Delay mental development in a child, this is a specific condition that implies a slow rate of formation of certain mental functions, namely the processes of memory and attention, mental activity, which are delayed in formation compared to established norms for a certain age stage. This disease is more often diagnosed in children at the preschool stage, during testing and checking them for mental maturity and readiness to learn, and is manifested by limited views, lack of knowledge, inability to engage in mental activity, immaturity of thinking, and the prevalence of playful and childish interests. If signs of underdevelopment of mental functions are found in children in high school age stage, then it is recommended to think about their availability. Today, the slow development of mental functions and methods of corrective influence of this condition are an urgent psychoneurological problem.
Causes of mental retardation in a child
Today, the problems of mental retardation throughout the world are recognized by psychologists as one of the most pressing problematic issues of psychological and pedagogical orientation. Modern psychology identifies three key groups of factors that provoke a slow pace of formation of individual mental processes, namely, features of the course of pregnancy and the birth process itself, factors of a socio-pedagogical nature.
Factors associated with the course of pregnancy usually include those experienced by women. viral diseases, for example, rubella, severe toxicosis, consumption of alcoholic beverages, smoking, exposure to pesticides, intrauterine oxygen starvation fetus, Rh conflict. The second group of provoking factors includes injuries received by infants during the birth process, asphyxia of the fetus or its entanglement with the umbilical cord, and premature placental abruption. The third group covers factors that depend on the lack of emotional attention and the lack of psychological influence on infants from the adult environment. This also includes pedagogical neglect and limitation of life activity for a long time. This is especially felt by children under 3 years of age. also in early childhood The absence of a standard for inheritance provokes a developmental delay in children.
Positive favorable emotional climate family relations, in which the baby grows and is susceptible to educational influence, is the foundation for his normal physical formation and mental development. Constant scandals and overuse alcoholic drinks, and lead to inhibition of the baby’s emotional sphere and a slowdown in the rate of his development. At the same time, excessive care can provoke a slow rate of formation of mental functions, in which the volitional component is affected in children. In addition, children who are constantly ill are often susceptible to this disease. Developmental retardation can often be observed in babies who have previously suffered various injuries, affecting the brain. Often the occurrence of this disease in children is directly associated with their delay physical development.
Symptoms of mental retardation in a child
It is impossible to diagnose the presence of developmental retardation in newborns in the absence of obvious physical defects. Often, parents themselves attribute fictitious virtues or non-existent successes to their children, which also complicates diagnosis. Parents of children should carefully monitor their development and sound the alarm if they begin to sit or crawl later than their peers, if by the age of three they are not able to independently construct sentences and speak too little vocabulary. Often, primary disorders in the formation of individual mental processes are noticed by educators in a preschool institution or teachers in a school institution, when they discover that one student is more difficult in learning, writing or reading than his peers, and there are difficulties with memorization and speech function. In such situations, it is recommended that parents show the baby to a specialist, even if they are sure that his development is normal. Because early detection symptoms of mental retardation in children contributes to the timely start of corrective action, which leads to further normal development babies without consequences. The later parents sound the alarm, the more difficult it will be for their children to learn and adapt among their peers.
Symptoms of mental retardation in children are often associated with pedagogical neglect. In such children, the developmental delay is caused primarily by social reasons, for example, the situation in family ties.
Children with mental retardation are often characterized by the presence different types infantilism. In such children, the immaturity of the emotional sphere comes to the fore, and defects in the formation of intellectual processes fade into the background and do not appear so noticeably. They are subject to repeated mood swings, in class or gameplay they are characterized by restlessness, the desire to throw out all their inventions in them. At the same time, it is quite difficult to captivate them with mental activity and intellectual games. Such kids get tired faster than their peers and are not able to concentrate on completing an assignment; their attention is focused on things that, in their opinion, are more entertaining.
Children with mental retardation, observed primarily in the emotional sphere, often have problems learning in school, and their emotions, which correspond to the development of young children, often dominate over obedience.
In children with predominant developmental immaturity in intellectual sphere everything happens the other way around. They have practically no initiative, are often overly shy and self-conscious, and are susceptible to a number of different problems. The listed features inhibit the development of independence and the formation of personal development of the baby. In such children, play interest also prevails. Often they experience their own failures in school life or in the educational process quite hard; they do not easily get along in an unfamiliar environment, in a school institution or preschool institution, it takes a long time to get used to the teaching staff, but at the same time they behave there and obey.
Qualified specialists can diagnose mental retardation in children, establish its type and correct child behavior. During the comprehensive examination and examining the baby, the following factors should be taken into account: the pace of his activity, psycho-emotional state, motor skills and characteristics of errors in the learning process.
Mental retardation in children is diagnosed if the following are observed: characteristics:
- they are not capable of collective activities (educational or play);
- their attention is less developed than that of their peers, it is difficult for them to concentrate to master complex material, and it is also difficult not to be distracted during the teacher’s explanations;
— the emotional sphere of children is very vulnerable; at the slightest failure, such children tend to withdraw into themselves.
It follows that the behavior of children with mental retardation can be identified by their reluctance to take part in group play or educational activities, reluctance to follow the example of an adult, and achieve given goals.
There is a risk of error in diagnosing this disease, due to the fact that one can confuse the child’s immaturity with his reluctance to perform tasks that do not correspond to his age, or to engage in uninteresting activities.
