Signs of mental retardation. Mental retardation, how scary is it? Diagnosis of mental retardation in a child - what is it?

Mental retardation (or abbreviated as MDD) is characterized by a lag in the formation of mental functions. This syndrome is most often detected before admission to school. The child's body realizes its capabilities at a slow pace. Delayed mental development is also characterized by a preschool child’s small stock of knowledge, poverty of thinking and inability to engage in intellectual activity for a long time. For children with this deviation, it is more interesting to simply play, but concentrating on learning is extremely problematic for them.

Mental retardation is most often detected before admission to school, when the intellectual load on the child increases significantly

Mental retardation affects not only the psychological aspects of the individual. Violations are observed in different types of activities, physical and mental.

Mental retardation is an intermediate form of disorders in the development of a child. Some mental functions develop more slowly than others. There is damage or defective formation of individual areas. The degree of underformation or depth of damage present may vary from case to case.

problems during pregnancy (previous infections, injuries, severe toxicosis, intoxication), fetal hypoxia recorded during gestation;
prematurity;
birth injuries, asphyxia;
diseases in infancy (trauma, infection, intoxication);
genetic predisposition.

Social reasons:
long-term isolation of the child from society;
frequent stress and conflicts in the family, in the garden, situations causing psychological trauma.

There is a combination of a number of factors. Two or three causes of mental retardation may combine, leading to worsening disorders.

Types of ZPR
ZPR of constitutional origin
This type is based on hereditary infantilism, affecting the mental, physical and psychological functions of the body. The emotional level in this type of developmental delay, as well as the level of the volitional sphere, are more reminiscent of the levels of primary school age, and therefore occupy an earlier stage of formation.
What are the general characteristics of this species? It is accompanied by a wonderful mood, easy suggestibility, and emotional behavior. Vivid emotions and experiences are very superficial and unstable.
ZPR of somatogenic origin
This type is associated with somatic or infectious diseases in the child, or chronic diseases of the mother. In this case, mental tone decreases, and developmental delay in emotional terms is diagnosed. Somatogenic infantilism is complemented by various fears that are associated with the fact that children with developmental delays are not confident in themselves or consider themselves inferior. The preschooler's uncertainty is caused by multiple prohibitions and restrictions that take place in the home environment.
Children with developmental delays should get more rest, sleep, treatment in sanatoriums, as well as eat properly and undergo appropriate treatment. The favorable prognosis will be influenced by the health status of young patients.

An unhealthy family environment and constant prohibitions can also cause mental retardation in a child.
ZPR of psychogenic origin
This type is caused by frequent stressful situations and psychologically traumatic conditions, as well as poor upbringing. Environmental conditions that do not correspond to favorable upbringing of children can worsen the psychoneurological state of a child with developmental delay. Autonomic functions are among the first to be disrupted, and then emotional and psychological ones.
A type that involves a partial disruption of certain body functions, which is combined with the immaturity of the nervous system. The damage to the central nervous system is organic in nature. The localization of the lesion does not affect further impairment of mental activity. Damage to the central nervous system of this type does not lead to mental disability. This variant of mental retardation is widespread. What symptoms are relevant for him? It is characterized by pronounced disturbances in the emotional plane, and the volitional aspect also suffers extremely. There is a noticeable slowdown in the formation of thinking and cognitive activity. This type of developmental delay is generally characterized by a slowdown in the maturation of the emotional-volitional level.

ZPR of cerebral-organic origin is characterized by a violation of the development of the emotional-volitional sphere
Features of the manifestation of mental retardation
Physical development
It is always quite difficult to diagnose the syndrome in children with developmental delay. This is especially difficult to understand in the early stages of growth. What are the characteristics of children with mental retardation?
Such children are characterized by a slowdown in physical education. The most common signs of poor muscle formation, low levels of muscle and vascular tone, and stunted growth. Also, children with developmental delays learn to walk and talk late. Play activities and the ability to be tidy are also delayed.
Will, memory and attention
Children with mental retardation have little interest in having their activities or work evaluated or praised; they do not have the liveliness and emotional perception inherent in other children. Weakness of will is combined with monotony and monotony of activity. The games that children with developmental delays prefer to play are usually completely uncreative; they lack fantasy and imagination. Children with developmental delays quickly get tired of work because their internal resources are instantly depleted.
A child with mental retardation is characterized by poor memory, inability to quickly switch from one type of activity to another, and slowness. He cannot pay attention for long. As a result of a delay in a number of functions, the baby needs more time to perceive and process information, visual or auditory.
One of the most striking signs of developmental delay is that the child is unable to force himself to do something. The work of the emotional-volitional sphere is inhibited, and, as a result, problems with attention appear. It is difficult for a child to concentrate, he is often distracted and cannot “gather his strength.” At the same time, an increase in motor activity and speech is likely.

