MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

               Mentally Handicapped Children lies under the category of Intellectually Exceptional  children. An exceptional child may be defined as one who differs so much from his peer average in respect of physical, mental or Social Characteristics. He is unable to develop his fullest potential under normal conditions in the ordinary class. Some special environment or organization has to be created either within or out of the normal school. Excepetional children deviate

significantly from the normal ones. According to

W.M.Cruichsank,”An exceptional child is he who deviates physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially so marked from normal growth and that he cannot be benefited from a regular classroom programme and needs special treatment in school”.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

1.                 They deviate marking from the normal children

2.                 Deviation may be physical from the normal children or social

3.                 Exceptional children need a special environment

4.                 Special environment may be provided  in the normal school or in a special school.

CLASSIFICATION OF EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

1.                 Intellectually Exceptional (mentallly exceptional)

(a)              The gifted

(b)             The backward

(c)              The mentally retarded

(d)             The creative

(e)              The underachiever

(f)               The learning disabled

2.                 Physically Exceptional

(a)              The deaf and dumb

(b)             The blind and near blind

c).  Orthopaedically handicapper

d)   Children with Speech defects

3.                 Emotionally Exceptional – Delinquents

4.                 Socially Exceptional – Underprivileged Children

5.                 Multi Exceptional – Children with more than one defect

We can not ignore the care and education of the backward children or the mentally retarded who are found in varying degrees in every school.  With proper guidance these can be made useful members of the society.

The Mentally Retarded Child

                     Mental retardation refers to sub-average general intellectual functionincy, which originates during the developmental period, and is associated with impairements in adaptive behavior. People with less than average mental obility are called mentally retarded.

 According to Page, ‘mental deficiency is a condition of subnormal mental development, present at birth or early chinhood and characterized mainly by limited intelligence and social inadequency’.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MENTALLY REFARDED

CHILDREN

1.                 They are dependent and feel difficulty in managing themselves

2.                 In comparison with children of their own age, their rate of intellectual development os too low.

3.                 They feel difficulty in shifting from one type of activity to another.

4.                 They are very poor at following general verbal instruction.

5.                 They lack much in the power of observation, imagination, thinking and reasoning and ability to generalize.

6.                 They are poor at abstraction and can only think in terms  of concrete objects and situations,.

7.                 They are socially and emotionally masdjusted personalities.

CLASSIFICATION OF MENTALLY RETARDED

CHILDREN

(1) Intelligence quotient (IQ) has been taken as the criterion for the classification of mentally retarded individuals. On the basis of their performance on some standardized intelligence test, they are classified into three.

(1)              Morons – IQ 51 to 70

(2)              Imbeciles-IQ 25 to 50

(3)              Idiots – IQ below 25

3. Based on the adaptive behavior of the individual mentally retarded children are classified in to  4 levels.

(1)              Mild mentally retarded –IQ 52 to 67 (As per Stanford-

BINET Test)

 About 85% of the mentally retarded individuals are found to belong to this category. Intellectually they are equal to a 10 year old child. They show signs of delayed development early in life, exhibit immature behavior, have poor control over their impulses, lack judgement and  and fail to anticipate the consequences of their actions.They are considered to be educable.

(2)              MODERATE RETARDATION IQ 36 TO 51

About 10% of the mentally retardates belong to this category. Intellectually these people are equal to an average 6 year old child. They are not educable, but trainable.They are able so speak but their rate of learning is too slow. Physically they appear clumsy and suffer from motor in co-ordination. They are unable to do any work that requires initiation, originality, abstract thinking, memory or consistent attention.

About 3.5% of all retarded individuals belong to this category.They are referred to as dependent retarded.

They may attain an intellectual level comparable to that of a 4 year old child. They are neither educable nor trainable. Sensory defects and motor handicaps are common.

(4)  Profound retardation- IQ below 20.

This group represents about 1.5% of the mentally retarded people. They are popularly known as life support mental retardates. They never attain an intellectual level greater than that of the average two year old child. They are completely unable to look after themselves. They show retreated growth, physical deformities, severe speech disturbances, motor in co ordination , deafness etc.

