Mental retardation also known as intellectual disability or cognitive deficits occurs due to impaired intellectual function. It can be diagnosed in early childhood when the child shows limited ability to learn and memorize things. If the child’s intellectual ability is below 70 then he/she has cognitive deficits. Often such children cannot meet the daily demands of routine life and have impairment in education and learning skills. Mental retardation can cause serious effect on family relationship and can cause personality disorder.
Often children with MR will show aggressive behavior, impulsive reaction and stubbornness. They will cause self injury without knowing the consequences of their action. Most of them will have mood disorders, psychotic disorders and personality disorders. Some children with Down’s syndrome and autism will have distinctive structure (short) and other physical features marked for MR but others may have normal physical features with intellectual disability.
According to American Psychiatric Association, DSM – IV category divides the individuals according to the range of intellectual disability in varying degrees of severity. They are usually classified as mild, moderate, severe and profound mental retardation. Roughly 5% of the total population has intellectual disability and most of them are categorized in mild range. One should not classify children with learning disability or verbal disorder or attention deficit disorder under cognitive deficit since they have normal intelligence. Psychometric tests are to be administered for checking the intellectual quotient of a child.
Symptoms :
The first symptom of mental retardation begins at the age of 3-5. There will be persistent infantile behavior, aggressiveness, learning disability, poor concentration, lack of curiosity and reduced socialization skills. It will start in the form of developmental delay for many children like delayed walking, delayed talking etc. Some parents will notice this delay only when the younger sibling meets up the development like regular children. If the impairment of cognitive deficit is less it will show in the form of difficulty in school when the child becomes incapable to read or remember math tables.