Mental retardation as a form of dysontogenesis. Features of children with mental retardation (MPD): symptoms, prognosis and treatment with the help of remedial education A characteristic feature of mental retardation is

Mental retardation refers to violations of the pace of mental development. Over time, the child has a lag behind peers in mental development. Mental retardation is heterogeneous in nature, as it has various causes.

According to the etiology, 4 types of ZPR are distinguished:

• constitutional origin;
• psychogenic nature;
• somatogenic character;
• cerebro-organic character.

All types of mental retardation have their own characteristics, which manifest themselves in emotional immaturity and cognitive impairment. Some types of mental retardation are accompanied by complications in the somatic and neurological spheres. But the main difference between the types of delays is in the features of the development of mental functions.

Features of ZPR of constitutional origin

Mental retardation of constitutional origin in medicine is called harmonic psychophysical infantilism. When it is diagnosed, the family conditionality of infantilism is revealed, that is, it occurs in other family members, but does not reach a pathological level.

Harmonic psychophysical infantilism affects not only the mental, but the physical development of the child. Children in height and physical form lag behind their peers by 1.5-2 years.

Such children are characterized by manifestations of lively facial expressions, expressive gestures, sharp expressive movements. Children have a range of interests narrowed down to play activities. At the same time, the game itself is very developed, role-playing, filled with a lot of small plots and additional characters. During the game, the child shows creativity and endurance.

Along with developed play activity, it must be stated that educational and cognitive activity is not very attractive for these children. Study assignments cause fast satiety.

It turns out a paradox: children are tireless in the game, but very quickly get tired in learning activities. It is especially difficult for them to do monotonous tasks that require keeping their attention for a long time: reading, drawing, writing.

Children are emotionally unstable. They may cry over trifles, but quickly switch to play or other enjoyable items or activities. At the same time, there are simply no traces of the previous “hysteria”.

Children with mental retardation of constitutional origin love to fantasize. Moreover, fantasy for them is a means of mental stabilization. They displace unpleasant life situations with fantasies and fictions.

Harmonic psychophysical infantilism affects the emotional-volitional sphere, which leads to insufficiency of arbitrary regulation of activity, as well as mental processes: thinking, attention, memorization.

With the correct organization of the educational process, with the obligatory use of encouragement methods, children with harmonic infantilism demonstrate high results. In the future, the maximum approximation of such children to the level of their peers is possible, thanks to the alignment classes.

Causes of infantilism

The causes of infantilism can be:

• damage to the central nervous system as a result of traumatic brain injury or infection;
• endocrine disorders, chronic diseases, damage to internal organs (kidneys, heart, liver);
• mental metabolism.

Mental metabolism deserves special attention as a situation of revealing the need for certain substances in the process of development.

Correction of mental retardation of constitutional origin

Harmonic infantilism can be corrected quite successfully, provided that the developmental environment is properly organized.

The dynamics of a child's development depends on the depth of disorders, the level of intelligence, the characteristics of mental performance and early correction. The time of the beginning of correctional and developmental work is of paramount importance. The earlier the delay is detected and corrective activity is started, the more chances the child has to come closer in its development to the requirements of the norm.

Difficulties in building correctional programs are due to the variety of manifestations of mental retardation. You need to know that every child with harmonic infantilism has a number of features, including immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere and unformed cognitive activity.

Correctional and pedagogical work with children is conditionally divided into two blocks:

1. Educational;
2. Developing.

It is necessary to start corrective work at preschool age, so that at the time of the beginning of schooling, the level of development of the child is clearly defined, and together with him a decision is made on the type of class for teaching the child.

Individual correctional programs take into account the following characteristics of the child:

• intelligence level;
• emotional and personal development;
• sensorimotor development of children,
• formation of operational and motivational-required sphere;
• development of perceptual actions;
• formation of the structure of mental activity.

Parents and educators need to know that there are no general programs. Correctional and pedagogical programs can only be individual. For their processing, you need to contact specialists in medical, psychological and psychiatric centers.

The problem of the poor progress of a certain part of the students of the primary mass general education school has long attracted the attention of teachers, psychologists, doctors and sociologists. They singled out a certain group of children who cannot be classified as mentally retarded, since within the limits of their knowledge they showed a sufficient ability to generalize, a wide “zone of proximal development”. These children were assigned to a special category - children with mental retardation.