Treatment of mental retardation in a child
Modern practice proves that children with mental retardation can study in a normal educational institution, and not in a specialized correctional direction. Parents and teachers should understand that difficulties in teaching children with immaturity in the development of mental processes at the beginning of school life are not the result of their laziness or dishonesty, but have objective, serious reasons that can only be successfully overcome with joint efforts. Therefore, babies with a slow rate of formation mental processes need comprehensive joint assistance from parents, teachers and psychologists. Such assistance includes: a personal approach to each child, regular classes with specialists (a psychologist and a teacher of the deaf), and in some cases, drug therapy. For the drug treatment of mental retardation in children, neurotropic drugs, homeopathic remedies, vitamin therapy, etc. The choice of drug depends on the individual characteristics of the baby and on comorbid conditions.
Most parents find it difficult to accept that their child, due to the characteristics of his formation, will grasp everything more slowly than the surrounding peers. Parental care and understanding combined with qualified specialized assistance will help create favorable positive conditions for learning and provide targeted education.
So, corrective action will be most effective if parents follow the recommendations below. The jointly directed work of teachers, the child’s close circle and psychologists is the foundation for successful learning, development and upbringing. Comprehensive overcoming of the developmental immaturity discovered in the baby, the characteristics of his behavior and the difficulties provoked by them consists of analysis, planning, forecasting and joint actions.
Correctional work with children with mental retardation throughout its entire duration should be permeated with psychotherapeutic influence. In other words, the baby should have a motivational orientation towards classes, notice his own successes and feel joy. The child needs to develop a pleasant expectation of success and the joy of praise, pleasure from actions performed or work performed. Corrective action involves direct and indirect psychotherapy, individual sessions and group therapy. The goal of correctional education is the formation of mental processes in the child and the increase in his practical experience in combination with overcoming underdevelopment of motor skills, speech and sensory functions etc.
Specialized education of children with developmental delays is aimed at preventing possible secondary anomalies that may arise as a result of a timely unconquered lack of readiness of children for educational process and life in society.
When working with children suffering from developmental delays, it is necessary to use short-term game tasks to develop positive motivation. In general, completing game tasks should interest kids and attract them. Any tasks should be feasible, but not too simple.
The problems of delayed mental development in children often lie in the fact that such children are unprepared for schooling and interaction in the team, as a result of which their condition worsens. That is why, for successful correction, you need to know all the features of the manifestations of the disease and have a comprehensive effect on children. At the same time, parents are required to have patience, interest in the result, understanding of the characteristics of their own children, love and sincere care for their children.
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for professional advice and qualified advice. medical care. If you have the slightest suspicion that your child has this disease, be sure to consult a doctor!
Hello! For the first 25 years of my life I lived in a communal apartment with gypsies, which undoubtedly harmed my psyche. At the age of 2, they poisoned me, so I spent six months in the hospital, but my mother worked at a factory all her life, sometimes combining this with part-time jobs, and could not fully participate in my upbringing. During the period when I was being treated there, she did not visit me in the hospital due to her busy schedule, so when I was finally discharged, I was a terrifying sight. It is worth mentioning at least the rotting and falling off skin on the body. Since the family was single-parent and my mother was always at work, in childhood there were few people who could positively influence my development. Neighbors in other rooms constantly fought and quarreled among themselves; I never saw love or any kindness or normal relationships in their families. Moreover, around the time I was 12 years old, their leader left somewhere, and in his place they brought in some stinking disabled person. Their gypsy grandmother fought with him until her death. Moreover, she died from the fact that she could not feed herself due to general paralysis - and her partner could not or did not feed her - that is, she died of hunger. And this is behind the wall from me. At the age of 14, my mother got a part-time job as a security guard at a library, and I began to help her, constantly working after school as a security guard and cloakroom attendant. Graduated regular school, and in high school he demonstrated a high level of intelligence - he was involved in an intellectual games club and even played for several years in a professional team of experts. Since it was better not to be at home, I spent a lot of time in libraries and read a lot. After school, I changed several places of study - among them was a pedagogical university. Future officials in the field of education, leaders were trained there educational institutions, teachers of pedagogy and psychology. It would seem that they should have helped me there. But it was not there. Under the roof of the state pedagogical university There is a commercial institute created for the sole purpose of recruiting the children of rich parents and getting the maximum benefit from them. I was accepted there for several reasons, and passing the exams with flying colors was not the main one. When my mother worked at a factory and was also a watchman in the library, she was loved by the general director of this factory, a very influential man in our city, and given the fact that I didn’t know my father from birth, so for everyone I was the adopted son of this boss. Again, success in the hobby played a role - what? Where? When? They recruited only guys who had proven themselves in social activities. And considering that this institution had just opened, they accepted everyone in a row, the guys were enrolled on the budget at first with generally bad marks on the exam. Of course, this freedom is explained by the bait or the first set, when you need to gain the full course. The following recruitments, of course, took place among excellent students, medalists and a variety of talents. I have never been a collectivist, neither at school, nor in the club, nor in the institutes. There are still some oddities in memory and attention. But then few people were interested in this. I hoped that my psychological problems would be solved there, and I was wrong. When the first wave of student romance faded away, the true face of those around them was revealed. The administration, under any pretext, extorted bribes, which, however, not everyone paid on our course. Those who couldn't - including me - never excelled academically or socially. Sometimes holidays and receptions were held. But I was worried about something else. Neither the students nor the teachers respected me. Now I am 33 years old and I feel like a complete maniac. To be continued.
