What Is Mental Retardation?

Mental retardation (MR), also known as mental retardation or mental retardation, is a common developmental disorder in children. The mental retardation is mainly manifested in the low social adaptability, learning ability and self-care ability; its speech, attention, memory, understanding, insight, abstract thinking, imagination, etc., are significantly behind their children's mental activity. A mental retardation is the basis of a diagnosis.

Basic Information

nickname

Mental retardation, mental retardation, mental retardation

English alias

mental retardation, MR

Visiting department

Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Rehabilitation

Common causes

Heredity, brain injury, hypoxia, perinatal abnormalities, etc.

Common symptoms

low IQ

Causes of pediatric mental retardation

The causes of mental retardation can be roughly divided into two categories

Biomedical reasons

Such as various genetic diseases, acquired diseases, injuries and so on.

2. Socio-psychological reasons

Caused by the social and cultural environment. Among biomedical factors, various causes of brain injury, hypoxia, and other abnormalities during perinatal period.

Clinical manifestations of mental retardation in children

It is divided into 4 levels according to the level of mental retardation and the degree of impairment of social adaptability.

1. Mild mental retardation

The patient's IQ is between 50 and 69, accounting for about 80% of MR. It is not easy to be found early, and there may be late development of language and motor function in infants and young children, and there are no obvious signs of abnormal physical and nervous system development. In school age, learning difficulties may gradually appear. Although language development is slightly backward, social language is acceptable, personal life can still take care of themselves, and simple labor and technical operations can be engaged. Difficulty in computing, reading, writing, and applying abstract thinking, lack of flexibility, and dependence on others. Physically, there are generally no abnormalities, and the average life expectancy is close to normal people.

2. Moderate mental retardation

Patients have an IQ between 35 and 49, accounting for about 12% of MR, and are usually found at the age of 3 to 5. The patient's development in all aspects in the early years is slower than that of ordinary children, especially the development of speech comprehension and ability to use. Although he can learn to speak, he cannot speak clearly, lacks vocabulary and concepts, simple words, uncommon expressions, and lacks abstract Concept, the ability to discern the surrounding environment, to understand things tend to surface and fragments. When the patient is an adult, he or she can engage in simple stereotyped or mechanical system work under supervision, and his intelligence level is equivalent to that of normal children aged 6-9 years. The patient's physical development is poor, most of which can be found organic causes, but generally live to adulthood.

3. Severe mental retardation

Patients have an IQ between 20 and 34, accounting for about 8% of MR, and are usually found before the age of 20. Patients often have organic lesions of the body or central nervous system, or are accompanied by malformations, and have neurological symptoms such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Shortly after birth, most patients were found to have significant mental and motor developmental dysfunction, low language development, vague pronunciation, and some could not even speak. The patient has a small vocabulary, lacks abstract thinking ability, has a fuzzy concept of numbers, cannot learn with normal children, has uncoordinated emotional responses, and is impulsive. When the patient is an adult, he can perform extremely simple manual labor in care.

4. Extremely severe mental retardation

The patient's IQ is between 0 and 20, accounting for 1% to 2% of MR. The patient has obvious neurological developmental disorders and physical deformities, has extremely low intelligence, and has no speech function. Most of them can neither speak nor understand the words of others. They only express their needs by screaming and crying, and their perception is significantly reduced. Distinguish relatives, have no defense and self-defense ability, and do not know how to avoid danger. Everyday life requires the care of others. With special training, patients have very limited self-help capabilities. Most patients die early because of illness or poor viability.

Treatment of pediatric mental retardation

The causes of mental retardation are complex, and many of them remain unknown until now, which has caused some difficulties in treatment. The principles of treatment are early detection, early diagnosis, identification of causes, and early intervention.

In infants and young children, the treatment methods and contents as well as the emphasis are on the treatment of the etiology as far as possible, and early intervention treatment is carried out as early as possible to reduce brain function damage and compensate the damaged brain function. In older children, education, training and care are important aspects of treatment. Mild mental retardation can be educated; moderate can generally be trained; severe and very severe maintenance-based, supplemented by medication and diet therapy.

Prognosis of pediatric mental retardation

The main reason is to eliminate the cause, to carry out genetic counseling, to avoid close relatives to marry, to strengthen health care during pregnancy, to pay attention to nutrition during pregnancy, to avoid exposure to harmful chemicals, to quit smoking, alcohol, and absolute prohibition of drug intake, to avoid taking drugs that may cause teratogenesis, and to avoid exposure to radiation Prevent virus and protozoan infection; do prenatal inspections, prevent pregnancy complications, improve obstetric technology, and avoid pathological delivery. Do a good job of child health care, implement planned immunization, prevent infectious diseases, especially nervous system infections, pay attention to nutrition and hygiene, prevent poisoning, and avoid brain trauma. Promote parenting knowledge and improve parents' cultural level.