(3)	On the basis of the degree of severity of their retardation mentally retarded children are groped into distinct catagories like,
(1).	Educable mentally retarded (EMR)
(2).	Trainable mentally retarded (TMR)
(3).	Custodial mentally retarded (CMR)

CAUSES OF MENTAL RETARDATION

(1)           Organic or biological causes

(2)           Socio-Phychological causes

1    Organic or biological causes

(1)             Ggenetic factors: Mental deficiency may be established by genetic factors operative at the time of conception in two ways, either throuth transmission of some defective genes in the chromosomes of one or both parents or an account of

chromosomal aberrations.

(2)             Infection : Mental retardation can also be the result of many infectious diseases like syphilis, rebella (German Measles), to no plasmosis, or encephalitis which can damage brain tissue and the nervous system resulting in severe mental deficiency or retardation.

Intonication: Mental retardation may be caused by

intonication . A no. of tonic agents like carbon monoride, mercury, lead and various immunological agents like antiteances serum or the use of small pox, rabies and typhoid vaccines may result on brain damage during development after birth.

(4)             Trauma : Mental retardation may be caused by physical

damage to the brain in the form of injuries prior to birth, at the time of delivery or following birth.

(5)             Tumours : Mental retardation may be caused by brain damage associated with brain tumours and other new growths.

(2). Socio- Psychological Factors

                 The severe environmental deprivation in the form physical, cultural, emotional and  intellectual poverty especially during in fancy and childhood results in  the retardation of the chaild’s intellectual development even when his potential at birth is normal. In some cases the failure of the school system has adverse effects.

PREVENTION OF MENTAL RETARDATION

1.                 Genetic counseling and voluntary birth control.

2.                 Proper care of the mother and child

3.                 Provision of normal and stimulation environment after birth 4. Provision of public education

    EDUCATION OF MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN

The first step in the education of the mentally retarded children is to identify and segregate  them from normal children and direct them to special schools.

The following points should be taken in to consideration for planning the educational programmes for mentally retarded children.

1.                 The special schools should provide the environment essential for maximum development of the abilities and capacities of all mental retardates.

2.                 Curriculum, methods of teaching and tools for evaluation should be adjusted according to their individual needs.

3.                 In special schools, greater emphasis should be placed on their emotional and social adjustment, imbibing moral virtues and  desirable  personal habits.

4.                 The learning task should be brief and uncomplicated .

5.                 Learning task should be applied to objects, problems and situations in the learner’s life environment.

6.                 Over learning must be built in to the lessons.

7.                 Educational programme for the EMR

Schooling of EMR may be delayed for 2 to 3 years. During early school years they may be given instruction in simple arithmetical concepts, understanding of the home  and community and early development of good work habits. The school’s curricular as well as co-curricular activities should lay emphasis on experience than on abstraction.

8.                 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR THE TMR.

They may be helped to acquire self-managing skills like independent eating, dressing, tolleting, washing and combing hair, brushing teeth, and using towels etc.  Simple acasamic skills like learning recognize common signs and symbols,learning to recognize and use coins and currencies etc.  Should be taught. Their curriculam may also include activities for teaching unskilled accecepational jobs.

9.                 Educational  programme for the CMR

The educational programme for these children must lay strong emphasis on self managing skills for like feeding, toilet training, washing, dressing, cleaning of their body parts etc.  The must be taught to protect themselves from health and weather hazards, harmful insects, animals, fire etc.

GUIDANCE TO THE PARENTS OF MENTALLY

RETARDED CHILDREN

The first step in the education of mentally retarded

children is to make their parent’s realize the truth about their children. They should be ‘informed about the child’s limitations and the mental deficiency and also the fact that the child cannot be given more intelligence and made normal. Parents should be given training and education for handling the emotional and social adjustment problems of the retarded child.  The parents should be made to realize that there is no harm in sending their children to special schools meant for the mental retardates.

The mentally retarded deviate from the normal to such an extent that we can not teach them what we offer in normal, conventional schools. We can not afford to be sunk in despair when challenged to teach those who are retarded mentally.