M.S. Pevzner and T.A. Vlasova (1968, 1973) drew attention to the role of emotional development in shaping the personality of a child with mental retardation, as well as to the significance of neurodynamic disorders (asthenic and cerebrosthenic conditions). Accordingly, mental retardation was identified, arising on the basis of mental and psychophysical infantilism associated with harmful effects on the central nervous system during pregnancy, and a delay that occurs in the early stages of a child's life as a result of various pathogenic factors that led to asthenic and cerebrosthenic conditions of the body.

As a result of further research work, K.S. Lebedinskaya proposed a classification of the types of ZPR according to the etiopathogenetic principle:

Each of these types can be complicated by a number of painful somatic, encephalopathic, neurological signs, and has its own clinical and psychological structure, its own characteristics of emotional immaturity and cognitive impairment, and its own etiology.

Mental retardation (MPD)- a syndrome of temporary lag in the development of the psyche as a whole or its individual functions, a slowdown in the rate of realization of the potential capabilities of the body, often found upon admission to school and is expressed in the lack of a general stock of knowledge, limited ideas, immaturity of thinking, low intellectual focus, the predominance of gaming interests, fast satiety in intellectual activity

Causes of the occurrence of RPD can be divided into two large groups:

Biological reasons include:

Among the reasons of socio-psychological nature distinguish the following:

The CRA is based on the interaction of biological and social causes. With the systematics of the ZPR, Vlasova T.A. and Pevzner M.S. there are two main forms:

Infantilism is a violation of the rate of maturation of the latest emerging brain systems. Infantilism can be harmonic (associated with a violation of a functional nature, immaturity of the frontal structures) and disharmonic (due to the phenomena of the organics of the brain);

Asthenia is a sharp weakness of a somatic and neurological nature, due to functional and dynamic disorders of the central nervous system. Asthenia can be somatic and cerebro-asthenic (increased exhaustion of the nervous system).

Let us characterize in more detail each of the types of SPR.

Mental retardation of constitutional origin - the so-called harmonic infantilism (not complicated mental and psychophysical infantilism, according to the classification of M.S. Pevzner and T.A. Vlasova), in which the emotional-volitional sphere is, as it were, at an earlier stage of development, in many ways resembling the normal structure of the emotional warehouse of children younger age. The predominance of emotional motivation of behavior, an increased background of mood, immediacy and brightness of emotions with their superficiality and instability, and easy suggestibility are characteristic. Difficulties in learning, often observed in these children in the lower grades, are associated with the immaturity of the motivational sphere and the personality as a whole, the predominance of gaming interests. Harmonic infantilism is, as it were, a nuclear form of mental infantilism, in which the features of emotional-volitional immaturity appear in their purest form and are often combined with an infantile body type. Such harmony of the psychophysical appearance, the presence of family cases, non-pathological mental characteristics suggest a predominantly congenital-constitutional etiology of this type of infantilism. However, often the origin of harmonic infantilism can be associated with mild metabolic and trophic disorders in utero or the first years of life. These children, under favorable conditions, show good alignment results.

This group also includes:

Mental retardation of somatogenic origin. This type of developmental anomaly is caused by long-term somatic insufficiency of various origins: chronic infections and allergic conditions, congenital and acquired malformations of the somatic sphere, primarily the heart. In slowing down the rate of mental development of children, a significant role belongs to persistent asthenia* , which reduces not only the general, but also the mental tone. Often there is also a delay in emotional development - somatogenic infantilism, due to a number of neurotic layers - insecurity, timidity associated with a sense of one's physical inferiority, and sometimes caused by a regime of prohibitions and restrictions in which a somatically weakened or sick child is located.

In the asthenic state, the child is not able to cope with the academic load. Often the following signs of fatigue appear:

Delayed mental development of psychogenic origin associated with unfavorable conditions of education that prevent the correct formation of the child's personality. As is known, unfavorable environmental conditions that appeared early, long-term and have a traumatic effect on the child's psyche, can lead to persistent shifts in his neuropsychic sphere, disruption of autonomic functions first, and then mental, primarily emotional development. In such cases, we are talking about the pathological (abnormal) development of the personality.

This type of mental retardation should be distinguished from the phenomena of pedagogical neglect, which are not a pathological phenomenon, and a lack of knowledge and skills due to a lack of intellectual information.

