis, consumption of alcoholic beverages, smoking, exposure to pesticides, intrauterine oxygen deprivation of the fetus, Rh conflict. The second group of provoking factors includes injuries received by infants during the birth process, asphyxia of the fetus or its entanglement with the umbilical cord, and premature placental abruption. The third group covers factors that depend on the lack of emotional attention and the lack of psychological influence on infants from the adult environment. This also includes pedagogical neglect and limitation of life activity for a long time. This is especially felt by children under 3 years of age. Also, in early childhood, the lack of a standard for inheritance provokes developmental delays in children.

Positive favorable emotional climate family relations, in which the baby grows and is susceptible to educational influence, is the foundation for his normal physical formation and mental development. Constant scandals and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages lead to inhibition of the baby’s emotional sphere and a slowdown in the rate of his development. At the same time, excessive care can provoke a slow rate of formation of mental functions, in which the volitional component is affected in children. In addition, children who are constantly ill are often susceptible to this disease. Developmental inhibition can often be observed in babies who have previously suffered various injuries that affected the brain. Often the occurrence of this disease in children is directly associated with a delay in their physical development.

Symptoms of mental retardation in a child

It is impossible to diagnose the presence of developmental retardation in newborns in the absence of obvious physical defects. Often, parents themselves attribute fictitious virtues or non-existent successes to their children, which also complicates diagnosis. Parents of children should carefully monitor their development and sound the alarm if they begin to sit or crawl later than their peers, if by the age of three they are not able to independently construct sentences and have too small a vocabulary. Often, primary disorders in the formation of individual mental processes are noticed by educators in a preschool institution or teachers in a school institution, when they discover that one student is more difficult in learning, writing or reading than his peers, and there are difficulties with memorization and speech function. In such situations, it is recommended that parents show the baby to a specialist, even if they are sure that his development is normal. Because early detection symptoms of mental retardation in children contributes to the timely start of corrective action, which leads to further normal development of children without consequences. The later parents sound the alarm, the more difficult it will be for their children to learn and adapt among their peers.

Symptoms of mental retardation in children are often associated with pedagogical neglect. In such children, developmental delay is caused, first of all, by social reasons, for example, the situation in family ties.

Children with mental retardation are often characterized by the presence different types infantilism. In such children, the immaturity of the emotional sphere comes to the fore, and defects in the formation of intellectual processes fade into the background and do not appear so noticeably. They are subject to repeated changes in mood, in lessons or in gameplay they are characterized by restlessness, the desire to throw out all their imaginations. At the same time, it is quite difficult to captivate them with mental activity and intellectual games. Such kids get tired faster than their peers and are not able to concentrate on completing an assignment; their attention is focused on things that, in their opinion, are more entertaining.

Children with mental retardation, observed primarily in the emotional sphere, often have problems with learning in school, and their emotions correspond to the development of children younger age, often dominate obedience.

In children with predominant developmental immaturity in the intellectual sphere, everything happens the other way around. They have practically no initiative, are often overly shy and self-conscious, and are susceptible to a number of different problems. The listed features inhibit the development of independence and the formation of personal development of the baby. In such children, play interest also prevails. They often experience their own failures in school life or the educational process quite hard, they do not easily get along in an unfamiliar environment, in a school or preschool institution, they take a long time to get used to the teaching staff, but at the same time they behave approximately there and obey.

Qualified specialists can diagnose mental retardation in children, establish its type and correct child behavior. During the comprehensive examination and examination of the baby should be taken into account the following factors: the pace of his activity, psycho-emotional state, motor skills and characteristics of errors in the learning process.

Mental retardation in children is diagnosed if the following characteristic features are observed:

They are not capable of collective activities (educational or play);

Their attention is less developed than that of their peers, it is difficult for them to concentrate to master complex material, and it is also difficult not to be distracted during the teacher’s explanations;

The emotional sphere of children is very vulnerable; at the slightest failure, such children tend to withdraw into themselves.

It follows that the behavior of children with mental retardation can be identified by their reluctance to take part in group play or educational activities, reluctance to follow the example of an adult, and achieve given goals.

In diagnosing of this disease there is a risk of error due to the fact that one can confuse the child’s immaturity with his reluctance to perform tasks that are not appropriate for his age, or to engage in uninteresting activities.

