How to identify a child with mental retardation and help? Developmental delay Four types of developmental delay in children.

Developmental delay can be caused by a huge number of reasons. Most often - organic damage that arose either in the perinatal period, or as a result of a birth injury, or after unsuccessful falls, bruises, etc. Osteopathic help in these cases is simply irreplaceable. After all, the osteopath first conducts a complete, thorough diagnosis of all disorders-deviations in the work of the child's body, then proceeds to treatment. As a result of soft and painless manipulations, the osteopath eliminates:

• all clamps and blocks in the system of muscles and ligaments
• damage to bone structures
• violation of the flow of fluids (blood, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid)

... and also performs the finest work on the structures of the brain, skull bones, meninges, normalizes all processes and, thereby, “wakes up” the dormant zones responsible for certain aspects of the development of the child.

All these methods of osteopathic treatment, which have been developed over more than a hundred years, make it possible to achieve significant progress in the development of a child (and as part of complex treatment, even in children with severe disorders).

Delayed speech and intellectual development is a very common problem in children. Most often, the disease is detected in preparation for school. Children with intellectual retardation lag behind other peers, it is more difficult to learn school knowledge, they have problems with behavior and educational play activities.

Speech retardation is a mental disorder that is associated with a delay in the emotional and intellectual development of the baby.

If a baby at 1 year old practically does not speak words, or by the age of 2 he speaks only separate words and it is very difficult to understand him, many close people and even sometimes experts often say: there is nothing to worry about, you need to wait, especially if the child is a boy. And most parents are waiting. Of course, in a number of children, speech development is only somewhat delayed and by the age of 3-4 it already levels off to the age norm. But for many children, the waiting time is a missed opportunity to begin timely correction. Determining at a fairly early stage the cause of speech development delay is not easy, but very important. It is best to consult with a speech therapist and a pediatric neurologist in a timely manner, who have sufficient experience working specifically with "speech" children. After all, there are many different causes and, accordingly, types of speech development disorders, the methods of correction and treatment of which differ significantly.

In order for the formation of speech to occur in a timely and correct manner, it is necessary to coordinate the functioning of a number of systems that make up the speech apparatus, which can be divided into:

• central (speech zones of the cortex and a number of other important structures of the brain, visual and auditory analyzers);
• peripheral (trachea, larynx with vocal cords, tongue, lips, hard and soft palate).

The variety of speech disorders is explained by the complexity and multi-stage speech mechanisms. The cause of violations in speech development can be a failure or violation at any of the above levels. This may be due to heredity or occur under the influence of birth trauma, hypoxia, infection, etc.

Depending on the level of the lesion, we can have different types of speech disorders:

• The simplest and most common option, when the sound pronunciation of individual sounds is not grossly disturbed, is called dyslalia. In speech therapy classes, such a defect is quite successfully eliminated. You just need to "teach" the muscles of the tongue and lips certain combinations to pronounce a certain sound.
• If the innervation of the peripheral speech apparatus is disturbed, dysarthria occurs. This is a rather serious condition in which, in addition to a violation of the pronunciation of sounds, there are violations of the tone of the tongue, there may be violations of timbre, volume, rhythm, melody and intonation of the voice, salivation. Dysarthria usually accompanies severe neurological diseases - cerebral palsy, organic brain damage. However, erased dysarthria is often diagnosed, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from dyslalia, but in this case it is much more difficult to correct the sound pronunciation and the joint work of a speech therapist and a neurologist is desirable.
• In the presence of a defect in the structure of the articulatory apparatus (cleft palate, etc.), a distorted pronunciation of all speech sounds is observed, and not individual ones, as in dyslalia. Speech is slurred and monotonous. This condition is called rhinolalia. Consultation with an otolaryngologist (ENT doctor) is required.
• If a child does not speak at all by the age of 1.5 or speaks separate words at 2-3 years, although he understands the speech of adults well, in the future his speech develops much worse than that of his peers, the vocabulary is poor, he often makes mistakes when agreeing in gender, number, case, sound pronunciation is disturbed, this condition is called motor alalia. It is associated with damage to certain speech centers of the brain. In such cases, the sooner the parents begin to sound the alarm and turn to a speech therapist and neurologist, the better the prognosis. Otherwise, the child faces difficulties in learning at school, up to the need to attend a specialized speech school.
• It happens much less often that the child's speech does not develop due to the fact that he cannot understand the speech addressed to him. That is, he hears it, but cannot understand the meaning, like a foreign language. This condition is called sensory alalia and also occurs when certain speech centers of the brain are affected. Children can repeat words after adults, even memorize rhymes and sentences, but often without understanding the meaning of what they say. It can be difficult to make a correct diagnosis, since sometimes understanding is preserved at the everyday level, but this condition must be distinguished from mental retardation, hearing loss, etc. Such children must be observed by a neurologist, deal with a speech pathologist, be consulted by an audiologist hearing) and a child psychiatrist.
• All of the above examples relate to children in whom speech began to develop incorrectly from the very beginning. If, up to a certain age, speech developed satisfactorily, and after a disease or injury, disturbances occurred, this condition is called aphasia. This is rare in children.
• Selective mutism occurs in childhood. This is dumbness that arose in a child who owns speech as a neurotic manifestation. But psychiatric illnesses can also start in a similar way.
• Stuttering

