Practically in every team there are children who require special attention, and these children are not always disabled with physical disabilities. It is also possible the appearance of a child with intellectual disabilities. It is difficult for such children to learn the program on a general basis, they often lag behind in learning and require individual lessons with them. That's exactly what we'll talk about with children with intellectual disabilities in this article.
Manifestation of disease
Mental retardation is a disease that cannot be detected immediately at birth. Its first manifestations become noticeable when the baby goes to kindergarten, and in some cases even later. But if the brain damage is really strong, then you can notice significant developmental delays in the first years of the baby's life. Butif we are talking about mental retardation, then it mainly manifests itself already at school age.
Now almost 90% of children who are diagnosed with mental retardation are diagnosed with mild mental retardation. Minor delays can be noticed even in the kindergarten, but it is possible to accurately establish the diagnosis only after entering the school. There are three stages of mental retardation, each of which has its own characteristics. We will talk about this later.
Mild mental retardation
Work with children with intellectual disabilities can be started only after you have a complete picture of his condition. So, if you have a child with mild mental retardation in front of you, then working with him will be quite simple. He rarely has problems communicating with a group of peers; such children can learn material on their own, but not to the same extent as the bulk of children. But despite this, they attend regular classes in general education schools. Over the course of life, this diagnosis does not go anywhere, but people may well live a normal life, work in an enterprise, have friends and family. Perhaps sometimes they will need outside help, but close people are able to help them without the involvement of specialists.
Moderate mental retardation
Such a diagnosis is made only to ten percent of children who have intellectual disabilities. Features of children with intellectual disabilities of this level can be detected even at preschool age. When it's time to go to school(approximately six or seven years), the intelligence of this child corresponds to two or three years of age. Therefore, such children are not sent to general educational institutions.
Most often this diagnosis is observed in children who have Down syndrome. They are quite capable of living normally, communicating with other people, but they must be under constant supervision so that an adult can guide him. The development of children with intellectual disabilities of this level is rather slow, and they barely have time to master the school curriculum for the second grade. In adolescence, they also have a hard time, because it is difficult for children to learn the norms of morality and rules of behavior, as a result of which there are serious problems when communicating with peers.
Severe mental retardation
This is the rarest diagnosis of all. It is given to only three or four percent of children who have intellectual disabilities. The first manifestations can be noticed already in the first months of life, since even a person without special education can see some anomalies in development. These children learn everything much later than others. It is more difficult for them to learn to sit, then crawl and walk, using a potty is also always a difficult stage of knowledge. There is absolutely nothing to say about the ability to talk, since it takes several years for a child to be able to more or less clearly express his thoughts. There are also problems with physical development, there are serious he alth problems.
It's terrible, but a child with this level of impairmentintelligence only by the twelfth year of life can independently compose a sentence of two or three words. And at fifteen, a boy or girl with severe mental retardation has the intelligence of a six-year-old.
There is another diagnosis that occurs in only one percent of children - this is a deep mental retardation, which becomes noticeable even in newborns. These children have not only mental, but also physical pathologies. It is required to conduct a lot of activities with children with intellectual disabilities of this level, just to teach them to hold a spoon, sit upright, and take care of themselves. It takes more than one year.
Causes of disease
It is impossible to name absolutely all the reasons why this type of diagnosis appears. However, the most common ones you still need to know:
- This problem can be caused by various genetic diseases.
- Of course, heredity.
- Perhaps there were some violations in the period of intrauterine development, which entailed such consequences.
- Often such a diagnosis occurs in children who were born to a mother after forty-five years.
- Unfavorable pregnancy.
- Baby may be injured during childbirth.
- There may be various inflammations in the membranes of the brain, which will inevitably entail similar consequences.
- Intellectual impairment can occur as a result of a child suffering a serious head injury while still very young.
Development
A he althy child from birth begins to explore this new and wonderful world. He begins to feel everything, taste it, checks the strength of objects. Only in this way will the child be able to receive all the information he needs about the world into which he finds himself. It's no secret that he utters the first conscious and understandable words at the age of one and a half or two years. Someone a little later or earlier, but the averages are just that.
As for the development of children with intellectual disabilities, they go through all these stages a little later, depending on the form in which this violation is expressed. They are no different from their peers, because they are also interested in toys and outdoor games. It is especially easy to communicate with children of the same age with mild mental retardation. If they can find friends for themselves, and this is not so difficult, then they will perfectly join the team and can even become recognized leaders there.
