What Are the Signs of an Intellectual Disability in Children?

Intellectual disorder (MR), also known as mental retardation, generally refers to the persistent impairment of cognitive activity and the entire psychological activity caused by organic damage to the brain or incomplete brain development. Due to genetic mutations, infections, poisoning, head injuries, craniocerebral deformities or endocrine abnormalities and other harmful factors, the fetal or infant's brain cannot develop normally or is incompletely developed, so that the development of intellectual activity stays in a relatively low stage , Called mental retardation. Because the brain is damaged by physical, chemical or viral, germ and other factors, the original normal intelligence is damaged, causing defects, which is called dementia.

Basic Information

Also known as: Mental retardation
Common causes: Genetic variation, infection, poisoning, head injury, craniocerebral malformation, endocrine abnormalities, etc.

Common symptoms: The brain cannot develop normally, is not fully developed, and the development of intellectual activity stays in a relatively low stage

Causes of Intellectual Disability

1. Genetic factors: chromosomal abnormalities, such as congenital stupidity, account for 5% to 10% of mentally retarded children. Genetic mutations such as congenital metabolic disorders belong to this category.

2. Prenatal damage: including intrauterine infection, hypoxia, physical and chemical factors such as harmful poisons, drugs, radiation, mercury, lead, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug abuse, severe malnutrition in pregnant women, or illness in pregnant women.

3. Birth injuries during delivery, suffocation, intracranial hemorrhage, premature babies, hypoglycemia, nuclear jaundice, sepsis.

4. Postnatal illness, including meningitis, encephalitis, traumatic trauma, cerebrovascular accidents, toxic encephalopathy, endocrine disorders such as hypothyroidism, epilepsy, etc.

Clinical manifestations of mental retardation

1. The perception speed is slower, and it is easier to receive the stimulation of the visual pathway than the auditory stimulation;

2. Serious distraction and very narrow attention span;

3. Poor memory. You can learn some knowledge after countless repetitions. If you do not repeat the study, you will forget everything.

4. Poor speech ability, can only speak simple words;

5. Low thinking ability, lack of abstract thinking ability, imagination and generalization ability, let alone inference;

6. There is basically no concept of numbers, and simple addition and subtraction calculations can be learned by mechanical memory;

7. Emotional instability and poor self-control;

8. Weak will and lack of self-confidence;

9. Poor communication skills, difficult to learn interpersonal communication.

Mental retardation test

Laboratory inspection

Laboratory tests include blood, urine, brain, spinal fluid biochemical examination, skull X-ray and CT examination, cerebral angiography, electroencephalogram, evoked potential, audiometry, chromosome analysis, pituitary, thyroid, gonad, adrenal function measurement, virus (Such as cytomegalovirus, rubella virus), protozoa (such as toxoplasma), and antibody tests. Relevant items should be selected according to diagnostic needs.

2. Neuropsychiatric examination.

3. Intelligence test and behavior judgment

Mild MR is more commonly used in intelligence tests. It is often difficult to use intelligence tests for severe MR and above. Behavioral rating scales must be relied on, and the rating scales are less reliable than the intelligence tests for identifying mild MR. Therefore, the two methods should be used together, and the inspection results must be comprehensively analyzed.

Diagnostic criteria for mental retardation

1. The intelligence of children with mental retardation is significantly lower than the average intelligence level of normal people. The average IQ of a normal person is 100. When a child's IQ is 100, it indicates normal intelligence. If the IQ of a child chapter is below 70 points, his intelligence is called "significantly below" the average level (simplified as "IQ below 70 points"). Among children with an IQ of less than 70, only two out of 100 children of the same age.

2. The onset of mental retardation usually occurs at the developmental stage, specifically before the age of 18. This provision distinguishes mental retardation during development from mental retardation caused by various causes in adulthood. The prevalence of mental retardation generally does not exceed 2%. Some mentally handicapped children are accompanied by a certain degree of abnormal behavior and mental illness, which will also affect his daily social life. According to the new development trend, people pay more and more attention to the problem of social adaptation disorders of children with intellectual disabilities, because social adaptation disorders directly affect their personal functions and how to participate in social life.

3. Intellectually disabled children have obvious obstacles in adapting to daily social life. Children with mental retardation at a young age show signs of movement and language development retardation in daily life, do not have interpersonal communication, and it is more difficult to attend kindergarten or elementary school.

Intellectual Disability Treatment

Most children with significant mental retardation are easily identified in infancy, but mildly mentally handicapped are often found only after entering primary school. If you find that you have poor motor development, slow response to the outside world, poor language development, dull expression or special face, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible for early diagnosis and corresponding treatment.

Some congenital metabolic disorders, such as phenylketonuria, homocystinuria, maple syrup, histidine, galactosemia, congenital hypothyroidism (cretinism), etc. Diagnosis and treatment are performed in the neonatal period, and the intelligence of most sick children can be prevented from being damaged or the condition can be controlled. Taking phenylketonuria and cretinism as examples, if the diagnosis and timely treatment can be made within 3 months after birth, most of the intelligence can return to normal. If it is treated for more than 6 months, it will almost inevitably be damaged. Later treatment, the child's physical development is also difficult. Cretin acetone ketonuria is atypical in early symptoms and is difficult to detect. It is often discovered months after birth, but at this time it is difficult to treat, and the mental retardation is very serious. As a result, many countries screen these genetic diseases in the neonatal period.

Prevention of mental retardation

To reduce the incidence of mentally retarded children, we must do a good job of prevention, strengthen publicity and education, avoid marriages between close relatives, and mobilize sterilization for severe genetic diseases.

Avoid early marriage and advanced births of women over 40 years of age, because chromosomal abnormalities are prone to congenital stupidity.

Do a good job of prenatal health checkups, improve techniques for handling dystocia, reduce birth injuries, screen newborns for genetic and metabolic diseases in areas where conditions permit, and detect and treat early to reduce the incidence of mentally retarded children.