The lag in speech development may be the result of mental retardation, or vice versa. Therefore, all children in whom speech development is delayed should be tested for intellectual development. This is very important for deciding on the methods of correction and choice of treatment.

We must not forget that speech is formed as an imitation of what is heard. Very often, parents do not realize that the child is hard of hearing.

Diagnostics

What should be done in the first place if the baby does not begin to speak in accordance with his age?

• Observe the child and pay attention to his behavior. Does he play like his peers? Does he seek to communicate with adults and other children? A delay in speech development may be the result of disorders in the field of communication (autism) or deviations in mental development.
• Pay attention to whether he understands the speech addressed to him well? Does it perform simple tasks that are not accompanied by gestures?
• Conduct an examination of the child, including a consultation with a neurologist (logo-neurologist), a psychologist and a speech therapist.
• Find out if the child's hearing is good enough. Sometimes the fact that a child does not hear or does not hear well enough is a bolt from the blue. And without sufficient hearing, speech will not form normally.
• If necessary, start treatment and speech therapy classes.

Treatment

In the treatment of speech development delays, various nootropic drugs are used (cortexin, encephabol, nootropil, etc.). These are the drugs that have a positive effect on the higher integrative functions of the brain, and the main manifestation of their action is the improvement of learning and memory processes. A neurologist will recommend a specific drug for the treatment of your child. A method for the treatment of speech developmental delays using transcranial micropolarization has been developed. The method is based on the therapeutic application of a direct electric current of small force on the brain tissue. The current strength is very weak - 10 times less than with the simplest physiotherapeutic procedure - electrophoresis. However, in cases where speech development disorder is a consequence of severe psychiatric pathology (autism, mental retardation), the use of this method of treatment is not indicated, since this method is not effective for these diseases.

Treatment of delayed speech development should be comprehensive. Osteopathy has shown itself well in the treatment of children with RDD. The sooner you bring a child to an osteopath, the fewer sessions will be needed for treatment.

Mental retardation in children (the disease is often referred to as mental retardation) is a slow rate of improvement of some 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 detected during pre-testing before entering school. It is expressed in the limited ideas, lack of knowledge, inability to intellectual activity, the predominance of gaming, purely children's interests, immaturity of thinking. In each individual case, the causes of the disease are different.

Causes of CRA

In medicine, various causes of mental retardation in children are determined:

1. Biological:

• pregnancy pathologies: severe toxicosis, intoxication, infections, injuries;
• prematurity;
• intrauterine fetal hypoxia;
• asphyxia during childbirth;
• infectious, toxic, traumatic diseases at an early age;
• genetic predisposition;
• trauma during childbirth;
• lagging behind peers in physical development;
• somatic diseases (disturbances in the work of various organs);
• damage to certain parts of the central nervous system.

2. Social:

• limitation of life for a long time;
• mental trauma;
• unfavorable living conditions;
• pedagogical neglect.

Depending on the factors that eventually led to mental retardation, several types of the 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. Kovaleva. Most often in modern domestic psychology, the classification of K. S. Lebedinskaya is used.