Education and training
Raising children with intellectual disabilities can sometimes be challenging and challenging, but with the best of effort, it can be a daunting task.
The first thing that causes difficulties for children with this diagnosis is speaking. It is very difficult for them to learn to speak, so quite often they have to use various gestures to simply explain what they want or do not want. This problem greatly complicates their verbalcommunication, does not allow you to communicate with peers.
As already mentioned, it can be difficult for such children to find friends, because they do not always understand what other children are talking about, what they are trying to get from them. Because of this, they can remain alone, not take part in various outdoor games, because, due to their intellectual capabilities, they simply cannot understand the rules of the game.
Great difficulties can arise in the learning process. After all, in children, not only the ability to reproduce information is violated, but also the ability to assimilate it. Their thinking is not as well developed, they cannot master all the material that is given at school, like other children. Therefore, quite often they are transferred to individual training, and teachers work with them according to a special program.
Learning Capacity
Children who are diagnosed with "mental retardation" may well study in a comprehensive school and learn all the material presented. Yes, it will not be fully assimilated and, perhaps, not immediately, but the learning outcomes will be. They can easily establish contact with peers, find friends in the student team. However, only those children who have mild mental retardation have this opportunity. More severe types of retardation have their own characteristics.
Children with moderate to severe retardation attend special schools or are homeschooled.
As for the first category of children, theythey do quite well at school, but their success largely depends on the teacher himself, on his ability to correctly build a lesson and present information. The kindergarten teacher and the school teacher must understand that this child requires special attention and approach. It's no secret that children feel everything, and children with such a diagnosis are especially sensitive.
When studying in a school team, they should see support from an adult who should praise them for the smallest achievements. Otherwise, the child will realize that he cannot perform any tasks, he will have fear and a feeling of helplessness. If the teacher shows his negative attitude towards such a child, then he will immediately understand that no one is needed here, give up and stop moving forward. He will not succeed even in the tasks he can do.
What should parents do?
Many mothers, having heard the diagnosis of their child, seek to completely isolate him from the outside world. They are afraid that they will tease or offend him, that he will be "downtrodden" and useless. In this regard, even children with mild mental retardation often remain home-schooled or in a specialized school. This should not be done if there are no serious prerequisites.
On the contrary, you need to try to socialize the baby, send him to the garden, then to a regular school. So he will learn to communicate with people, he will understand that he is the same person as everyone else. But here you need to be careful and it is better to consult with a PMPK psychologist. After all, if the baby has serious lags, thenthere is a risk of his isolation in the team, then this will entail serious consequences for his mental state.
So, remember that teaching children with intellectual disabilities in a regular school is possible, but only after a preliminary examination and consultation with a specialist.
Working methods
It is impossible to say exactly what programs are needed for children with intellectual disabilities, since here everything is determined purely individually. However, you can give general advice and recommendations on the preparation of such programs.
Motor exercises
Such exercises are needed in order to strengthen the hand, develop motor skills of the hands. As auxiliary materials, specialists use plasticine or clay, from which, together with the child, they sculpt some figures. Also quite often in the classroom there is a small rubber ball that the child can actively squeeze. For the development of motor skills, you can offer the child to untie various knots, pierce cardboard. Children really like to connect the dots, from which then beautiful drawings are obtained, which can then even be painted. A mosaic will also be very useful in such classes, you can come up with various finger gymnastics.
Orientation in space
Also a very important point in teaching a child with intellectual disabilities. He must be able to determine right and left not only in himself, but also in his mirror image, different people and objects in life and in pictures. Children need to be taught to navigateplanes. To do this, he is offered a regular sheet of paper, on which he puts various marks depending on the instructions of the teacher: right, top, left, bottom. Memory and abstract thinking are also trained here. You can invite the baby to remember the picture, and then put it together from the puzzle from memory.
Drawing is useful for the development of absolutely all kinds of thinking. Modeling, designing various models, making appliqués are also included here. The activity of children with intellectual disabilities here is aimed at understanding the outside world, they learn to depict what they see on paper, their abstract thinking develops.
General recommendations
Classes can never be held in silence, because along with cognitive activity, the child must master speech, learn to formulate his statements, comment on everything he does. If you decide to do correctional work with such a baby, then be prepared for the fact that the classes that you prepare should be designed to develop the entire personality from all sides, and not just certain skills. Correctional work with children with intellectual disabilities is a long and painstaking work. Success here awaits only the teacher who really gives himself completely to this business, and not just sees a way to make money.