Perception of information
Children with developmental delays find it difficult to perceive information in complete images. For example, a preschooler will have difficulty identifying a familiar object if it is placed in a new place or presented from a new perspective. The abruptness of perception is associated with a small amount of knowledge about the world around us. The speed of information perception also lags behind and orientation in space is difficult.
Another characteristic of children with mental retardation is that they remember visual information better than verbal information. Taking a special course on mastering various memorization techniques gives good success; the performance of children with mental retardation becomes better in this regard compared to children without disabilities.

Special courses or correctional work by specialists will help improve a child’s memory and sensitivity.
Speech
The child lags behind in speech development, which leads to various problems in speech activity. Distinctive features of speech development will be individual and depend on the severity of the syndrome. The depth of the ZPR can affect speech in different ways. Sometimes there is some delay in speech formation, which practically corresponds to the level of full development. In some cases, there is a violation of the lexical and grammatical basis of speech, i.e. in general, underdevelopment of speech functions is noticeable. An experienced speech pathologist can restore speech activity and should be consulted.
Thinking
Considering the issue of thinking in children with mental retardation, it can be noted that the biggest problem for them is solving logic problems proposed in verbal form. Developmental delays also occur in other aspects of thinking. Approaching school age, children with developmental delays have poor ability to perform intellectual actions. They cannot, for example, summarize, synthesize, analyze or compare information. The cognitive sphere of activity with mental retardation is also at a low level.
Children suffering from mental retardation are much less savvy than their peers in many issues related to thinking. They have a very meager supply of information about the world around them, have a poor understanding of spatial and temporal parameters, and their vocabulary also differs significantly from that of children of the same age, and not for the better. Intellectual work and thinking do not have clearly defined skills.

The central nervous system in children with developmental delays is immature; the child is not ready to go to first grade at the age of 7. Children with mental retardation do not know how to perform basic actions related to thinking, are poorly oriented in tasks and cannot plan their activities. Teaching children with mental retardation to write and read is extremely problematic. Their letters are mixed up, especially those that are similar in spelling. Thinking is inhibited - it is very difficult for a preschooler to write an independent text.
Children with developmental delays who enter a regular school become unsuccessful students. This situation is extremely traumatic for an already damaged psyche. As a result, a negative attitude towards learning in general appears. A qualified psychologist will help solve the problem.
Creating favorable conditions
For the comprehensive development of a child, it is necessary to create external favorable conditions that would promote successful learning and stimulate the work of various parts of the central nervous system. It is important to create a developing subject environment for classes. What does it include? Educational play activities, sports complexes, books, natural objects and more. Communication with adults will also play an important role. This communication should be meaningful.

For such children, it is extremely important to gain new experiences, communicate with adults and friendly peers.
Play is the leading activity for a child aged 3-7 years. Practical communication with an adult who would teach the child to manipulate this or that object in a playful way is of paramount importance for children with mental retardation. In the process of exercises and activities, an adult helps the child learn the possibilities of interaction with other objects, thereby developing his thought processes. The task of an adult is to stimulate a child with developmental delays to learn and explore the world around him. You can seek advice on these issues from a psychologist.
Educational games
Correctional classes for children with mental retardation should be diversified with didactic games: nesting dolls and pyramids, cubes and mosaics, games with laces, Velcro, buttons and buttons, inserts, musical instruments, gaming devices with the ability to extract sounds. Sets for comparing colors and objects will also be useful, where different-sized, homogeneous things that differ in color will be presented. It is important to “provide” the child with toys for role-playing games. Dolls, a cash register, kitchen utensils, cars, home furniture, animals - all this will be extremely useful for full-fledged activities and games. Children love all kinds of activities and exercises with the ball. Use it to roll, toss, or teach your child how to throw and catch a ball in a fun way.
You should often play with sand, water and other natural materials. The child really enjoys playing with such natural “toys,” and they also do an excellent job of developing tactile sensations using the play aspect.
The physical education of a preschool child and his healthy psyche in the future directly depend on the game. Active games and exercises carried out on a regular basis will be excellent methods for teaching a child to control his body. It is necessary to do exercises constantly, then the effect of such exercises will be maximum. Positive and emotional communication during play between a child and an adult creates a favorable background, which also helps to improve the nervous system. By using imaginary characters in your games, you help your child show imagination and creativity, which will contribute to the formation of speech skills.