1. Constitutional ZPR determined by heredity.
2. Somatogenic CRA acquired as a result of a disease that has affected the brain functions of the child: allergies, chronic infections, dystrophy, dysentery, persistent asthenia, etc.
3. Psychogenic mental retardation is determined by the socio-psychological factor: such children are brought up in unfavorable conditions: a monotonous environment, a narrow social circle, lack of maternal love, poverty of emotional relationships, deprivation.
4. Cerebral organic mental retardation observed in the case of serious, pathological abnormalities in the development of the brain 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 species according to this classification differs not only in the causes of the disease, but also in the symptoms and course of treatment.

ZPR symptoms

With confidence, it is possible to make a diagnosis of mental retardation only on the threshold of the school, when there are obvious difficulties in preparing for the educational process. However, with careful observation of the child, the symptoms of the disease can be noticed earlier. These may include:

• lagging skills and abilities from peers: the child cannot perform the simplest actions characteristic of his age (shoes, dressing, personal hygiene skills, independent food);
• unsociableness and excessive isolation: if he shuns 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 a delay in mental development in children, manifestations of mental retardation and signs of a violation in the emotional-volitional sphere, which is very important for the child, are equally possible. Often there is a combination of them. There are cases when a baby with mental retardation practically does not differ 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 (grade 4) school age the signs of mental retardation remain, doctors begin to talk about either mental retardation (MR) or constitutional infantilism. These diseases are:

• with UO, mental and intellectual underdevelopment is irreversible, with mental retardation, everything is fixable with the proper approach;
• children with mental retardation differ from the mentally retarded in the ability to use the help that is provided to them, independently transfer it to new tasks;
• a child with mental retardation tries to understand what he has read, whereas with VR there is no such desire.

When making a diagnosis, do not give up. 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 an ordinary general education school, and not a special correctional one. Adults (teachers and parents) should understand that the difficulties of teaching such children at the very beginning of school life are not at all the result of their laziness or negligence: they have objective, rather serious reasons that must be jointly and successfully overcome. Such children should be provided with comprehensive assistance from parents, psychologists, teachers.

It includes:

• individual approach to each child;
• classes with a psychologist and a teacher of the deaf (who deals with the problems of teaching children);
• in some cases - drug therapy.

Many parents find it difficult to accept the fact that their child, due to the nature of their development, will learn more slowly than other children. But this must be done to help the little schoolboy. Parental care, attention, patience, coupled with the qualified help of specialists (a teacher-defectologist, a psychotherapist) will help to provide him with targeted education, create favorable conditions for learning.

Delayed mental development in a child- this is a specific state, implying a slow rate of formation of individual functions of the psyche, namely the processes of memory and attention, mental activity, which are late in formation compared to the established norms for a certain age stage. This ailment is more often diagnosed in children at the preschool stage, during testing and checking them for mental maturity and readiness for learning, and is manifested by limited views, lack of knowledge, inability to mental activity, immaturity of thinking, prevalence of gaming, children's interests. If signs of underdevelopment of mental functions are found in children who are at the senior school age stage, then it is recommended to think about the presence of oligophrenia in them. Today, the slow development of the functions of the psyche and the methods of corrective influence of such a state are an urgent neuropsychiatric problem.

Causes of mental retardation in a child

Today, the problems of mental retardation (MPD) of children around the world are recognized by psychologists as one of the most pressing problematic issues of a psychological and pedagogical orientation. Modern psychology distinguishes three key groups of factors that provoke a slow rate of formation of individual processes of the psyche, namely, the features of the course of pregnancy and the passage of the birth process itself, factors of a socio-pedagogical nature.

The factors associated with the course of pregnancy usually include viral diseases suffered by women, for example, rubella, severe toxicosis, drinking alcohol, smoking, exposure to pesticides, intrauterine oxygen starvation of the fetus, Rh conflict. The second group of factors provocateurs include injuries sustained by infants during the birth process, asphyxia of the fetus or its entanglement with the umbilical cord, premature detachment of the placenta. The third group covers factors that depend on the lack of emotional attention and the lack of psychological impact on infants from the adult environment. This also includes pedagogical neglect and limitation of life for a long time. This is especially felt by children under 3 years old. Also, in early childhood, the lack of a standard for inheritance provokes a lag in the development of children.