Hello! Help is greatly needed! My son has developed very well physically and mentally since birth. This was the case until about 4-5 years old. Then dad (apparently out of jealousy) joined in his learning and then it began... At first the child almost completely forgot many letters (he knew almost all the letters, because we played with the letters in our own way and he really liked this game, but had not read it yet , because we didn’t set such a goal) and began to remember them with difficulty and confuse them - this is the result of dad’s teaching the child to read. Following this, thinking and logic gradually slowed down. This is only what concerns the field of education. It would take a very long time to talk about other psycho-emotional problems.
Now he is 8.5 years old. From one of the best, he has turned, perhaps, into worst student in class, cannot remember and understand elementary things, and if he understands, he can rarely apply his knowledge in independent and practical work. He can make mistakes on the same task an infinite number of times, performing it as if it were new each time. Shows almost no cognitive activity, does not try, and sometimes resists learning something new, practicing some skills. Such a desire can only be a flash, it comes to the point.
I suspect he has a mental retardation, which manifested itself against the backdrop of emotional pressure from his father, who comes out with anger for any mistake the child makes, yells and insults him in every possible way.
I turned to the school psychologist in the hope that he could help us correct the shortcoming that had arisen and would help our dad learn to behave differently, and not as despotic as he does, and would show the father that the problems that had arisen were not the child’s shortcoming, not his laziness and reluctance, but a consequence of incorrect and excessively rough treatment of the child.
Often thoughts arise about taking the children and leaving. But children need a father. Moreover, he is a very good father when he does not experience fits of anger. Children love him, he can reason well and competently, and organizes children’s leisure time well. When I went to see the school psychologist, I made a very good impression on the latter. Maybe that’s why the teacher didn’t see the problems? But there is a problem, and it is getting worse.
I'm desperate and don't know what to do. Yesterday my son said several times that he would hang himself if his dad started screaming like that again.
I see that he is trying very hard to understand and, when doing school exercises, he is sure that he is doing everything correctly and as it should. But it turns out that he doesn’t: he will forget to indent the required number of lines (this is symthematic) between lessons, although in the second grade this should not happen, or at least not be of a systematic nature. The same goes for such basic things as putting periods at the end of sentences, underlining with a pencil and ruler, completing tasks based on a model, etc. Problems with the account. When copying, he makes a lot of mistakes. At home we write dictations with him with vocabulary words - not a single mistake, or 1 in a fairly large volume of words for his age (10-20 words); at school - a mistake upon a mistake, and in the same words. If earlier the teachers said that he could be an excellent student, only he lacked accuracy, now they don’t know how to improve him to a C grade. This is not for all subjects, but only where clear and quick thinking, logic, and attention are required.
I write a lot about school, not because I am very concerned about his grades and want to make him an excellent student, but because these are the most illustrative examples, which are simpler and best demonstrate the problems and shortcomings we encountered. These are: low level of attention, memorization, possibly concentration and switching. Everyone needs to tell him what to do, he himself rarely takes the initiative, he is very slow. Sometimes there are glimpses, but only as short-term insights. Sometimes my son begins to give the impression of being mentally retarded. Teachers who worked with him in kindergarten (before preparatory group) do not believe that he can study poorly and poorly master the program. But this is a fact that greatly worries me, because I associate it precisely with mental development, or rather with the factors that influenced it: the despotic, cruel treatment of the father, excessive demands on his part, his desire to quickly make the child an adult, and so on.
My husband doesn't listen to me well. That's what I was hoping for school psychologist. Maybe his professional responsibilities do not include this kind of work? Then please tell me where to go? And am I right in seeing that child's mental health?
Hello, my situation is very similar to yours. I read it as if it were about my child. Please write to me, I really want to know what you did and whether any changes occurred.
Olya90sherban(dog)gmail.com
Good afternoon, is there a similar diagnosis for adults? I am 30 years old. There are practically no friends, there is no girlfriend and never was. After graduating from school, I talked almost exclusively with my mother. I studied at the university for a long time, periodically expelled and re-entered. As a result, I graduated from university only at the age of 27. After that, I got a job and progress began in my communication skills. Nevertheless, I don’t feel like I’m 30 years old, but rather like a teenager, about 20 years old at most. Still very shy in communication. Could this be due to mental retardation? How critical is this and is there any chance that it will go away (shyness).
Good afternoon Help with advice on where to go. We have a 2-year-old grandson who doesn’t speak and started sitting and walking very late. A very inquisitive and sociable boy, but at 2 years old he does not respond to questions, i.e. for almost everything. For example, it may show a dog, or it may not. Does not respond to names, requests to show something, to do something. The alarm began to sound from the age of 6 months, at first the neurologist at the clinic calmed me down and said that everything was normal. And now they say wait, maybe everything will return to normal. But time is running out! We passed all the doctors in Samara, all the healers in the Samara region and not only. We couldn’t get an appointment only with the osteopathic doctor Eremin. Sincerely, Vladimir.
Good afternoon, Vladimir. We recommend seeking help from a neurologist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, speech pathologist.
You are doing the right thing by not passively waiting for your baby to speak. It is necessary that the child be taught and practiced at home to stimulate development and form coordinated work various structures brain For example, by developing fine motor skills of the hands, you can achieve speech activity in a child. The exercises are quite simple: let the baby knead plasticine, dough, clay; press the rubber bulb, receiving a stream of air; wrinkle or tear paper; sort small items; pour bulk materials; lower small objects into a vessel with a narrow neck; play with the designer (so that the principle of connecting parts is different); collect puzzles, play mosaics, string beads on a cord, unfasten and fasten Velcro, snaps, buttons, hooks, zippers, etc.