Treatment of mental retardation in a child

Current practice proves that children with mental retardation can study in a regular general education institution, and not in a specialized correctional institution. Parents and teachers should understand that difficulties in teaching children with immaturity in the development of mental processes at the beginning of school life are not the result of their laziness or dishonesty, but have objective, serious reasons, which can only be successfully overcome through joint efforts. Therefore, children with a slower rate of formation of mental processes need comprehensive joint assistance from parents, teachers and psychologists. Such assistance consists of: a personal approach to each child, regular classes with specialists (a psychologist and a teacher of the deaf), in some cases - drug therapy. For drug treatment neurotropic drugs are used in children with mental retardation, homeopathic remedies, vitamin therapy, etc. The choice of drug depends on the individual characteristics of the baby and on comorbid conditions.

Most parents find it difficult to accept that their child, due to the characteristics of his formation, will grasp everything more slowly than the surrounding peers. Parental care and understanding, coupled with qualified specialized assistance, will help create a positive learning environment and provide targeted parenting.

So, corrective action will be most effective if parents follow the recommendations below. The jointly directed work of teachers, the child’s close circle and psychologists is the foundation for successful learning, development and upbringing. Comprehensive overcoming of the developmental immaturity discovered in the baby, the characteristics of his behavior and the difficulties provoked by them consists of analysis, planning, forecasting and joint actions.

Correctional work with children with mental retardation throughout its entire duration should be permeated with psychotherapeutic influence. In other words, the baby should have a motivational orientation towards classes, notice his own successes and feel joy. The child needs to develop a pleasant expectation of success and the joy of praise, pleasure from actions performed or work performed. Corrective action involves direct and indirect psychotherapy, individual sessions and group therapy. The goal of correctional education is to form mental processes in the child and increase his practical experience in combination with overcoming underdevelopment of motor skills, speech and sensory functions, etc.

Specialized education of children with developmental delays is aimed at preventing possible secondary anomalies that may arise as a result of a timely unconquered lack of readiness of children for the educational process and life in society.

When working with children suffering from developmental delays, it is necessary to use short-term game tasks to develop positive motivation. In general, completing game tasks should interest kids and attract them. Any tasks should be feasible, but not too simple.

The problems of delayed mental development in children often lie in the fact that such children are unprepared for school learning and interaction in a team, as a result of which their condition worsens. That is why, for successful correction, you need to know all the features of the manifestations of the disease and have a comprehensive effect on children. At the same time, parents are required to have patience, interest in the result, understanding of the characteristics of their own children, love and sincere care for their children.

Doctor of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"

The information presented in this article is intended for informational purposes only and cannot replace professional advice and qualified medical care. If you have the slightest suspicion that your child has mental retardation, be sure to consult a doctor!

How should parents react if the entry “mental retardation” appears in the baby’s medical card? Of course, they are quite scared, but they should not give up. In the case of ZPR, the main thing is to find out the cause of the problem and understand how to deal with it. Read more in our current material.

How to recognize?

Impaired mental function - violation of the established terms of maturation of the emotional-volitional and intellectual spheres of the child, slowdown in the rate of mental development.

Can parents themselves suspect a problem? If the baby is three months old absent " " , that is, he does not begin to walk and smile in response to the voice and smile of his parents, it is necessary to go to an appointment with a pediatric neurologist.

What will the doctor pay attention to? There are certain normative deadlines, according to which at 1-2 months the baby should follow the rattle with his eyes, at 6-7 - sit, at 7-8 - crawl, at 9-10 - stand, and by the age of one year take the first steps. If the child's development does not meet the norms, the neurologist may suggest problems. Another factor of concern is if the child suddenly regresses, that is, he completely stops doing what he already knew how to do or does it much worse than before.

The baby grew up and his parents noticed that he doesn't behave like that , like his peers, has difficulties with communication, problems with mastering speech, is it difficult for him to concentrate, is he withdrawn or uncoordinated? With all such manifestations, the doctor can note a delay in mental development, which means it’s time to figure out what led to it and find a way to combat the disease.

You will have to work in a close team: a pediatrician, a neurologist, parents, sometimes a speech therapist and a child psychiatrist are included in the team. It is important to understand what led to the developmental delay and find ways for the child to catch up with his peers.

Irina Vladimirovna Voynovskaya, pediatric neurologist at the Dobrobut Children’s Clinic on the Left Bank, says: "Reasons for delay psychological development can be both biological - pathologies of pregnancy, prematurity, trauma and asphyxia during childbirth, maternal illnesses in the early stages of fetal development, genetic conditioning, and social - long-term limitation of the child’s life, unfavorable upbringing conditions, traumatic situations in the child’s life. If parents notice unstable emotions in a child, a decrease in cognitive activity, or problems in the formation of speech activity with the child, they should contact a pediatric neurologist, speech therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist. “Specialists will develop an individual scheme of pedagogical and medical correction, which, together with parents’ close attention to the child’s development, will help partially or even completely overcome mental retardation.”