A positive favorable emotional climate of family relations, in which the baby grows and lends itself to educational influence, is the foundation for its normal physical formation and mental development. Constant scandals and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, quarrels and domestic violence lead to inhibition of the emotional sphere of the baby and slow down the pace of its development. At the same time, excessive guardianship can provoke a slow pace of the formation of mental functions, in which the volitional component is affected in children. In addition, constantly ill babies are often affected by this disease. Developmental inhibition can often be observed in crumbs that have previously suffered various injuries that have affected the brain. Often, the occurrence of this disease in babies is directly associated with a delay in their physical development.

Symptoms of mental retardation in a child

It is impossible to diagnose the presence of developmental inhibition in newborns in the absence of obvious physical defects in them. Often, parents themselves attribute far-fetched virtues or non-existent successes to their children, which also makes diagnosis difficult. Parents of babies should carefully monitor their development and sound the alarm if they start sitting or crawling later than their peers, if by the age of three they are not able to build sentences on their own and have 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 than peers to learn, write or read, there are difficulties with memorization and with 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. Since the early detection of symptoms of mental retardation in children contributes to the timely start of corrective action, which leads to the further normal development of children without consequences. The later parents sound the alarm, the more difficult it will be for children to learn and adapt to their peers.

Symptoms of mental retardation in children are often associated with pedagogical neglect. In such babies, the developmental delay is determined primarily by social reasons, for example, the situation in family ties.

Children with mental retardation are often characterized by the presence of different types of infantilism. In such babies, the immaturity of the emotional sphere comes to the fore, and defects in the formation of intellectual processes go into the background and do not appear so noticeably. They are subject to repeated mood swings, in the classroom or in the game process they are characterized by restlessness, the desire to throw out all their inventions into 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 the assignment, their attention is dispersed to more entertaining, in their opinion, things.

Children with mental retardation, which is observed primarily in the emotional sphere, often have problems with learning in a school institution, and their emotions, corresponding to the development of young children, often dominate obedience.

In children with a predominance of developmental immaturity in the intellectual sphere, everything happens the other way around. They are practically non-initiative, often overly shy and shy, subject to a number of different fears. These features hinder the development of independence and the formation of the personal development of the crumbs. In these kids, the game interest also prevails. Often they are quite hard to experience their own failures in school life or in the educational process, it is not easy to get along in an unfamiliar environment, in a school or preschool institution, they get used to the teaching staff for a long time, but at the same time they behave there and obey.

Qualified specialists can diagnose mental retardation in children, establish its type and correct children's behavior. In the course of a comprehensive examination and examination of the crumbs, the following factors should be taken into account: the pace of his activity, psycho-emotional state, motor skills and features of errors in the learning process.

Diagnose mental retardation in babies if the following characteristic features are observed:

They are not capable of collective activity (training or play);

Their attention is less developed than that of their peers, it is problematic 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 babies is very vulnerable; at the slightest failure, such children tend to withdraw into themselves.

From this it turns out that the behavior of children with mental retardation can be identified by their unwillingness to take part in group play or educational activities, unwillingness to follow the example of an adult, to achieve set goals.

In diagnosing this disease, there is a risk of error, due to the fact that the immaturity of the development of the crumbs can be confused with his unwillingness to perform tasks that are not appropriate for 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 regular general education institution, and not in a specialized correctional school. Parents and teachers should understand that the 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 will be successfully overcome only with joint efforts. Therefore, children with a slow pace of formation of mental processes need comprehensive joint assistance from parents, teachers and psychologists. Such assistance is: a personal approach to each crumb, regular classes with specialists (a psychologist and a teacher of the deaf), in some cases, drug therapy. For drug treatment of mental retardation in children, neurotropic drugs, homeopathic remedies, vitamin therapy, etc. are used. The choice of drug depends on the individual characteristics of the baby and on comorbid conditions.