ZPR of psychogenic origin is observed primarily with abnormal development of the personality according to the type of mental instability, most often due to the phenomenon hypoprotection - conditions of neglect, under which the child does not develop a sense of duty and responsibility, forms of behavior associated with active inhibition of affect. The development of cognitive activity, intellectual interests and attitudes is not stimulated. Therefore, the features of pathological immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere in the form of affective lability, impulsivity, increased suggestibility in these children are often combined with an insufficient level of knowledge and ideas necessary for mastering school subjects.

Variant of abnormal personality development by type "family idol" caused, on the contrary, overprotective-pampering upbringing. In which the child does not instill the traits of independence, initiative, responsibility. This psychogenic infantilism, along with a low capacity for volitional effort, is characterized by features of egocentrism and selfishness, dislike for work, and a focus on constant help and guardianship.

The variant of the pathological development of the personality according to the neurotic type is more often observed in children whose parents show rudeness, cruelty, tyranny, aggression towards the child and other family members. The so-called type "Cinderella". In such an environment, a timid, timid personality is often formed, whose emotional immaturity manifests itself in insufficient independence, indecision, low activity and initiative, and further leads to maladaptation.

Child development in conditions conflicting upbringing. Children are forced to adapt to adults, which leads to the absence of core attitudes and the formation of an unstable personality.

Mental retardation of cerebro-organic origin occurs more often than the other described stages and often has great persistence and severity of disturbances both in the emotional-volitional sphere and in cognitive activity and occupies the main place in this developmental anomaly. The study of the anamnesis shows the presence of a mild organic insufficiency of the nervous system, more often of a residual (residual) nature due to the pathology of pregnancy (severe toxicosis, infection, intoxication and trauma, incompatibility of the blood of the mother and fetus according to the Rh factor), prematurity, asphyxia and trauma during childbirth, postnatal neuroinfections , toxic-dystrophic diseases of the first years of life.

Anamnestic data often indicate a slowdown in the change of age phases of development: a delay in the formation of static functions, walking, speech, neatness skills, stages of play activity.

In the somatic state, along with frequent signs of physical development delay (muscle underdevelopment, lack of muscle and vascular tone, growth retardation), general malnutrition is often observed, which does not allow us to exclude the pathogenetic role of autonomic regulation disorders; various types of body dysplasticity can also be observed. In the neurological state, hydrocephalic and sometimes hypertensive stigmas (local areas with increased intracranial pressure) and vegetative-vascular dystonia are often encountered.

Cerebral-organic insufficiency, first of all, leaves a typical imprint on the structure of the mental retardation itself - both on the features of emotional-volitional immaturity, and on the nature of cognitive impairment. Emotional-volitional immaturity is represented organic infantilism. Children lack the liveliness and brightness of emotions typical of a healthy child; characterized by a weak interest in evaluation, a low level of claims. Suggestibility has a rough connotation and is often accompanied by a lack of criticism. Game activity is characterized by poverty of imagination and creativity, monotony and monotony. The very desire to play often looks like a way of avoiding difficulties in the classroom. Often, an activity that requires purposeful intellectual activity, such as preparing lessons, turns into a game.

Depending on the predominance of one or another emotional background, 2 main types of organic infantilism can be distinguished: unstable - with psychomotor disinhibition, euphoric mood and impulsiveness and braked - with a predominance of a low mood background, indecision, timidity.

This type of mental retardation is characterized by impaired cognitive activity due to lack of attention, memory, inertia of mental processes, their slowness and reduced switchability, as well as insufficiency of individual cortical functions.

Psychological and pedagogical research conducted at the Research Institute of Defectology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR under the direction of V.I. Lubovsky, they state that these children have instability of attention, insufficient development of phonemic hearing, visual and tactile perception, optical-spatial synthesis, motor and sensory side of speech, long-term and short-term memory, hand-eye coordination, automation of movements and actions. Often there is a poor orientation in the "right-left", the phenomenon of mirroring in writing, difficulties in distinguishing similar graphemes.

