The Mentally Retarded Child
A
mentally retarded child is one who shows significantly subnormal general
intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive
behaviour and manifested during the development period.
People
with less than average mental ability are called mentally retarded. Such people
have difficulty in changing their way of functioning appropriate to the various
situations in everyday life.
Characteristics
of MR Children
The following are the important characteristics of mentally
retarded children:
1. They are dependent and feel difficulty in managing
themselves.
2. In comparison with children of their own age, their rate
of intellectual development is too low.
3. They feel difficulty in shifting from one type of
activity to another.
4. They are very poor at following general verbal
instruction.
5. They lack much in the power of observation, imagination,
thinking and reasoning , and ability to generalize.
6. They are poor at abstraction and can only think in terms
of concrete objects and situations.
7. They are socially and emotionally maladjusted
personalities.
Causes of
Mental Retardation
1. Genetic factors like chromosomal abnormalities, presence
of defective genes in the chromosomes of parents etc.
2. Deficient intra-uterine environment, abnormal emotional and
mental conditions of the mother during pregnancy, severe illness and chronic
infections of the mother, malnutrition of the mother during pregnancy etc.
3. Head injuries that the child receives when mechanical
devices are used during delivery.
4. Post natal factors like head injuries due to accidents,
infections and chronic disease in early childhood, mal-nutrition,
socio-cultural and educational deprivation, emotional maladjustment and severe
mental conflicts.
Education
of MR Children
The first
step in the education of MR children is to identify and segregate them from
normal children and direct them to special schools. In special schools, on the basis
of the degree of severity of their retardation, MR children are grouped into
distinct categories like educable mentally retarded (EMR), trainable
mentally retarded (TMR), and custodial mentally retarded (CMR). Educational
progdrammes are then planned for each category
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