Communication as an aid to development
Talk to your child as often as possible, discuss every little thing with him: everything that surrounds him, what he hears or sees, what he dreams about, plans for the day and weekend, etc. Build short, clear sentences that are easy to understand. When speaking, take into account not only the quality of the words, but also their accompaniment: timbre, gestures, facial expressions. When talking to your child, always make eye contact and smile.
Mental retardation requires the inclusion of listening to music and fairy tales in the correctional training program. They have a positive impact on all children, whether they have any disabilities or not. Age also does not matter; they are equally loved by children 3 and 7 years old. Their benefits have been proven through years of pedagogical research.
Books will help you develop your speech during the learning process. Children's books with bright pictures can be read together, studying the pictures and accompanying them with sound. Encourage your child to repeat what they hear or read. Choose the classics: K. Chukovsky, A. Barto, S. Marshak - they will become faithful assistants in shaping the child’s personality.

Each baby is individual. It is difficult to disagree with this famous statement. In fact, the mental and physical development of each baby can proceed differently. However, when the process of formation and development of a baby does not significantly meet established standards, this may worry parents. In such cases, some parents decide to seek help from a specialist.

With a thorough and detailed examination, the child may be diagnosed with mental retardation. What is meant by this diagnosis and what are its main features?

What is ZPR?

Mental retardation is a visible delay in the development of a small person. In other words, non-compliance with certain, generally accepted norms. Delayed mental development is observed in children of school and preschool age. There are ways to help correct and, to some extent, normalize a child’s mental development. We'll talk about them a little later.. Now let's get acquainted with the main reasons for the occurrence of mental retardation in children.

Why may mental retardation occur?

Today, several main reasons are known that contribute to the occurrence of mental retardation in children of school and preschool age. Conventionally, these reasons are divided into two groups: biological and social.

First let's find out the biological factors the appearance of developmental delay. So, these factors are:

The first group of reasons is closely related to the intrauterine development of the child, when health problems appear even during the formation of a small person.

On the social reasons for the appearance of children with mental retardation:

Most of the social causes of developmental problems in children with mental retardation are related to the educational process. Mental well-being is also affected by the child’s relationship with his parents. If pedagogical influence turns out to be without taking into account the individual developmental characteristics of the child, this increases the risk of the occurrence and further development of such a pathology as mental retardation. In some cases, mental retardation is simultaneously caused by two factors, both biological and social. It is important to note that social under such circumstances has additional negative effects. It contributes to the further development of biological disorders, which, of course, should be actively combated.

To fight cancer correctly, it is necessary to determine the main symptoms of the pathology. Therefore, further we will talk about the main symptoms of mental retardation in children.

Mental retardation in children: symptoms

Next, we will discuss what symptoms occur with sexually transmitted diseases in children. Experts identify several main symptoms that indicate the presence of mental retardation in children. All of them, one way or another affect the action of mental functions:

Not only the symptoms, but also knowledge of the types of sexually transmitted diseases will help determine the presence of this pathology. In total, there are four main types of mental retardation. Let's pay close attention to each existing species.

ZPR with cerebral-organic genesis. The first type of mental disorder is associated with damage to the vital functions of the body’s central nervous system. During such a lesion, some body functions are partially disrupted. The defeat itself is organic in nature. At the same time, such a delay in mental development does not contribute to the emergence of mental disability. Here are the main symptoms of mental retardation with cerebral-organic origin:

Slow formation of thinking.
Slow maturation of the emotional-volitional level.
Problems with cognitive activity are clearly expressed.

ZPR with constitutional genesis. The next type is hereditary in nature (hereditary infantilism). At the same time, different functions of the child’s body are affected, namely psychological, physical and mental. The volitional sphere of development in this case corresponds to the level of development of a preschool child. Although the biological age of the child may be an order of magnitude higher. Children with this type of mental retardation exhibit increased emotional behavior. Being in a good mood, the child easily succumbs to emotions. But all experiences are superficial and rather unstable.

Mental retardation with psychogenic origin.

This type, unlike the previous ones, is more social in nature. The development of psychogenic genesis is facilitated by constant stress, as well as depressing and traumatic situations for the child’s psyche. At first, autonomic functions suffer, and then the pathology has a negative impact on the emotional and mental development of the child. Children with similar problems completely dependent on the external environment and its position.

Mental retardation with somatogenic genesis. But this type of mental retardation occurs for a biological reason. Such causes are infectious diseases and somatic pathologies. Often, developmental problems are caused by diseases of the baby’s mother. The main symptoms or features of this type of cancer are:

Both a decrease in mental tone and the emergence of fears negatively affect the baby’s relationships with people around him and the world as a whole.

Prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases

Mental retardation must be combated without fail. Often this diagnosis is made to children of preschool age (at about 5–6 years old). In some cases, mental retardation occurs already during schooling. When such problems arise, you should decide on the use of control methods as quickly as possible. Usually, a number of pedagogical and psychological procedures are provided to help cope with mental retardation. All procedures must be carried out in a timely manner (it is important not to miss the moment) and, no less important, competently.

Where can I get this kind of help?

In most cases, work with these children is carried out in special sanatoriums and institutions. Multiple treatments are carried out simultaneously experienced specialists. In this case, you cannot do without the help of a speech therapist, psychologist and psychiatrist. In order for treatment to bring the desired result, specialists and parents must become a single team, each member of which makes the maximum contribution to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. The goal of treatment and assistance from doctors is to help the preschool child adapt to the world around him and learn to get along with people.

What stages will such rehabilitation consist of? Here are the two main stages of treatment for mental retardation in school and preschool children:

Medical therapy

First of all, treatment procedures are carried out. Such procedures often include:

Correctional and pedagogical assistance. It consists of measures aimed at correcting the development process. The main factor determining rehabilitation methods is the age and other individual characteristics of the baby. At the moment, several ways to eliminate mental retardation are known. Let's pay attention to them:

Wellness technique. This technique allows you to improve and support the physical and psychological processes of a child’s formation at a certain age stage. The healing technique includes the simultaneous implementation of several important tasks, namely:

Sensory-motor sphere. This technique is more often used when working with school-age children who have deviations in sensory processes and also have problems with the musculoskeletal system. The main goal of this treatment is the formation of the sensory-motor sphere. Thanks to this technique, it is possible to identify and gradually develop creative abilities in children with mental retardation.

Working with emotional awareness. The main goal is to increase emotional awareness in a child with similar mental pathologies. By increasing the child’s awareness, specialists help him perceive and understand the feelings of people around him (including his peers). Children are taught to respond correctly to extraneous emotions, and are also helped to learn to independently control their own feelings. This technique is usually used for different degrees and types of mental retardation.

Corrective-compensatory method. This type of treatment may simultaneously include several neuropsychological techniques. The neuropsychological techniques used make it possible to level and successfully hone such vital skills as the ability to write, read and perform arithmetic operations. Without these skills, a schoolchild, as is known, it is difficult to master the school curriculum. In addition, these techniques improve the cognitive skills of children suffering from mental retardation. Corrective-compensatory work allows a child to develop such a necessary quality as focus.

Working with the child’s cognitive activity. Today, the system of psychological influence, which is combined with pedagogical assistance, is considered the most effective in this type of treatment. . The purpose of the discussed methodology- align and eliminate existing defects in mental processes.

Each technique is used according to the individual developmental characteristics of the child. Not only specialists, but also parents themselves should take an active part in treatment. Only in this case can the highest possible results be achieved. If a school-age child receives treatment, then after all the procedures, the methodological-psychological-pedagogical council must decide whether the child can study in a regular secondary school or it would be better for the child to receive education at home or in a special institution.

Sometimes students are difficult to train and educate, and the main reason for this is a special, in contrast to the norm, state of mental development of the individual, called in defectology “mental retardation” (RD). Every second chronically underachieving child has mental retardation.

Essence of the disease

In general, 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, low productivity during study, excessive fussiness or lethargy, and 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 create a medicinal-pedagogical regime in ordinary classes.

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, an individual approach and intensive training are necessary. Then children will easily fill the gaps in knowledge in a regular boarding school.

ZPR of a cerebral-organic nature

In this case, the 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 it, so at the end of the 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, do not correlate their emotional reactions with a specific situation, and are insensitive to mistakes. 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 to engage in intellectual activity, the predominance of playful, purely childish interests, and immaturity of thinking. In each individual case, the causes of the disease are different.

Causes of mental retardation

In medicine, various causes of mental retardation in children are identified:

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 the 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 Russian psychology they use the classification of K. S. Lebedinskaya.

Constitutional ZPR determined by heredity.
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.
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.
Cerebral-organic mental retardation observed in the case 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 of their school life are 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 assistance from specialists (a special education teacher, a psychotherapist) will help provide him with targeted upbringing 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 of the 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 can arise due to various reasons, they can be 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;
impairment of 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:

Perception: slow, inaccurate, inability to form a holistic image. Children with mental retardation perceive information better visually than auditorily.
Attention: superficial, unstable, short-term. Any external stimuli contribute to switching attention.
Memory: visual-figurative memory predominates, mosaic memorization of information, low mental activity when reproducing information.
Thinking: violation 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.
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

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. Lagging children in most cases communicate with children younger than themselves, who accept them better. Some kids completely avoid contact with the team.
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:

Delayed development of constitutional etiology is uncomplicated psychophysical infantilism, in which the cognitive and emotional spheres are at an early stage of development.
ZPR of somatogenic etiology - occurs as a result of severe diseases suffered during early childhood.
Mental retardation of psychogenic etiology is the result of unfavorable upbringing conditions (overprotection, impulsiveness, lability, authoritarianism on the part of parents).
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 Bailey 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 based on nootropic drugs.