How it manifests itself

Most a clear sign Doctors call ZPR immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere . It is quite difficult for a child with such a disease to force himself to do anything.

Consequently - attention disorder And decrease in concentration . The baby is often distracted, it is difficult to interest him in any process.

Due to problems with limited knowledge about the world around them, children diagnosed with FGR may experience difficulties with orientation in space , it is problematic for them to recognize even familiar objects from a new perspective.

A peculiarity of children with mental retardation is that they remember better what they see than what they hear, and they often have problems with the development of speech at different levels.

A lag is also observed in thinking; for example, children with mental retardation have serious difficulties when solving problems based on synthesis, analysis, comparison and generalization.

Reasons and more

What is the reason for the disruption of normal development in a child?

These are genetic factors, and mild organic brain damage due to illness (for example, a severe form of influenza or), a number of factors associated with the development of a child in infancy (irrational use of large doses of antibiotics), unfavorable course of pregnancy and childbirth (illness, intoxication, asphyxia during childbirth).

Vaccination of a baby with neurological problems or . For example, mental retardation is found in almost all orphanage children, and those who did not go there directly from the maternity hospital, but were with their mother for some time, experience a regression of previously acquired skills.

Many experts believe that cause of mental retardation are socio-pedagogical factors: dysfunctional family situation, lack of development, difficult living conditions.

Our mother Anutik tells: “At the age of 3, we had OHP, ZRR, pseudobulbar dysarthria. The EEG showed organic brain damage, without intellectual impairment... His coordination and positioning of his legs when walking were slightly impaired. He spoke 5 words at that time, without verbs. After about 3.5 years of intensive training, the child acquired new words, then simple sentences, then a story. At the age of 5.5, we began to slowly master reading, and by the age of 6, my child began thorough preparation for entering the 1st grade... Now we are first graders, in the most ordinary kindergarten school, near our home, studies are good, even Ukrainian We are mastering it, although before school I grew up in a Russian-speaking family... English is still bad, but I don’t really want to load it with what is essentially a 3rd language for him. The memory is good, we learn poetry well... The child likes the group, he likes it when they are all taken out for walks together, the crowd plays all sorts of games on the street, he likes to stay in after-school and everyone drinks tea and eats sandwiches together at the table, he likes to do his homework in an organized manner during after-school. . Slurred speech remained, of course, mild dysarthria, and some neurological aspects. But while they are small, 1st grade, his classmates don’t really understand what’s going on, they don’t single him out on this basis, and besides, there are still a lot of ordinary kids in the class who don’t say “r” yet, hissing. But in 2 years (from 3.5 to 5.5), I’ll tell you, the child made a HUGE breakthrough in speech development... We took courses of treatment at a speech center in Kyiv. And there, each course of classes with a speech therapist, massage therapist and other specialists is always supported with medication. How everything will develop further, I myself am in the dark.... We'll see...”

What to do?

So, what should parents do if doctors have discovered and confirmed a diagnosis of mental retardation in their baby?

If a diagnosis is made, then specialists should determine the cause , due to which developmental delay occurred. It is also important to understand whether the child has any related problems, for example, if a child has difficulties with speech development, it is important to understand that he does not have hearing problems.

If a doctor prescribes a child medicines , which will have a direct impact on his psyche, try to be sure to get an appointment with another specialist in order to listen to not one, but two, three, or five opinions. Most often, experts are of the opinion that in cases of mental retardation, proper rehabilitation by competent specialists is sufficient.

Find people in your city who work with children diagnosed with mental retardation. Working in adaptation groups, mini-kindergartens or independently, the child will be able to cope with the disease faster, and parents will receive qualified advice and will be able to participate in trainings.

Specialists from the center for assistance to children with mental retardation will develop individual rehabilitation program baby, which will be aimed directly at stimulating the affected mental processes.

Work with your child according to a developed rehabilitation program under the supervision of center specialists, and most importantly, do not lose contact with the child, believe in his development.