It is difficult for most parents to accept that their child, due to the peculiarities of their formation, will grasp everything more slowly than surrounding peers. Parental care and understanding, combined with qualified specialized assistance, will help create a favorable positive environment for learning and provide targeted education.

So, the corrective impact will be most effective if the parents follow the recommendations below. The jointly directed work of teachers, the close environment of the crumbs and psychologists is the foundation for successful learning, development and education. A comprehensive overcoming of the immaturity of development found in the baby, the characteristics of his behavior and the difficulties provoked by them consists in analysis, planning, forecasting and joint actions.

Corrective work with children with mental retardation throughout its entire length should be permeated with the influence of a psychotherapeutic nature. In other words, the baby should have a motivational focus on classes, notice their own successes and feel joy. The baby needs to develop a pleasant expectation of success and the joy of praise, the pleasure of the actions performed or the work performed. Corrective influence includes direct and indirect psychotherapy, individual sessions and group therapy. The purpose of correctional education is the formation of mental processes in a child and the enhancement of his practical experience in combination with overcoming the underdevelopment of motor skills, speech and sensory functions, etc.

Specialized education of children with developmental inhibition is aimed at preventing possible secondary anomalies that may arise due to the timely undefeated lack of readiness of children for the educational process and life in society.

In the process of working with children suffering from developmental inhibition, it is necessary to use short-term game tasks to develop positive motivation. In general, the performance of game tasks should interest the kids and attract them. Any tasks should be feasible, but not too simple.

The problems of delaying the mental development of children often lie in the fact that such kids show unpreparedness for schooling and interaction in a team, as a result of which their condition is aggravated. That is why for successful correction it is necessary to know all the features of the manifestations of the disease and to influence the kids in a complex way. At the same time, parents are required to be patient, interested in the result, understanding the characteristics of their own children, love and sincere concern for children.

This is a translation of the book “Caring for your baby and young child. Birth to age 5, compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

This book provides practical advice for caring for a child from birth to five years of age in simple and understandable language. You will learn how and what to feed the baby, when to put him to bed and how much he needs to sleep, what to wear and how to bathe the baby.

Also in the book are the main indicators of the development of the child at different ages, developing games and techniques. You will learn how to prepare your baby for nursery or kindergarten, as well as how to overcome age-related crises in a child.

The second part of the book is devoted to diseases to which children are susceptible. Here you will find descriptions of symptoms and detailed instructions - what to do, when to call a doctor and how to treat.

If you are concerned about the developmental delay you are seeing in your child (see sections on child development), contact your child's pediatrician who will evaluate your child's overall development and determine if it is age appropriate. If your doctor has doubts, he may send you for a consultation with a pediatric neurologist, defectologist, or a commission of specialists who can assess the development of the baby. For older children, special psychological tests may be effective. However, your healthcare provider may suggest that you wait a bit to see if your child's development improves or accelerates. Most often this happens if the child has suffered a serious illness, or if his development lags slightly behind. If, despite your doctor's advice, you continue to worry, ask your doctor to refer you to a specialist.

If you take your baby to a defectologist or pediatric neurologist, the specialist will conduct a comprehensive examination of the child to determine the nature and cause of his problems. In addition to determining what, in fact, is going wrong, the examination will help to reveal the strengths of the baby's physical development and intelligence. As soon as the examination is over, you will be given a full description of the problem, what was found out about its cause (if anything was successful), what can be done to help the child, and what, in general, you can expect in the future. However, you should remember that it can be a very difficult task to accurately predict how severe a physical and mental retardation will be in the future, especially if mental retardation is associated with physical problems, such as in the case of the presence of cerebral palsy.

Treatment

The main method of treating children with mental retardation is the training and improvement of acquired skills. Most people with light degree of mental insufficiency can master the program of 4-5 grades and learn to read and write, they need relatively little help from outsiders when they travel and do simple work. Adults with mental disabilities middle degrees are able to read or write at the grade 1-2 level, they can be trained to perform daily tasks, but they need special help in their movement around the city and in performing the simplest work. Although adults with severe or profound intellectual disability will never read or write, with rare exceptions, and often require special care, they can learn to dress, eat, and maintain personal hygiene, albeit with assistance.

Remember that all children have some strength and they need help and support to adjust.