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

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.
There are special schools for children with mental retardation or separate classes in general education schools based on a correctional and developmental education model. In special classes, optimal conditions have been created for teaching special children - small numbers, individual lessons that allow you not to miss the psychological characteristics of the 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.

Video for the article

Haven't liked it yet?

Mental retardation (MDD) in children is quite common these days. According to statistics, about 80% of cases of student failure in elementary school are, in one way or another, associated with mental retardation.

In this article we will look at the mechanisms of development of mental retardation in children, symptoms, treatment, methods of diagnosis and prevention of this condition.

Why don’t all children develop “correctly”?

The reasons for this phenomenon are very diverse.

Chromosomal pathologies (genetic cause). For example, children with Down syndrome always lag behind their peers, although this can manifest itself in different ways: from mild to severe mental retardation. In addition to Down syndrome, there are other chromosomal disorders that also affect the formation of intelligence and the acquisition of new skills.
Birth injuries. Many children during pregnancy and childbirth experience acute or chronic lack of oxygen, which primarily affects the brain.
The influence of negative factors during pregnancy. Working in hazardous industries, taking serious medications, alcoholism, smoking, drugs, and infections suffered by the expectant mother do not have the best effect on the formation of the fetus’s nervous system.
Autism and autism spectrum disorders. Autistic children have great problems communicating with other people, their perception of the world is impaired, social interaction is limited or completely impossible (in severe forms of the disorder). Experts are still arguing about the causes of autism, so it cannot be unambiguously attributed to either mental illness or genetic disorders.
Other mental disorders and diseases, including hereditary ones.
Difficult psycho-emotional situation in the family. For the proper development of a preschooler, it is necessary that he grows up in love and receives enough attention from those people who surround him. If there are serious problems in the family (lack of funds, housing, seriously ill relatives, physical or psychological violence, alcoholism, and so on), this seriously affects the children. In the absence of any diseases or abnormalities, children in destructive families often have all the signs of psychological abnormalities.
Pedagogical neglect. This term denotes a situation when no one really cares about the baby or puts any effort into his development and upbringing. Unfortunately, this is not an exceptional situation in modern young families, where mom and dad are often more busy with gadgets and computer games than with their own children.
Serious somatic diseases. Sometimes they affect psychological health directly, sometimes indirectly, because if a baby, almost from birth, spends more time in hospitals than communicates and develops, this cannot but affect his psyche and skills.
Impairment of sensory functions such as hearing and vision. Deafness and blindness already in the first days of life limit the baby’s knowledge of the world; in the future, this situation only gets worse; the baby does not have enough of the methods at his disposal to interact with the environment, so development may slow down.
Psychotrauma. A serious shock suffered at an early age can “roll back” intellectual development far back.

Mental retardation in children - symptoms

It is impossible to diagnose mental retardation at home; this should be done by a doctor. However, the characteristics of children with mental retardation are striking even to attentive parents:

Difficulties in communication, lack of desire to interact with other children, difficulties in socialization;
It is difficult for a preschooler or schoolchild to maintain attention on one type of activity or the teacher’s explanations; he is constantly distracted and has difficulty perceiving educational material;
Emotional instability, vulnerability, such children get offended at any failure, withdraw into themselves, and have a very difficult time “moving away” from the insult;
The baby has difficulty mastering skills typical for his age - dressing, personal hygiene, independent feeding;
Excessive aggressiveness, anxiety, unusual fears or even suspiciousness;
In early infancy, deviations may be noticeable not only mentally, but also physically - children with such disorders later begin to hold their heads, crawl, stand, and speak;
Any speech disorders;
Poorly developed or absent imaginative thinking, there are problems with logic and memory.

Mental retardation in children - symptoms

Many parents and even teachers think that mental retardation and mental retardation are one and the same thing. But this is not entirely true.

Experts speak of mental retardation (MR) if the mental retardation progresses or does not go away until 4 years of age and beyond.

At the same time, children with mental retardation are able to use the help of adults, transfer these skills to new types of activities and apply them independently. Mentally retarded children do not delve into the essence of what they read or hear; they do not have such a need, unlike children with developmental delays. Mental and intellectual retardation with MR is practically irreversible, while ordinary developmental delay can be corrected with sufficient attention and effort on the part of adults.