Hello! Thank you very much for the article! We want to take a 6-year-old girl from the shelter into care. Psychologists there say that she has delayed emotional development, that is, now she is like she was 4 years old. Is it possible to help her and develop and improve her situation over time, provided she lives in a family?
Sincerely,
Svetlana
Hello Svetlana.
Delayed emotional development is somatogenic infantilism, caused by a number of neurotic layers - fearfulness, uncertainty, tearfulness, lack of independence, etc.
Health-improving and correctional work with such a child includes the following areas:
— therapeutic and recreational activities, including drug treatment;
- strict alternation of rest and study, an extra day of rest from classes; During classes, give the child a rest, changing types of activities;Good evening, Nergui. Just because your granddaughter does not speak does not mean that she has autism.
Typically, speech in an autistic child appears quite early, and then fades away later.
Try to communicate more emotionally with the girl, read children's books, look at pictures together, play with her, give her the opportunity to sculpt from plasticine, sand, clay, and paint. This will allow her to develop fine motor skills, which is directly related to the development of speech function and she will definitely speak.
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. Expressed in limited ideas, lack of knowledge, inability to intellectual activity, the predominance of playful, purely childish interests, immaturity of thinking. In each individual case, the causes of the disease are different.
In medicine, they are determined different reasons delayed mental development in children:
1. Biological:
- pregnancy pathologies: severe toxicosis, intoxication, infections, injuries;
- prematurity;
- asphyxia during childbirth;
- infectious, toxic, traumatic diseases in 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 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 is determined by the socio-psychological factor: such children are brought up in unfavorable conditions: monotonous environment, narrow circle of friends, lack of mother's 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, alcoholism or drug addiction of parents, 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 are equally possible mental retardation and signs of disturbance in the emotional-volitional sphere, which is very important for the child. 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 of ordinary secondary school, and not a special correctional one. 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 carelessness: they have objective, sufficient serious reasons, which must be jointly and successfully overcome. Such children should be provided comprehensive assistance parents, psychologists, 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 (teacher-defectologist, psychotherapist) will help provide him with targeted upbringing and create favorable conditions for learning.
Delayed mental development of constitutional origin is diagnosed in children with manifestations of mental and psychophysical infantilism. Translated into Russian, infantilism (lat. infantilis) means “infantile, childish.” In the psychological literature, it refers to developmental retardation, manifested by the preservation in adulthood of the physical structure or character traits inherent in childhood.
The term “infantilism” was first proposed by E. Lasegue in 1864 to designate the physical and mental signs characteristic of children that persist in some adults. In relation to children with developmental delays, the term “mental infantilism” was introduced at the beginning of the 19th century. German psychiatrist J. Anton. The author considered it as “partial infantilism”, in contrast to “total infantilism” in mental retardation. In adult psychiatry, this term is used quite often as part of the analysis of personality changes in various mental illnesses (cited from: Lebedinsky, 1985).
The prevalence of mental infantilism, according to some authors, is 1.6% among the child population.
Its causes are most often relatively mild brain lesions: infectious, toxic and others, including trauma and fetal asphyxia. The last trimester of the prenatal period and the period of childbirth are considered especially unfavorable in this regard. A number of authors associate infantilism in children with a constitutional genetic predisposition and psychogenic factors in the form of peculiarities of upbringing such as hypo- or overprotection, despotic upbringing, etc. (K. S. Lebedinskaya, 1982; V. V. Kovalev, 1985).
IN clinical practice two forms of mental infantilism are distinguished: simple and complicated (V.V. Kovalev, 1973; T.A. Vlasova and M.S. Pevzner, 1973; M.S. Pevzner, 1982; etc.) In further studies, four were identified its main variants: harmonic (simple), disharmonic, organic and psychogenic infantilism.
Harmonic (simple) infantilism manifests itself in a uniform delay in the rate of physical and mental development. The name “harmonic infantilism” was proposed by G. E. Sukhareva (Sukhareva, 1959, 1965). His clinical picture characterized by features of immaturity, “childishness” in somatic and mental appearance. Children look younger than their age, as they have an infantile body type with childlike plasticity of facial expressions and motor skills. The emotional sphere of these children seems to be at an earlier stage of development, corresponding to the mental makeup of a younger child: with brightness and liveliness of emotions, a predominance of gaming interests in behavior, suggestibility and lack of independence.
At an early age, it is quite difficult to identify signs of emotional-volitional immaturity in a child, and therefore mental infantilism is much more often diagnosed in school and adolescence. However, already in the first years of life in children with mental infantilism, specialists can observe a decrease in cognitive activity, a symbiotic relationship with the mother, and a delay in the development of independence skills.
In to school age Such children experience underdevelopment of intellectual interests, which manifests itself in increased distractible fatigue, especially when the child is required to exert volitional efforts to complete complex tasks. These children are tireless in play, in which they show a lot of creativity and invention, but at the same time they quickly become fed up with intellectual activity.
When entering school, children with simple infantilism experience a predominance of gaming interests over cognitive ones. It is difficult for them to concentrate on a task for a long time, to show perseverance throughout the lesson, and to obey the rules of discipline (M. S. Pevzner, 1972). And often, in response to ordinary educational tasks, neurotic reactions and behavioral disorders may occur. The “harmony” of mental appearance is often disrupted in school and adulthood, since the immaturity of the emotional sphere makes it difficult social adaptation child.