One of the most common questions that parents of such a child ask is: “Will our baby be able to do without us when he grows up?” The answer to this question may sound different, depending on the degree of mental retardation and whether the child has additional problems.

Prevention

Only in a few cases is mental retardation amenable to drug treatment to such an extent that obvious mental insufficiency in the future can be avoided, and then on condition of its early onset. Among these cases, the most common are cases of diseases such as phenylketonuria and hypothyroidism. If the presence of these diseases is diagnosed shortly after the birth of the baby with the help of standard tests carried out even in the maternity hospital, they can be corrected and, thus, mental retardation in the future can be avoided. Another disease that can lead to mental insufficiency if not detected in time is hydrocephalus (an excess of fluid around the brain that creates additional pressure inside the skull). The disease is usually treated with a surgical operation to release fluid to another part of the body, reduce pressure, and thus protect the brain from damage. The likelihood of a hereditary predisposition to mental retardation in a child should be assessed, since in this way it is possible to predict the future needs of a grown baby, as well as give the family the opportunity to seek genetic counseling in future pregnancies.

In many cases of mental retardation, no objective cause can be identified, and in the vast majority of cases of this pathology, very little, if anything, can be done to prevent it. Despite all the assurances you may have heard, there is no effective treatment for children with mental retardation. You will only spend considerable amounts of money and your mental strength trying to find a panacea for your baby. It is much more important to stop focusing on what the baby cannot and will never be able to do, and direct all his energy to developing his abilities to the maximum. Professional help for a child can greatly help in his development. However, remember that now and forever you are his best teacher and protector.

On the other hand, overprotection of a child does more harm than good. Children with intellectual disabilities, like all other children, need to be challenged to achieve their full potential. If you overprotect your baby, you will not allow him to try new things, you will limit his ability to expand his horizons and develop new skills. Help him take everything from his abilities. Set realistic goals for him and encourage him to achieve them. Help him if necessary, but give him the opportunity to be as independent as possible. Both you and your child will have the most fun if the baby takes the next step in development himself.

The development of speech and thinking is "inhibited" by three main factors - mother's illness during pregnancy, birth trauma and lack of parental attention to their baby after birth. Most women begin to take care of the health of the crumbs only after they find out about its existence.

But the “foundation” of the future brain is laid already in the first month of pregnancy, when many mothers do not even suspect that they are carrying a new life in themselves, and therefore they can unwittingly harm it.

During this period, gynecological diseases, colds, smoking, including passive smoking, stress, "malnutrition" of proteins and vitamins necessary for the formation of nervous tissue are especially dangerous. The brain of the baby is also subjected to a serious test during childbirth. Often, when passing through the birth canal, its blood supply is disturbed, as the baby pulls the umbilical cord along with it, which, due to the tightness of the “tunnel”, is pinched and twisted. The lack of oxygen, or hypoxia, causes the death of nerve cells. The longer and more difficult the birth, the more brain tissue is damaged.

Often in childbirth, traumatic brain injuries occur, because the baby makes its way with the head, and at the exit from the birth canal, it literally “knocks” on the narrow “gate” with it. Blows and pressure can damage the delicate vascular wall, and the brain tissues are saturated with blood that has poured out of the vessel. In the future, in place of the "smart" nervous tissue, cysts and scars are formed, which do not know how to "think". The functions of dead cells are taken over by other parts of the brain. The main task of the treatment is to help them learn "adjacent professions", as well as "teach" the surviving cells of the brain centers to work for themselves and "for that guy."

Mental retardation in children - treatment

A child suffering from a whole bunch of serious diseases needs comprehensive and adequate treatment. The intake of medications should be constant, and the doses should correspond to the age and condition of the baby.

To enhance the effect, both traditional medicine and non-traditional methods of treatment are good. But the most important of them still remains “home” therapy, which any parent can master. You just need to love the baby more than yourself, and every minute wish him a speedy recovery.

Most miracles are done by mothers with their own hands, often even despite the disappointing forecasts of doctors. A child suffering from developmental delay requires the attention of parents around the clock for several years in a row. Most of all, he needs communication, "word therapy" in this case works wonders.