Types of ZPR

Experts classify the types of mental development disorders of early childhood in different ways. Most often, domestic medicine uses the following classification of ZPR:

Constitutional (due to heredity);
Somatogenic (occurs during or after an illness);
Psychogenic (related to the climate in the family, relationships with parents and other close relatives);
Cerebral-organic (results from disorders of the brain).

Each type not only has its own causes, but also differs in symptoms, course characteristics, and treatment methods.

Diagnostics

CPR is most common in preschool children. In the first years of life, such a diagnosis is not made, since babies each develop at their own pace, so a lag in mastering one skill can be compensated for in another area. At the same time, it is worth paying attention to signs of cerebral palsy in newborns, because a baby with such a disease may later lag behind his peers physically and mentally. But perinatal encephalopathy, which neurologists love to diagnose, does not always lead to intellectual impairment.

Signs of mental retardation become especially pronounced after three years of age. The same delay in speech development in children 3-4 years old should be a reason to contact specialists.

The diagnosis is made simultaneously by several doctors - a neurologist, psychologist, speech therapist, defectologist (sometimes a psychotherapist). In this case, several important criteria are assessed:

thinking, memory;
speech development;
perception, knowledge of objects, orientation in space;
self-care skills;
creative, playful activities;
ability for social interaction.

In addition, various tests are used in diagnosis (including IQ), and sometimes the results of EEG, MRI and CT scan of the brain.

Treatment and prevention

A timely diagnosis and treatment will help a preschooler with a developmental disorder catch up with his peers and then go to a regular, non-correctional school. In this case, parents, a psychologist, speech therapist, psychiatrist or psychotherapist must become “one team”. Quite often, drug therapy and homeopathy are used for such conditions.

But the biggest burden still falls on the shoulders of the parents. They need to accept their baby as he is, without trying to make him fit the standards, but at the same time gently helping him adapt to the team, learn to cope with the tasks of specialists and master self-service skills. Without the benevolent participation of the family, neither medications nor the best specialists will help a preschooler with mental retardation.

The same goes for prevention. No matter how much they scold you sometimes early child development, in reasonable doses and in due time, it is absolutely necessary, including for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases in children. The symptoms and treatment of this disorder largely depend on how mom and dad behave and how much time and effort they devote to their baby.

Being informed about frequently encountered and widespread topics in a particular area can save a person’s fate. A striking example is awareness of pathologies that often occur in childhood. You should be especially careful and attentive with them, because knowledge of how to recognize developmental delays and mental infantilism in children in time makes it possible to correct deviations in time.

There are many examples of fairly rapid equalization of the pace of development of children with delays, thanks to the timely intervention of parents and specialists. Through long-term experiments and research on this topic, it was concluded that the group of children with mental development disorders is heterogeneous in the nature of the origin of the disease. Due to the characteristics of their origin and their predominant manifestation, several types of ZPR are distinguished.

Features of mental development

What is mental retardation? These are reversible, that is, correctable developmental disorders of the central nervous system in children aged 4-6 years. They are expressed in the slow development of intellectual and emotional-volitional personal qualities. Lack of correction of mental retardation can pose a danger to the development of a growing personality, since these disorders are characterized by difficulties in learning and the formation of healthy emotions, worldview and adequate social perception of the environment. That is why it is so important to identify problems in this area in time and consult a doctor - first, a pediatrician. Diagnosis of mental retardation is carried out exclusively collegiately, by a special commission consisting of medical specialists, teachers and psychologists. During the examination, the child is examined comprehensively, after which a general conclusion is established. On its basis, if necessary, the necessary treatment or, in other words, correction of mental retardation is prescribed.

Today, the number of children with mental retardation is about 15% of the total child population. This conclusion is most often established for children aged 4 to 5 years. By this age, the emerging personality should exhibit some learning abilities and a desire to make more mature, age-appropriate decisions. A striking example of a healthy psyche can be the desire for independent behavior of a 4-year-old child in autonomous situations and the desire to act independently, learning about the world around him. Since the problems of children with mental developmental disabilities characterize the child’s personality as less mobile, with mental infantilism inappropriate for age, difficult to for training, doctors recommend a specially designed training program. Before starting treatment, it is necessary to ensure that the child is developing at a slow rate. In contrast, mental retardation affects a wide area of central nervous system functions, but each of them is reduced to a mild form. Initially, such deviations are very difficult to distinguish, so to prevent the aggravation of possible developmental delays, it is better to consult a doctor.

Diagnosis of mental retardation

According to statistics, 1 in 4 children is susceptible to developing mental development delays, so monitoring the development of the central nervous system in children under 6 years of age is very important.