General psychological and pedagogical characteristics of children with a delaymental development

Depending on the origin (cerebral, constitutional, somatogenic, psychogenic), as well as on the time of exposure to the child's body of harmful factors, mental retardation gives different options for deviations in the emotional-volitional sphere and cognitive activity. As a result of studying the mental processes and learning opportunities for children with mental retardation, a number of specific features were identified in their cognitive, emotional-volitional sphere, behavior and personality as a whole. The following common features for CRA of various etiologies were identified:

Memory: Insufficient formation of cognitive processes is often the main reason for the difficulties that children with mental retardation have when studying at school. As shown by numerous clinical and psychological and pedagogical studies, a significant place in the structure of the defect in mental activity in this developmental anomaly belongs to memory impairment.

Observations of teachers and parents of children with mental retardation, as well as special psychological studies, indicate shortcomings in the development of their involuntary memory. Much of what normally developing children memorize easily, as if by itself, causes considerable effort from their lagging peers and requires specially organized work with them.

One of the main reasons for the insufficient productivity of involuntary memory in children with mental retardation is decrease in their cognitive activity. In the study of T. V. Egorova (1969), this problem was subjected to a special study. One of the experimental methods used in the work involved the use of a task, the purpose of which was to arrange pictures with images of objects into groups in accordance with the initial letter of the name of these objects. It was found that children with developmental delay not only reproduced verbal material worse, but also spent noticeably more time recalling it than their normally developing peers. The main difference was not so much in the extraordinary productivity of the answers, but in a different attitude towards the goal. Children with mental retardation made almost no attempts on their own to achieve a more complete recall and rarely used auxiliary techniques for this. In cases where this did happen, a substitution of the purpose of the action was often observed. The auxiliary method was used not to recall the necessary words beginning with a certain letter, but to invent new (foreign) words starting with the same letter.

In the study of N.G. Poddubnaya studied the dependence of the productivity of involuntary memorization on the nature of the material and the characteristics of the activity with it in younger students with mental retardation. The subjects had to establish semantic connections between the units of the main and additional sets of words and pictures (in various combinations). Children with mental retardation found it difficult to master the instructions for the series, which require an independent selection of nouns that match the meaning of the pictures or words presented by the experimenter. Many children did not understand the task, but they tried to get the experimental material as soon as possible and start acting. At the same time, unlike normally developing preschool children, they could not adequately assess their capabilities and were confident that they knew how to complete the task. Distinct differences were revealed both in productivity and in the accuracy and stability of involuntary memorization. The amount of correctly reproduced material in the norm was 1.2 times higher.

N.G. Poddubnaya notes that visual material is remembered better than verbal material and is a more effective support in the process of reproduction. The author points out that involuntary memory in children with mental retardation does not suffer to the same extent as voluntary memory, so it is advisable to teach them extensively.4

TA. Vlasova, M.S. Pevsner point to the decrease in voluntary memory in students with mental retardation as one of the main reasons for their difficulties in schooling. These children do not memorize texts well: the multiplication table, do not keep in mind the purpose and conditions of the problem. They are characterized by fluctuations in memory productivity, rapid forgetting of what they have learned.

Specific features of the memory of children with mental retardation:

Decreased memory capacity and memorization speed,

Involuntary memory is less productive than normal,

The memory mechanism is characterized by a decrease in the productivity of the first memorization attempts, but the time required for complete memorization is close to normal,

Predominance of visual memory over verbal,

Decrease in arbitrary memory.

Violation of mechanical memory.

Attention: Causes of impaired attention:

The asthenic phenomena existing in the child exert their influence.

Lack of formation of the mechanism of arbitrariness in children.

Unformed motivation, the child shows a good concentration of attention when it is interesting, and where it is required to show a different level of motivation - a violation of interest.

Researcher of children with mental retardation L.M. Zharenkova notes the following features of attention that are characteristic of this disorder:

Low concentration of attention: the inability of the child to concentrate on the task, on any activity, quick distractibility. In the study of N.G. Poddubnaya clearly manifested the features of attention in children with ZPR: in the process of performing the entire experimental task, cases of fluctuations in attention, a large number of distractions, rapid exhaustion and fatigue were observed.

Low level of attention span. Children cannot be engaged in the same activity for a long time.

Voluntary attention is more severely impaired. In corrective work with these children, it is necessary to attach great importance to the development of voluntary attention. To do this, use special games and exercises (“Who is more attentive?”, “What was missing on the table?” And so on). In the process of individual work, apply such techniques as drawing flags, houses, working on a model, etc.