Our mother YuliaL tells: “In my opinion, the most important thing is not to lose contact with the child, not to let HIM move away... You see, I have two more ordinary children, and for a long time I could not understand what was wrong in the relationship with my son... I was already thinking , maybe I really have some kind of coldness, or something... And then I realized that he was still trying to pull away, to withdraw into himself, but he couldn’t let go. Such contact helps us a lot to preserve our family in general, our sisters, our pets - although there are a lot of problems and inconsistencies. It was a great happiness when, after 3 years, he first began to sit next to me, then he said “mommy”, at 5 he suddenly began to hug... Now sometimes he just has attacks of tenderness, and he tells how glad he is that it was with lives by us, etc. IMHO - medical specialists and teachers advise what they know, but everything must be applied with an eye on how the mother feels. It is very important that we, our children and they feel good with us, and not disturb this. Honestly, our trips, some good, warm events always gave some kind of progress. And when “building” the son does not make progress at all... This is the simplest and most difficult for me, forgive me for the excessive emotions...”

We are sure that if you start working with your baby in a timely manner, you will be able to solve many problems, and over time the child will recover and will be no different from his peers!

Particular attention is paid not only physical development the child, but also his psychological development. Children with mental retardation (mental development delay) are placed in a separate category, which has its own development and characteristics. Training with these children is initially intense and challenging. However, after some work, progress is visible.

It is quite difficult to determine whether a child is developing normally. Typically, developmental disabilities are identified by teachers who know what children should be like at one or another stage of their development. Parents often fail to identify mental retardation. This causes the child’s socialization to slow down. However, this process is reversible.

By paying close attention to their child, parents are able to identify mental retardation. For example, such a baby begins to sit up, walk, and talk late. If he starts some activity, he cannot concentrate on it, does not know where to start, how to achieve the goal, etc. The child is quite impulsive: before he thinks, he will do it first.

If a delay in mental development has been identified, then you should contact a specialist. For longer-term work, you will need an in-person consultation.

Who are children with mental retardation?

Let's start by considering the concept of who children with mental retardation are. These are children of primary school age who are to some extent lagging behind in their mental development. In fact, psychologists don't make a big deal out of this. At any stage a delay may occur. The main thing remains only its timely detection and treatment.

Children with mental retardation differ from their peers in that they do not seem to have grown up to their age. They can play games like younger children. They are not inclined to mental intellectual work. We have to talk about mental retardation only when the condition is identified in a primary school student. If mental retardation was noted in a senior schoolchild, then we may be talking about infantilism or mental retardation.

Mental retardation is not associated with manifestations such as mental retardation or mental retardation. With mental retardation, difficulties in the child’s socialization and educational activities are usually identified. Otherwise, he can be the same child as other children.

It is necessary to distinguish between mental retardation and mental retardation:

• Children with mental retardation have the opportunity to catch up with the level of mental development compared to their peers: thinking, analysis and synthesis, comparison, etc.
• In children with mental retardation, the prerequisites for intellectual activity suffer, and in children with mental retardation– thought processes.
• The development of children with mental retardation occurs in leaps and bounds. In children with mental retardation, development may not occur at all.
• Children with mental retardation actively accept the help of other people, they enter into dialogues and joint activities. Children with mental retardation avoid strangers and even loved ones.
• Children with mental retardation are more emotional in play activity than children with mental retardation.
• Children with mental retardation may have creative abilities. Children with mental retardation often get stuck at drawing lines and other things until they are taught something.

It is necessary to distinguish difficult children from children with mental retardation. In many ways, they are similar to each other: conflict, deviation in behavior, deceit, neglect, evasion of requirements. However, difficult children are the result of improper upbringing and pedagogical incompetence. They take an oppositional line against the conditions in which they grow.

Children with mental retardation resort to lies, refusal, and conflict as a way to protect their psyche. Their adaptation processes to society are simply disrupted.

Development of children with mental retardation

50% of schoolchildren who are unsuccessful in their studies are children with mental retardation. The way their development occurred influences further educational activities. Typically, children with mental retardation are identified in the first years after entering kindergarten or school. They are more immature, their mental processes impaired, there is a cognitive disorder. Mild intellectual disability and immaturity of the nervous system are also notable.

To make it easy for children with mental retardation to develop to their level, specialized schools and classes are being opened. In such groups, the child receives an education that helps him catch up with the level of his “mentally healthy” peers, while correcting deficiencies in mental activity.

The teacher actively participates in the process and gradually transfers the initiative to the child. First, the teacher manages the process, then sets a goal and creates such a mood in the child that he himself solves the tasks. It also uses tasks for working with a team, where the child will do work with other children and focus on collective assessment.

The tasks are varied. They include more visual material that the child will be forced to work with. Outdoor games are also used.

Characteristics of children with mental retardation

Children with mental retardation are usually identified in the first period after they enter school. It has its own norms and rules that a child with this disorder simply cannot learn and follow. The main characteristic a child with mental retardation is his unpreparedness to study in a regular school.