Information is collected about diseases suffered in early childhood.
A complete analysis of the child’s living conditions and hereditary information is carried out.
Neuropsychological testing is mandatory, taking into account the analysis of the child’s independence and social adaptation.
Speech mobility is diagnosed.
Particular attention is paid to the conversation with the patient in order to identify the characteristics of the intellectual process and emotional-volitional characteristics.

Classification

So, mental retardation (MDD) is divided into several types. According to the classification of mental retardation proposed by K. S. Lebedinskaya, there are 4 main clinical types of delay.

ZPR of somatogenic origin. The same signs of mental retardation: the predominance of gaming interests, lack of attention and memory are caused by long-term illnesses at an early age that were somatic in nature. Examples: diseases of the cardiovascular system, kidneys, respiratory tract, including bronchial asthma. A certain kind of pressure on the maturation of the central nervous system is exerted by long-term treatment of somatic diseases in the hospital, which also adds limited exposure to the senses (sensory deprivation).
ZPR of constitutional origin. A case caused by arbitrarily delayed maturation as a result of the influence of hereditary factors. Children are not infantile for their age, they do not behave according to their age, but as if they remain at the previous stage of development of younger children. The area of interest of children with such disabilities is more playful in nature than cognitive or educational. An important role here is played not only by the desire to learn, but also by the inability to remember large amounts of information and concentrate attention on one object, in the case of school-age children.
ZPR of psychogenic origin. The causes of this type of mental retardation are lack of attention or overprotection, as well as child abuse. They can cause certain delays in the development of psychogenic origin. Overprotection causes the following symptoms of delayed development: lack of will, psychological weakness, lack of understanding of one’s own desires, lack of initiative, egocentrism. Lack of attention makes children mentally unstable and painfully negative towards others, infantilely impulsive. Abuse creates unexpected symptoms of mental retardation.
ZPR of cerebral-organic origin. According to studies of the components of the classification of mental retardation, this type of delayed development is the most common manifestation of the disease. It manifests itself with primary non-severe organic damage to the brain. Deviations and mental retardation in children are expressed in the form of symptoms such as lack of interest in the world around them, insufficient brightness of emotions and imagination, high level of suggestibility, etc.

What could be the reason

The basis for deviations in the child’s psyche is biological and socio-psychological factors and shortcomings that lead to a decrease in the rate of development of the child’s intellect and emotional background.

The causes of cerebral retardation of constitutional origin may be:

Biological factors. This group includes minor local injuries and injuries to the central nervous system, as well as their consequences. They cause a further partial slowdown in the child’s mental development. Similar factors manifest themselves in problematic pregnancy and some complications that can accompany pregnancy: Rhesus conflicts, some types of intrauterine infections, injuries received during childbirth and many others.
Social or environmental factors. They cause delays and disruptions in the development of the psyche under the influence of overprotection or lack of attention, abuse or isolation of the child from the external environment and communication with peers.
Secondary factors. They occur in early childhood diseases that are difficult for a fragile body. For example, hearing or vision impairment due to damage to the corresponding organs due to diseases.
Metabolic factors. Changes in mental metabolism and increased need for certain vitamins and minerals.

Features of children with mental retardation

Let's look at what makes a child with this pathology different. The difference between mental retardation and mental retardation is that mental retardation is reversible and can be corrected. Intellectual impairments in children with mental retardation are mild, but affect all intellectual processes: perception, attention, memory, thinking, speech. This feature requires an individual and attentive approach, since the psyche of children with mental retardation is particularly unstable and fragile.

Peculiarities of the psyche of children with developmental delays are reduced to the following characteristics:

Differences in response to the environment. Liveliness of facial expressions, bright gestures, sudden movements. Preferences for learning exclusively through play.
Peculiarities in perception and learning ability. Reluctance to learn through general education programs: mandatory volumes of educational material for training in reading, writing and drawing.
Preference for the game part over other methods of obtaining information. Tirelessness and creativity in games, absent-mindedness and lack of attention in studies.
From the emotional-volitional component of the psyche. Emotional instability is clearly expressed. Against the background of high fatigue, nervous mood swings and hysterics occur when encountering unfamiliar or unpleasant situations for the child.
Love to fantasize. It is a means of psychological balancing. Repressing unpleasant situations and information by replacing them with non-existent events or people.

A feature of mental retardation is that compensation and correction of all types of disorders is possible in the early stages of their identification and only in conditions of special training and education. Playful inclinations of perception of the surrounding world are taken into account when involving children with mental retardation in educational and developmental activities.

Specialists are developing complex programs with outdoor games for children with mental retardation in combination with dosed educational information from the general program. This style of learning is necessary for compensatory restoration of missed stages of development, corresponding to age and the required level of psyche, intelligence and development of the central nervous system.