Meanwhile, the age dynamics of harmonious infantilism are relatively favorable. With the correct organization of educational work, children with a similar proportional combination of mental and physical immaturity catch up with their peers in general mental development. Their individual activity and independence, research and creative elements appear in activities, the development of imagination and fantasies is observed. According to the observations of clinicians, manifestations of simple mental infantilism decrease or completely disappear by approximately ten years (V.V. Kovalev, 1979).
Clinical and psychological studies show that with simple mental infantilism, mental immaturity covers all areas of the child’s activity, including intellectual. However, in the structure of a mental defect, the defining symptom complex is emotional-volitional immaturity. This is clearly manifested in children’s increased emotionality, instability, lack of independence, increased suggestibility, desire for pleasure from play activities, carelessness, inability to subordinate their behavior to the demands of adults and, at the same time, excessive dependence on loved ones (V.V. Lebedinsky, 1985). Typical for children with mental infantilism at primary school age is the predominance of gaming interests over educational ones, misunderstanding and rejection of the school situation and the disciplinary requirements associated with it, which leads to social and school maladjustment. During the puberty period, such children may experience personal disharmonies, manifested in character accentuations of an unstable or hysterical type (V.V. Kovalev, 1985).
Intellectual disability in children with simple infantilism is of a secondary nature, determined by a lag in the maturation of the components of the developing personality. It manifests itself in the predominance of concrete-actional and visual-figurative thinking over abstract-logical thinking. When performing intellectual tasks, schoolchildren exhibit insufficient focus and a tendency toward imitative activity (Z. I. Kalmykova, 1978; T. V. Egorova, 1973; V. V. Lebedinsky, 1985).
Research by psychologists has revealed that lack of focus and increased emotionality in children with uncomplicated infantilism negatively affects the formation cognitive processes. For example, in studies of the perceptual characteristics of junior schoolchildren with a simple form of infantilism, insufficient development of the orienting basis of activity was found, which made it difficult to choose an effective strategy when solving perceptual tasks and caused a decrease in the speed of their implementation (Safadi Hasan, 1997).
Special place In the structure of mental development delay in children with infantilism, pronounced exhaustion of attention is occupied, especially under intellectual stress. At the same time, during gaming activity the productivity of attention improves. These data highlight the dependence of intellectual productivity in children with infantilism on motivation.
Studies of the memory of children with mental infantilism have shown that they are characterized by a higher level of development of visual memory compared to auditory-verbal memory. Many children experience significant difficulties in organizing and controlling mnemonic activity. For example, during the game, their memorization efficiency is much higher, which emphasizes the positive role of attitude in the effectiveness of mnemonic processes in children with mental infantilism (Safadi Hassan, 1997).
The immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere is also manifested in the peculiarities of the mental activity of children with mental infantilism. Studies show sufficient development of mental operations, but uneven cognitive activity, which reduces the productivity of their intellectual activity (V. V. Lebedinsky, 1985).
Disharmonic infantilism is distinguished by a combination of signs of mental immaturity, characteristic of simple infantilism, with individual pathological character traits, such as affective excitability, conflict, egocentrism, etc. (G. E. Sukhareva, 1959).
Pathological character traits can appear in a child already at the beginning of the second year of life in the form of stubbornness and affective instability. In preschool age, they can be reflected in reactions of protest, in the child’s desire to insist on his own, to offend other children or loved ones, etc. In school-age children, traits of immaturity may underlie increased affective instability, the child’s tendency to get stuck on sources of conflict, pathological deceit, etc. In adolescence, traits of immaturity in the emotional-volitional sphere often manifest themselves in deviant behavior and pathological character traits. As V.V. Kovalev emphasizes, the structure and age-related dynamics of disharmonious infantilism make it possible to regard it as a stage of emerging psychopathy. Most often, children with this type of infantilism develop psychopathy of the hysterical, unstable and excitable type (V.V. Kovalev, 1985).
Disharmonic infantilism in its pure form is quite rare. The most common variant of the constitutional form of the ZPR is organic infantilism, which develops as a result organic damage brain Organic infantilism is characterized by a combination of mental infantilism with psychoorganic syndrome. (G. E. Sukhareva, 1965; S. S. Mnukhin, 1968; K. S. Lebedinskaya, 1982; V. V. Lebedinsky, 1985; etc.). V.V. Kovalev considers organic infantilism as a form of residual organic mental pathology mixed (dyzontogenetic-encephalopathic) pathogenesis (V.V. Kovalev, 1979). Organic infantilism occurs most often in connection with the consequences of early organic brain damage due to brain infections or injuries.
In the clinical picture, as with simple infantilism, there are signs of immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere, spontaneity, increased interest in gaming activities, but in combination with borderline intellectual failure caused by a violation of a number of prerequisites for intellectual activity: attention, memory, mental performance (B V. Kovalev, 1985). Emotional-volitional immaturity remains a nuclear feature and is manifested by childish behavior, judgments, naivety, suggestibility, predominance of gaming interests, and inability to engage in activities that require volitional effort. In addition, there is a decrease in emotional liveliness and brightness of emotions, superficiality of emotional attachments, and poverty of imagination. With age, children with organic infantilism manifest themselves more clearly intellectual disability- in a decrease in school performance.
The intellectual activity of children with organic infantilism is characterized by inertia and poor switchability thought processes. Gaming and then educational activities are characterized by monotony, decreased cognitive activity, disinterest in evaluating one’s actions, and a low level of aspirations. Severe underdevelopment of the prerequisites for intelligence (attention, memory, mental performance) negatively affects the intellectual productivity of children, but does not cause a violation of the actual intellectual functions, such as the ability to generalize and abstract.
