Intellectual Developmental Disorder

Intellectual Developmental Disorder is characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday conceptual, social and practical skills. The onset of this disorder occurs during the developmental period. The term “mental retardation” has been applied to a varied population, including children in institutional wards who rock back and forth, young people who work in special job programs and men and women who raise and support their families by working at undemanding jobs.

In recent years, the term “intellectual disability” has become synonymous with mental retardation in many clinical settings. As many as 3 of every 100 persons meet the criteria for this diagnosis (Harris, 2010; Brown et al., 2009; APA, 2000). Around three-fifths of them are male, and the vast majority is considered mildly retarded.

People receive a diagnosis of mental retardation when they display general intellectual functioning that is well below average, in combination with poor adaptive behavior (APA, 2000). That is, in addition of having a low IQ (a score of 70 or below), a person with mental retardation will have following conditions fulfilled.

Deficits in intellectual functioning include:

Reasoning

Problem solving

Planning

Abstract thinking

Judgment

Academic learning

Experiential learning

Deficits or impairments in adaptive functioning includes skills:

Communication

Social skills

Personal independence at home or in community settings.

School or work functioning.

These limitations occur during the developmental period.

Specifiers of Intellectual Disability

There are four specifiers of intellectual disability. Which are:

Mild

Moderate

Severe

Profound

These are given on the basis of adaptive functioning not IQ scores.

These specifies are based on three types of skills.

Conceptual: ability to understand ideas

Practical: ability to do things practically

Social: ability to perceive emotions and understand relationships

Mild Intellectual Disability: May function age appropriately in personal care but training is required for complex tasks e.g. grocery shopping, transportation etc.

Moderate Intellectual Disability: They can care for personal needs e.g. eating, dressing but extended period of teaching ad time is required for making them independent in these areas.

Severe Intellectual Disability: These individuals need support for all activities of daily living including meals, dressing and require supervision at all times.

Profound Intellectual Disability: These individuals are dependent on others for all aspects of daily living.

Causes of Intellectual Disability

·         Biological Abnormalities

About one-half of all cases of mental retardation are caused by known biological abnormalities.

Down syndrome

The most commonly known biological cause of mental retardation was the chromosomal disorder Down syndrome. The cause of Down syndrome was the presence of an extra chromosome.

The incidence of Down syndrome was related to maternal age. In general, children and adults with Down syndrome function within the moderate to severe range of mental retardation.

 Fragile-X syndrome

Another chromosomal abnormality, fragile-X syndrome, was the most commonly known genetic cause of mental retardation. Fragile-X syndrome was indicated by weakening or breaks on one arm of the X sex chromosomes, and itwas transmitted genetically. Not all children with the fragile-X abnormality have mental retardation.

Phenylketonuria

Phenylketonuria or PKU, was one of these. PKU was caused by abnormally high levels of the amino acid phenylalanine, usually due to the absence of or an extreme deficiency in phenylalanine hydroxylase, an enzyme that metabolizes phenylalanine. Retardation typically progresses from the severe to profound range. Fortunately, PKU can be detected by blood testing in the first several days after birth.

·         Infectious Diseases

Mental retardation can also be caused by various infectious diseases. Damaging infections may be contracted during pregnancy, at birth, or in infancy to early childhood.

Rubella (German measles) was a viral infection that may produce few symptoms in the mother but can cause severe mental retardation and even death in the developing fetus.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can be transmitted from an infected mother to a developing fetus. The effects on the child are profound, including mental retardation, visual and language impairments, and eventual death.

 Syphilis was a bacterial disease that was transmitted through sexual contact. Infected mothers can pass the disease to the fetus. If untreated, syphilis produces a number of physical and sensory handicaps in the fetus, including mental retardation. One infectious disease that occurs after birth meningitis can cause mental retardation.

Environmental Toxins

Exposure to a variety of environmental toxins can also cause mental retardation. Both legal and illegal drugs pose a risk to the developing fetus. Toxins also present a potential hazard to intellectual development after birth.

Mercury poisoning:

Exposure to mercury can be particularly hazardous for pregnant women and small children. During the first several years of life, a child's brain was still developing and rapidly absorbing nutrients. Even in low doses, mercury may affect a child's development, delaying walking and talking, shortening attention span and causing learning disabilities. Less frequent, high dose prenatal and infant exposures to mercury can cause mental retardation, cerebral palsy, deafness and blindness.

·         Pregnancy and birth complications

            Pregnancy and birth complications also can cause mental retardation. One major complication

 was Rh incompatibility. Another pregnancy and birth complication that can cause intellectual deficits

 was premature birth. Other pregnancy and birth complications that can cause mental retardation

 include extreme difficulties in delivery, particularly anoxia, or oxygen deprivation; severe malnutrition;

 and the seizure disorder epilepsy. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heinz Hartmann Ego Psychology and the Mechanisms of Adaptation

  Heinz Hartmann devoted considerable time to the study of the Ego's Defenses and their functions from the perspective of the Adaptation. However, he seems not to have expanded on the defenses explained by Freud. The ego mobilizes defenses to protect itself from four types of dangers including conflicts among: ·          The id, ego, and super ego conflict. ·          Conflict in interpersonal relations. ·          Conflict in social norms. ·          Conflict in response to trauma. Mechanism of Adaptation: Heinz Hartmann described the "Mechanisms of Adaptation" that are more or less firmly established in the ego of an adult and always run to the same course unconsciously, just as Anna Freud describes the "Defense Mechanisms". These mechanisms are established in the ego to defend against un-described or disturbin...
Read more

Basic Concepts in Experimental Psychology

  Perception                Perception can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of sensory   information. Perception also includes how we respond to the information. We can think of perception as a process where we take in sensory information from our environment and use that information in order to interact with our environment. Perception allows us to take the sensory information in and make it into something meaningful. Cognition Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning. The earliest definition of cognition was presented in the first textbook on cognitive psychology published in 1967. According to Neisser, cognition is "those processes by which the sensory input i...
Read more

Assessment techniques by George Kelly

 The Interview Kelly’s primary assessment technique was the interview. As he put it, “If you don’t know what is going on in a person’s mind, ask him; he may tell you!” (1958, p. 330). Adopting what he called a “credulous attitude,” Kelly accepted the client’s words at face value, believing this was the best way to determine the person’s constructs. He also recognized that a person might deliberately lie or distort the reported version of events. However, what the client said must be respected, even if not always fully believed. Self-Characterization Sketches: Another technique used to assess a construct system is to have the person write a self characterization sketch. Kelly’s instructions to the client were as follows. “I want you to write a character sketch of [client’s name] just as if he were the principal character in a play. Write it as it might be written by a friend who knew him very intimately and very sympathetically, perhaps better than anyone ever really could know h...
Read more