Perception. Causes of impaired perception : with mental retardation, the integrative activity of the cerebral cortex, cerebral hemispheres is disrupted and, as a result, the coordinated work of various analyzer systems is disrupted: hearing, vision, motor system, which leads to disruption of systemic mechanisms of perception.

Perceptual Disadvantages:

The task of the teacher is to help the child with mental retardation to streamline the processes of perception and teach to reproduce the object purposefully. In the first academic year of study, an adult directs the perception of the child in the classroom; at an older age, children are offered a plan of their actions. For the development of perception, the material is offered to children in the form of diagrams, colored chips.

Features of the mental activity of children with mental retardation

This problem was studied by W.V. Ul'enkova, T.V. Egorova, T.A. Strekalova and others. Thinking in children with mental retardation is more secure than in mentally retarded children, the ability to generalize, abstract, accept help, and transfer skills to other situations is more preserved.

All mental processes influence the development of thinking:

In children with mental retardation, all these prerequisites for the development of thinking are violated to one degree or another. Children have difficulty concentrating on the task. These children have impaired perception, they have rather meager experience in their arsenal - all this determines the peculiarities of the thinking of a child with mental retardation.

That side of cognitive processes that is disturbed in a child is associated with a violation of one of the components of thinking.

In children with mental retardation, coherent speech suffers, the ability to plan their activities with the help of speech is impaired; inner speech is disturbed - an active means of the child's logical thinking.

General shortcomings of the mental activity of children with mental retardation:

Unformed cognitive, search motivation (a peculiar attitude to any intellectual tasks). Children tend to avoid any intellectual effort. For them, the moment of overcoming difficulties is unattractive (refusal to perform a difficult task, substitution of an intellectual task for a closer, game task.). Such a child performs the task not completely, but its simpler part. Children are not interested in the result of the task. This feature of thinking manifests itself at school, when children very quickly lose interest in new subjects.

The absence of a pronounced indicative stage in solving mental problems. Children with mental retardation begin to act immediately, on the move. This position was confirmed in the experiment by N.G. Poddubnaya. When presented with instructions for a task, many children did not understand the task, but tried to get the experimental material as quickly as possible and begin to act. It should be noted that children with mental retardation are more interested in finishing the work quickly, and not in the quality of the task. The child does not know how to analyze the conditions, does not understand the significance of the indicative stage, which leads to many errors. When a child begins to learn, it is very important to create conditions for him to initially think and analyze the task.

3. Low mental activity, "thoughtless" style of work (children, due to haste, disorganization, act at random, not taking into account the given conditions in full; there is no directed search for a solution, overcoming difficulties). Children solve the problem on an intuitive level, that is, the child seems to give the answer correctly, but cannot explain it.

4. Stereotypical thinking, its pattern.

Visual-figurative thinking.

Children with mental retardation find it difficult to act according to a visual model due to violations of analysis operations, violation of integrity, purposefulness, activity of perception - all this leads to the fact that the child finds it difficult to analyze the sample, highlight the main parts, establish the relationship between the parts and reproduce this structure in the process of his own activities.

Logical thinking.

Children with mental retardation have violations of the most important mental operations that serve as components of logical thinking:

In all children with mental retardation, the level of logical thinking lags far behind the level of a normal student. By the age of 6-7, children with normal mental development begin to reason, draw independent conclusions, and try to explain everything. Children independently master two types of inferences:

Children with mental retardation experience very great difficulties in building the simplest conclusions. The stage in the development of logical thinking - the implementation of a conclusion from two premises - is still little accessible to children with mental retardation. In order for children to be able to draw a conclusion, they are greatly assisted by an adult who indicates the direction of thought, highlighting those dependencies between which relationships should be established. try to avoid such situations. These children, due to the lack of formation of logical thinking, give random, thoughtless answers, show an inability to analyze the conditions of the problem. When working with these children, it is necessary to pay special attention to the development of all forms of thinking in them.

Given all of the above, these children need a special approach.

Requirements for training, taking into account the characteristics of children with mental retardation:

Questions for self-control:

Azbukina E.Yu., Mikhailova E.N. Fundamentals of special pedagogy and psychology: Textbook. - Tomsk: Tomsk State Pedagogical University Publishing House, 2006. - 335p.