A psychological study of younger schoolchildren with organic infantilism revealed difficulties in switching attention, reduced memory capacity, both in the visual and auditory modalities, and underdevelopment of visual-spatial functions (I. A. Yurkova, 1971; V. V. Kovalev, 1979; V. V. Lebedinsky, 1985; I. I. Mamaichuk, E. G. Troshikhina, 1997; etc.). Education in a public school for such children causes significant difficulties; as a rule, they study in classes for children with mental retardation or in auxiliary schools.
Studies of the personality of children with infantilism have revealed its disharmonious structure, inadequate self-esteem, and inadequate ways of reacting emotionally to a conflict situation. Moreover, the most persistent personality disorders were observed in children with complicated mental infantilism. In contrast to younger schoolchildren with uncomplicated infantilism, children with organic infantilism had a significant decrease in the adaptation rate, a tendency to increased fixation on the source of conflict, inadequate ways permissions conflict situation, as well as primitive methods psychological protection(regression, repression) (I. I. Mamaichuk, E. G. Troshikhina, 1997). Their behavior exhibits uncriticality, motor disinhibition, and elements of psychopathic behavior. Some children experience neurosis-like reactions.
Within organic infantilism, V.V. Kovalev identifies separate variants: cerebrasthenic, neuropathic, disproportionate, endocrine and psychogenic (V.V. Kovalev, 1985).
In the cerebrasthenic variant, emotional-volitional immaturity is combined with symptoms of irritable weakness and mild intellectual failure.
The neuropathic variant of complicated infantilism is characterized by the prevalence of asthenoneurotic manifestations in the form of increased inhibition, fearfulness, timidity, suggestibility, lack of self-confidence, difficulty adapting in children's groups with symptoms of pronounced somatovegetative disorders.
With endocrine variants, the clinical picture is determined by a combination of signs of infantilism with mental features typical of a particular type of hormonal dysfunction. For example, in children with underdevelopment of the genitals (hypogenitalism), infantilism is observed in combination with lethargy, slowness, lack of concentration, absent-mindedness, and fruitless philosophizing. With pituitary subnanism, signs of immaturity coexist with features of old age in physical and mental appearance, a tendency to pedantry, reasoning with weakness of willpower, disorders of attention and logical memory. K. S. Lebedinskaya, based on the characteristics of emotional-volitional immaturity, identifies unstable and inhibited variants of organic infantilism (K. S. Lebedinskaya, 1982).
Psychogenic infantilism, as a special variant of infantilism, has not been sufficiently studied in Russian psychiatry and psychology. This option is considered as an expression of abnormal personality formation under conditions of improper upbringing (E. I. Kirichenko, 1962; K. S. Lebedinskaya, 1982).
There are separate references in the literature to the fact that early social and mental deprivation entails affective immaturity, increased lability, and decreased self-control of behavior, with a certain degree of probability influencing the formation of an emotionally immature personality in children as they age.
Emotional-volitional immaturity of a personality can also develop during upbringing according to the principle of hyperprotection. With this type of upbringing, along with infantilism, egocentrism, extreme lack of independence, passivity, mental intolerance, and inability to exert themselves are formed.
Despotic upbringing of children with the use of physical punishment and constant prohibitions contributes to the development and consolidation of emotional-volitional immaturity in the form of reduced initiative activity, insufficient independence, and indecisiveness.
Psychogenic infantilism is characterized by social immaturity of the individual, which can manifest itself in the underdevelopment of moral attitudes, value orientations, and a decrease in self-control of behavior. All this contributes to the formation of deviant behavior (I. I. Mamaichuk, 2002).
In the process of differential diagnosis of the constitutional form of mental retardation from other mental development disorders, it is necessary to use a comprehensive clinical, psychological and pedagogical approach.
First of all, it is necessary to distinguish organic infantilism from mental retardation. In contrast to mentally retarded children, children with infantilism have a higher level of abstract logical thinking, which is manifested in the ability to generalize objects according to essential features, and in the completeness of comparisons of objects. Children with infantilism are able to use assistance in mental activity, transfer learned concepts to new specific tasks and objects, and are more productive in independent activities.
In addition, if with infantilism there is an intellectual deficiency (in particular, with organic infantilism), then it has its own specificity - in the foreground there is a violation of the prerequisites of intelligence - and tends to be smoothed out. In this regard, the main criterion should be considered the predominance in organic infantilism of violations of the prerequisites of intellectual activity (memory, attention, mental performance, pace and mobility of mental processes), while the possibilities of intellectual activity itself are significantly less impaired. The differential diagnosis of simple infantilism from disharmonious infantilism also seems important. The latter may subsequently manifest itself in the psychopathic development of the child’s personality, contributing to the development of affective excitability, explosiveness, impaired drives, and disorders of social behavior.
With appropriate training, children with infantilism are able to receive secondary or incomplete secondary education; they have access to professional education, secondary specialized and even higher education. However, in the presence of unfavorable environmental factors, negative dynamics are possible, especially with complicated infantilism, which can manifest itself in mental and social maladaptation of children and adolescents.
So, if we evaluate the dynamics of the mental development of children with infantilism in general, then it is predominantly favorable. As experience shows, the manifestation of pronounced personal emotional-volitional immaturity tends to decrease with age.