You need to talk constantly, commenting on any of your actions, and be sure to involve the baby in the dialogue. His "muteness" is like a gate, which you need to "knock" every day for up to a year, and then "open" them wider and wider. To do this, the child must constantly ask questions, prompting him to answer. It is impossible to answer for him, as well as to foresee all his desires or fulfill them according to his silent orders. In this case, the baby will not have an incentive to communicate.

Why work, open your mouth, strain your vocal cords, think about how to pronounce sounds, if everything is already given. "Do you want a toy? Say yes". Bunny or car? Don't show, tell. And so always and in everything. This requires incredible effort on the part of the people around the baby. The main burden, of course, falls on his parents, but the greatest success is achieved where all family members participate in word healing.

Hand massage for mental retardation

Not only words, but also deeds help to remove the brain “brake”. From a very early age, tiny fingers need to be developed. In the brain, the speech center and the center responsible for fine motor skills or "finger" work are very close to each other.

In addition, they are united by close "family" ties. The hand in the process of formation matures earlier and, as it were, "pulls" the development of speech, and with it the intellect.

In the old days they said that "the child holds the words on the palm of his hand, and hides the mind in the pads of his fingers." Daily massage of the palmar area with "hugging" and rubbing each finger unwinds the nerve cells of the speech center and encourages them to work. Games with pyramids, ropes, puzzles, mosaics are not so much entertaining as they are healing.

Daily self-care also helps to develop the mind and speech. Each child should dress and put on their own shoes, be able to tie shoelaces and fasten buttons, tuck in a shirt and fold a handkerchief.

Mom, every day dressing the baby from head to toe, hides his brain in a deaf "helmet", through which no signals can penetrate. The development of speech and intelligence is greatly helped by drawing and modeling. The fingers work while holding the pencil, they work even harder when turning a piece of plasticine into a figure. The more the hands can do, the more mobile the tongue, the sharper the mind.

Mental retardation - honey treatment

All traditional medicine, including honey treatment, in this situation are used as auxiliary. First of all, their therapeutic effect is aimed at enhancing the effect of drug therapy and strengthening the immune system.

A child suffering from hypothyroidism and epilepsy should be protected from colds. Any virus can cause serious complications from the diseases that the baby has, so it is necessary to build a strong immune barrier.

Honey is the best way to cope with this task, especially if you diversify its action with ascorbic acid and natural immunomodulators. For this purpose, you can take 100 ml of honey, crushed lemon pulp and a pharmaceutical jar of aloe juice, mix all the ingredients and “raise” immunity daily with a tasty and natural dietary supplement that can be stored in the refrigerator.

A child under five years of age is given it by tsp. twice a day, provided that he does not have allergic reactions to the components of the mixture. It is useful for both the immune and nervous systems to drink half a glass of warm water or mint tea every evening, in which 2 tsp are dissolved. honey. Honey means will provide a deep restful sleep, necessary for the successful recovery and maturation of the child's brain.

For the same purpose, they make an evening relaxing bath with an infusion of calendula and honey. 2 tbsp. l. calendula flowers must be poured with 2 cups of boiling water, insist half an hour under the lid, strain, add 3 tbsp. l. honey and pour the infusion into the bath. Non-traditional methods of treatment, such as hirudotherapy, will also be useful. The use of leeches is justified by the fact that the basis of the existing brain symptoms is oxygen starvation, which has arisen due to a violation of the blood supply to the brain. In such cases, the blood vessels always suffer first of all, on which the main concern for the nutrition of nerve cells lies. Bringing them back to life with pills alone is difficult. Leeches are able to fill even the smallest capillaries with blood, thereby restoring the blood supply to the “starving” brain centers.

A useful "vampire" works like a living pump. At the site of his bite, the vessels expand, and narrow in distant areas, so the blood is pumped from the “full-blooded” areas to the “bleeding” areas, improving the “well-being” of the latter. The more blood goes to the nerve cells, the better they will work. Contraindications for hirudotherapy are blood diseases that violate clotting. All other diseases are treated with leeches without side effects.

There is only one condition for successful therapy - a competent hirudologist who knows his business perfectly. Self-taught healers with leeches from a village pond can be dangerous.