Prevention

It is not always possible to prevent all factors influencing a child’s developmental delay in comparison with generally accepted age norms. However, there are a number of methods, hygiene and preventive measures.

The list of main methods of prevention includes planning pregnancy, preventing any infectious and somatic diseases in both the mother and the child at an early age, avoiding mechanical, chemical and other negative effects on the fetus, as well as providing favorable conditions for the upbringing and development of the child.

Treatment

Harmonic infantilism or mental retardation can be corrected quite successfully if a child with mental retardation is placed in a well-organized developmental and educational environment.

The dynamics of a child’s development are determined by the significance of the disorders and pathologies, the level of intelligence, potential and level of performance of the child. Much attention should be paid to time - the sooner the diagnosis of mental retardation is established, the sooner correction can begin, without allowing the situation to worsen.

One of the key problems in constructing and selecting corrective programs is due to the variety of types of ZPR and their manifestations. You need to know that every child with harmonious infantilism has a number of characteristics, including insufficient development of the emotional-volitional sphere and immaturity of cognitive activity.

Harmonic infantilism can be corrected quite successfully, provided that the developmental environment is properly organized.

The dynamics of a child’s development depend on the depth of impairments, level of intelligence, characteristics of mental performance and early correction. The start time of correctional and developmental work is of paramount importance. The sooner a delay is identified and corrective action is started, the greater the child’s chances of moving closer in his development to the requirements of the norm.

What do corrective programs include?

Individual correctional programs take into account many characteristics of the child and the degree of development of intelligence and potential performance, as well as the peculiarities of the formation of the structure of mental activity, the development of sensorimotor function and much more.

Working with children with mental retardation requires a general, multifaceted approach. The treatment and correction of such deviations includes the participation of pediatricians from various fields. The complex of examinations and observations includes the work of child neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and speech therapists. Speech pathologists and general pediatricians are also involved in the work. Such correction is recommended for a long time and from preschool age.
For children with established mental development delays, it is recommended to attend specialized schools and groups or classes in preschool educational institutions.
The main features of children with mental retardation are the dosage of educational material and its playful type of teaching. All material is divided into small information elements with an emphasis on clarity, frequent changes of activities and repeated repetition.
Particular attention is paid to the development of programs to improve memory, thinking and attention. Thanks to numerous art therapy techniques and game elements, improvements in the emotional and sensory sphere of activity are achieved.
A very important element of the work is constant monitoring by defectologists, psychologists and psychiatrists.
This type of mild impairment is restored through drug therapy in accordance with the identified impairments. An important addition: massages, physical therapy (physical therapy), physiotherapy and hydrotherapy.

Important!

Adults need to remember that the child’s psyche is very flexible and soft. This makes it possible to correct any delays and mild pathologies. Adapted educational programs for children with mental retardation are developed specifically for such deviations and are able to normalize the psyche and emotional-volitional qualities of the child to those corresponding to his age category. Almost all deviations from the norm can be corrected. However, work with delays in the mental development of a child should be carried out taking into account the individual characteristics of the child and in a timely manner.

Parents and teachers of specialized educational institutions should know that there are no general programs for correcting the developmental characteristics of the child’s psyche, even in schools for children with mental retardation.

Such correctional educational and developmental programs are formed individually for each child. Even for work in specialized classes for children with mental retardation, it is recommended to process the program for each child. The development and correction of the program is carried out jointly with specialists from psychological and psychiatric centers. Be attentive to your children, monitor their health and contact pediatric specialists in a timely manner.

Signs of mental retardation. Mental retardation, how scary is it? Diagnosis of mental retardation in a child - what is it?

Types of ZPR

ZPR of constitutional origin

ZPR of somatogenic origin

ZPR of psychogenic origin

Features of the manifestation of mental retardation

Physical development

Will, memory and attention

Perception of information

Speech

Thinking

Creating favorable conditions

Educational games

Communication as an aid to development

What is ZPR?

Why may mental retardation occur?

Mental retardation in children: symptoms

Prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases

Where can I get this kind of help?

Causes of mental retardation

Types of mental retardation

Symptoms of mental retardation

Differences from mental retardation

Treatment of mental retardation in children

Why don’t all children develop “correctly”?

Mental retardation in children - symptoms

Mental retardation in children - symptoms

Types of ZPR

Diagnostics

Treatment and prevention

Features of mental development

Diagnosis of mental retardation

Classification

Read more about the constitutional ZPR

What could be the reason

Features of children with mental retardation

Prevention

Treatment

What do corrective programs include?

Important!