This type is associated with unfavorable upbringing conditions that prevent the correct formation of the child’s personality. Adverse environmental conditions that arise early, have a long-term effect and have a traumatic effect on the child’s psyche can lead to persistent changes in his neuropsychic sphere (vegetative functions and emotional development). As a result, abnormal, pathological personality development is observed.
This type of mental retardation should be distinguished from the phenomena of pedagogical neglect, which do not represent a pathology, but consist in a deficit of knowledge and skills due to a lack of intellectual information.
ZPR of psychogenic origin has 3 options:
A) Abnormal personality development according to the type of mental instability. Most often caused by the phenomena hypoprotection.
The child is neglected, he does not develop a sense of duty and responsibility, forms of behavior associated with the active inhibition of affect.
The development of cognitive activity, intellectual interests and attitudes is not stimulated.
Pathological immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere manifests itself in the form of affective lability, impulsiveness, increased suggestibility and is combined with an insufficient level of knowledge and ideas necessary for schooling.
b) Abnormal personality development according to the type of family idol due to overprotection– the child is not instilled with the traits of independence, initiative, and responsibility.
Characterized by a low capacity for effort, traits of selfishness and egocentrism, dislike of work, and an attitude of constant help and guardianship.
V) Abnormal personality development of the neurotic type. In families where rudeness, cruelty, despoticism, and aggression exist, a personality is formed that is fearful, insufficiently independent, indecisive, with little activity and initiative (this manifests emotional immaturity). Unfavorable upbringing conditions lead to delays in cognitive activity.
4. ZPR of cerebral-organic origin.
Corresponds to the type identified by Vlasova-Pevzner.
More common other types described above, has great persistence and severity of disturbances in the emotional-volitional sphere and cognitive activity.
There is a mild organic failure of the nervous system, often of a residual nature.
There is a delay in physical development and general malnutrition.
Emotional-volitional immaturity is represented by organic infantilism - children lack the typical healthy child liveliness and brightness of emotions. Children are poorly interested in evaluation, they have a low level of aspirations. Gaming activity is characterized by a lack of imagination and creativity, a certain monotony, and a predominance of motor disinhibition.
Organic infantilism manifests itself in one of 2 forms:
a) Unstable organic infantilism. Characteristic:
Psychomotor disinhibition,
Euphoric mood tone,
Impulsiveness,
Low ability for volitional effort and systematic activity,
Increased suggestibility
Lack of lasting attachments.
b) Inhibited organic infantilism. Prevails:
Low mood background,
Indecisiveness
Lack of initiative
Fearfulness.
Cognitive disorders are as follows:
Instability of attention
Inertia of mental processes,
Slowness and reduced switchability,
Insufficient development of phonemic hearing,
Visual and tactile perception,
Optical-spatial synthesis,
Motor and sensory aspects of speech,
Insufficient long-term and short-term memory,
Hand-eye coordination
Automation of movements and actions.
Poor orientation in “right-left” is observed,
Phenomena of mirroring in writing,
Difficulties in differentiating similar phonemes.
They have a satisfactory understanding of concrete visual material, but the level of generalization and abstraction processes is low.
There is no interest in purposeful activities; children do not like to work independently, without the teacher’s coercion.
Children with mental retardation of cerebral-organic origin are sent to special schools, in which treatment is combined with pedagogical correction, in contrast to mental disorders of constitutional, somatogenic and psychogenic origin, which can be compensated in a mass school with an individual pedagogical approach.
Lebedinskaya's classification, which is based on the main etiological factors and pathogenetic mechanisms that cause developmental delay and lead to a certain structure of the defect. Based on this criterion, 4 main forms of ZPR.
ZPR of constitutional origin (congenital). But often its origin is associated with mild metabolic and trophic disorders in the prenatal period and in the first years of life.
The child is distinguished by a special, infantile (childish) body type, he has a childish face and childish facial expressions, an infantile psyche (mental infantilism). A characteristic feature of this form of DPR is the combination immaturity of the emotional and intellectual spheres. At the same time, the emotional-volitional sphere is, as it were, at an earlier stage of development, in many ways reminiscent of the structure of the emotional makeup of younger children. In children, emotional motivation for behavior predominates, it is noted elevated background moods, spontaneity and brightness of emotions despite their superficiality and instability, easy suggestibility. Their learning difficulties are associated not so much with their intellectual inadequacy as with the immaturity of the motivational sphere and personality as a whole, with the persistent predominance of gaming interests. The developmental prognosis for such children is favorable; over time, they level out in their development and reach the level of their peers under favorable conditions of education and upbringing. ZPR of somatogenic origin. It is observed in those children who suffer from serious somatic diseases for a long time and often (diabetes mellitus, bronchial asthma, cancer, diseases of the circulatory system, etc.). Before the main disease, the child’s development proceeded without any peculiarities; his nervous system also functioned normally, since initially there was no organic damage to it. 1. The nervous system and brain suffer, since somatic illness has a harmful effect on all body systems, including the nervous system and brain (intoxication, hypoxia). 2. The child's activity time decreases, when he can play, study, communicate with other people, since this time is spent on examining and treating the child. 