He does not have enough knowledge and skills that would help him to learn new material and learn the rules adopted at school. It is difficult for him to perform voluntary activities. Difficulties arise already at the first stage of mastering writing, reading and counting. All this is aggravated by a weak nervous system.

The speech of children with mental retardation also lags behind. It is difficult for kids to write a coherent story. It is easier for them to compose separate sentences that are not related to each other. Agrammatism is often observed. Speech is sluggish, the articulatory apparatus is undeveloped.

Children with mental retardation are more inclined to play than to learn. They happily complete game tasks, but with the exception of role-playing tasks. At the same time, children with mental retardation have difficulties in building relationships with peers. They are distinguished by their directness, naivety and lack of independence.

There is no need to talk about purposeful activity. A child with mental retardation does not understand the goals of his studies and is unable to organize himself; he does not feel like a schoolchild. It is difficult for a child to understand the material that comes from the teacher’s mouth. It is also difficult for him to assimilate it. To understand, he needs visual material and detailed instructions.

By themselves, children with mental retardation quickly get tired and have a low level of performance. They cannot get into the same pace as in a regular school. Over time, the child himself understands his dissimilarity, which can lead to insolvency, uncertainty about his own potential, and the emergence of fears of punishment.

A child with mental retardation is incurious and has a low level of inquisitiveness. He does not see logical connections, often misses the significant and focuses on the insignificant. Topics are not related to each other when talking with such a child. These characteristics lead to superficial memory of the material. The child is not able to understand the essence of things, but only notes what first caught his eye or appeared on the surface. This leads to a lack of generalization and the presence of stereotypical use of the material.

There are difficulties in relationships with other people in children with mental retardation. They don't ask questions because they don't have curiosity. It is difficult to make contact with children and adults. All this is reinforced by emotional instability, which manifests itself in:

1. Mannering.
2. Uncertainty.
3. Aggressive behavior.
4. Lack of self-control.
5. Variability of mood.
6. Inability to adapt to the team.
7. Familiarity.

Children with mental retardation manifest themselves in maladaptation to the world around them, which requires correction.

Working with children with mental retardation

Correctional work with children with mental retardation is carried out by specialists who take into account the characteristics of such children. Their work is aimed at correcting all shortcomings and promoting children to the level of their peers. They learn the same material as healthy children, while their characteristics are taken into account.

Work is being carried out in two directions:

1. Teaching the basic material taught at school.
2. Correction of all mental deficiencies.

The age of the child with mental retardation is taken into account. What mental characteristics he must possess, such people develop in him. This takes into account the complexity of the tasks that the child can perform on his own, and the exercises that he can solve with the help of adults.

Correctional work with children with mental retardation includes a health-improving direction, when favorable conditions for development are created. Here the daily routine, environment, conditions, etc. change. At the same time, neuropsychological techniques are used that correct the child’s behavior, his learning ability in writing and reading. Other areas of correctional activity are the development of the cognitive sphere (its stimulation) and the development of the emotional part (understanding the feelings of other people, controlling one’s own emotions, etc.).

Working with children with mental retardation in various areas makes it possible to correct their mental activity and raise it to the level of ordinary healthy individuals of their age.

Education of children with mental retardation

Specialists, not regular teachers, work with children with mental retardation. This is due to the fact that the usual school program with its intensity and approaches is not suitable for these children. Their intellectual sphere not so developed as to calmly receive new knowledge, it is difficult for them to organize their activities, generalize and compare, analyze and make a synthesis. However, children with mental retardation are able to repeat, transferring actions to similar tasks. This helps them learn and gain the knowledge that their peers receive in a regular school.

Teachers take into account the characteristics of children with mental retardation and the educational tasks that schoolchildren must master. First of all, the emphasis is on the development of cognitive abilities.

Ideally, parents will begin to correct the mental activity of their children in the preschool period. There are numerous preschool organizations, where there are specialists in the development of various skills, for example, speech pathologists. This helps to quickly compensate for the gaps that have formed.

Children with mental retardation can reach the level of development of their peers if they receive diverse and versatile material that not only gives them knowledge, but also teaches them writing, reading, speaking (pronunciation), etc.

Bottom line

Children with mental retardation are not sick, but specialists should deal with their correction. Usually, developmental delay is detected late, which is due to the inattention of parents to their own children. However, if a mental retardation is identified, you can immediately begin specialized work that will help the child with socialization and adaptation to life.

The prognosis for mental retardation is positive if parents place their child in the hands of specialists. It is possible to quickly and easily eliminate all mental gaps that have been identified, which distinguishes this group of children from children with mental retardation.