3. Decreased mental tone due to general painful weakness (asthenia), increased exhaustion and fatigue, therefore the child’s development opportunities are sharply limited. In independent activities, they perform less manipulations with objects compared to healthy children. General activity, and especially cognitive activity, decreases. Attention fluctuates and concentration decreases. In the most severe cases Cerebroasthenic phenomena are also observed in children. Cerebroasthenia syndrome It manifests itself in the child not only in increased fatigue, but also in an increase in mental slowness, in deterioration of concentration and memory, in unmotivated mood disorders, tearfulness, lethargy, and drowsiness. The child has increased sensitivity to bright light, loud noise, stuffiness, and headaches. All this negatively affects educational performance. The long, painful and difficult treatment process for the child, as well as long and frequent hospitalizations, also have a pathogenic effect on the development of the child. Children are prescribed numerous prohibitions and restrictions on diet, pastime, and communication related to the nature of the disease and treatment. Gradually, the content of children’s basic needs also changes; their range of interests is built around the main disease; they are less interested in everything that healthy peers live with. The child cares and worries about his condition and the possibility of recovery. The main principle in relations between adults and children is hyperprotection, that is, excessive care. Hyperprotection in itself leads to a decrease in the child’s activity; he expects adults to do everything for him. Parents lower the level of requirements for the child, creating in him a consumer position, lack of self-confidence, and low self-esteem. Egocentrism is encouraged, the child's attention is fixed on his illness, and special significance is given to it. Children often experience a delay in emotional-volitional development associated with uncertainty, timidity, fears, and general anxiety, as the child realizes and feels his physical inferiority. Thus, in children with severe somatic diseases, developmental delays begin to gradually accumulate despite initially normal development. Asthenization (weakness, lethargy) in combination with unfavorable socio-psychological conditions leads to a distortion in the formation of the child’s personality. The prognosis of development in children with the somatogenic form directly depends on the severity, course and outcome of the underlying disease. ZPR of psychogenic origin is associated with unfavorable living conditions and raising a child, both in the family and outside the family. Mental retardation of psychogenic origin often occurs in those children who, from an early age, have been subjected to mental (deprivation of emotions, impressions) and social (deprivation of communication) deprivation, which is especially typical for children who are brought up in closed institutions (orphanages, boarding schools), in social dysfunctional families. Deprivation has long-term negative consequences, which manifest themselves in distortions in the development of the emotional-volitional, and subsequently the intellectual sphere. This form of mental retardation is of social origin and is not associated with immaturity or brain damage. But with early onset and long-term effects, psychotraumatic factors can lead to permanent changes in the neuropsychic sphere of the child. In infancy, such children have a sharply reduced need for communication, they do not form attachment relationships with close adults, and at an early age they experience apathy and inactivity, lack of initiative, a decrease in general and cognitive motivation, and delays in speech development. In preschool age, depression, decreased emotionality, passivity are noted, and empathic abilities are not formed. At primary school age, children do not develop voluntariness, there is a lack of intellectual sphere, these children are prone to conflict and aggressive behavior. At the same time, they experience a great need for friendly attention from others, their need for communication is not satisfied. In adolescence, children experience a variety of problems in the formation of personality, its self-awareness, and develop a vague orientation towards the future, and all these features persist into adulthood. This type of mental retardation is considered quite favorable from the point of view of overcoming temporary developmental delays. With corrective work started in a timely manner (as early as possible) and corrective work carried out competently, and with the creation of adequate favorable upbringing conditions for the child, developmental delays can be overcome or significantly reduced. However, upbringing outside the family environment at a very early age cannot be completely overcome, because the child’s state of emotional distress that arises at this age persists in various forms throughout a person’s life. Children with a psychogenic form of mental retardation do not experience gross impairments of intelligence or its prerequisites (memory, attention, performance) - these functions remain relatively intact. The main factor that leads to a decrease in intellectual productivity and school failure is a decrease in motivation and distortion in the formation of the emotional-volitional sphere. This form of ZPR must be distinguished from the phenomena of pedagogical neglect. With pedagogical neglect, there is a lack of knowledge and skills of the child, a reduced range of ideas due to insufficient information and the poor environment surrounding the child. When replenishing information, the child quickly assimilates and acquires knowledge and skills, and accumulates impressions. Mental retardation of psychogenic origin is a consequence of long-term pathological conditions operating systemically, and it cannot be overcome only through the transfer of information and the creation of favorable environmental conditions. ZPR of cerebral-organic origin. The child has an organic lesion of the central nervous system. Brain damage in a child mainly occurs in the late stages of intrauterine development, during childbirth and in the first days after birth. In most cases, developmental delay in such children cannot be completely overcome; it can only be partially compensated. A more favorable option is when the child’s attention deficit and motor disinhibition come to the fore, and memory and thinking suffer to a lesser extent. Markovskaya describes two options for delayed mental development of cerebral-organic origin.1st option – with a predominance of the phenomena of organic infantilism: in children there is less severity of brain damage, the prognosis for development and overcoming developmental delays is more favorable. In children, traits of immaturity in the emotional sphere, such as organic infantilism, predominate; disorders of higher mental functions are mosaic and mostly dynamic in nature, due to low mental tone and increased exhaustion, underdevelopment of regulatory mechanisms of the psyche. There are no primary intellectual impairments: verbal and non-verbal intelligence are on average within the age norm. Reduced mental performance and attention. This option It is also observed in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. For 2nd option Characterized by greater severity of brain lesions, their localization in the parietal and temporal regions of the brain, the prognosis for them is less favorable. With this option, disorders of cognitive activity, that is, memory, thinking and imagination, predominate. Observed primary deficiency higher mental functions: difficulties in perceiving complex objects, violations of visual-motor coordination, spatial orientation, phonemic hearing, auditory-verbal memory, active speech, insufficiency of verbal and logical thinking. Indicators of intelligence quotient (general, verbal and nonverbal), measured using the Wechsler test, are in the border zone between normal and mental retardation.
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