Mental retardation of constitutional origin At present, special attention is paid to the study of the psychology of children with developmental disabilities, since the study of the psychological characteristics of children with mental retardation is closely related to the problem of school failure. The volume of knowledge provided by the school curriculum is constantly increasing under the influence of scientific and technological progress, while statistics show that the number of children with developmental disorders is quite large, and, unfortunately, there is a tendency to some increase. At the same time, difficulties in teaching children lead to disturbances in their behavior, which complicates the normal functioning of the family, school and society as a whole, therefore, knowledge of this problem is important both for teachers of general education and preschool institutions, and for school psychologists, and pedagogical education without this knowledge cannot be considered complete. Research on the problem was carried out by both foreign and domestic psychologists. In domestic psychological practice, the first attempts at special pedagogical work with children suffering from mental retardation were made in the late 50s and early 60s within small experimental groups at the Institute of Defectology of the Academy of Psychiatric Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR. Later, clinical studies of children with mental retardation were carried out by M.S. Pevzner, 1973; G.E. Sukhareva, 1974; T.A. Vlasova, K.S. Lebedinskaya, 1975; M.G. Reidiboim, Causes of mental retardation 1977. are considered in the works of M.S. Pevzner, T.A. Vlasova, K.S. Lebedinskaya, V.V. Lebedinsky, Z.I. .Lubovsky defines children with mental retardation

as lagging behind in development, but having significant potential for intellectual development. Impaired mental function. Concept. The reasons. Classification Mental retardation is a concept that has developed in Russian psychology in the 60s. 20th century based on the study of children who experience persistent learning difficulties in a regular (mass) school, and those who, having been diagnosed as mentally retarded, after a short period of study in a special (auxiliary) school, began to move forward very successfully and showed great potential, with providing them with appropriate pedagogical support and organizational assistance, such children continued their education in a public school. The term "mental retardation" was proposed by speech pathologists, isolated and designated as another option, different from persistent underdevelopment. With a delay in mental development, we are talking only about a slowdown in its pace, which is more often found when entering school and is expressed in the lack of a general stock of knowledge, limited ideas, immaturity of thinking, low intellectual focus, the predominance of gaming interests, and rapid satiety in intellectual activity. Unlike children suffering from oligophrenia, these children are quite quick-witted within the limits of available knowledge, and are much more productive in using help. At the same time, in some cases, a delay in the development of the emotional sphere (various types of infantilism) will come to the fore, and violations in the intellectual sphere are not pronounced. In other cases, on the contrary, the slowdown in the development of the intellectual sphere prevails. A. Strauss and L. Letinen in their work "Psychopathology and education of a child with brain damage" (1947) described the characteristics of children with mental retardation and revealed in 2

they are the presence of residual effects of mild organic brain damage in the early stages of development, which, as one might assume, are the causes of their difficulties. They characterized them as children with minimal brain damage. In addition to learning difficulties, they have some behavioral inadequacies (emotional breakdowns, hyperactivity) and, at the same time, relatively high (within the normal range) performance on intellectual tests. Psychologist S. Kirk proposed the definition of "specific" in order to emphasize the difference between such children from mentally retarded children, from children with hearing, vision, motor system impairments, and from cases of primary speech development disorders. The causes of mental retardation can be severe infectious diseases of the mother during pregnancy, pregnancy toxicosis, chronic fetal hypoxia due to placental insufficiency, trauma during pregnancy and childbirth, genetic factors, asphyxia, neuroinfections, nutritional deficiencies and chronic somatic diseases, as well as brain injuries. in the early period of a child's life, the initial low level of functional capabilities as an individual feature of the child's development (“cerebrosthenic infantilism – according to V.V. Kovalev), severe emotional disorders of a neurotic nature associated with extremely unfavorable conditions of early development. K.S. Lebedinskaya children with mental retardation are classified into 4 groups: constitutional, somatogenic, psychogenic and cerebroorganic origin 4. 3

Features of mental retardation of constitutional origin Let's consider the first group - mental retardation of constitutional origin. This is harmonic, mental and psychophysical infantilism. These children are already outwardly different. According to Loren and Lasegue, infantile appearance often corresponds to an infantile body type with childish plasticity of facial expressions and motor skills. They are more slender, often less than average in height, and the face retains the features of an earlier age, even when they are already becoming schoolchildren. In these children, the lag in the development of the emotional sphere is especially pronounced. They are, as it were, at an earlier stage of development in comparison with the chronological age. They have a greater severity of emotional manifestations, the brightness of emotions and at the same time their instability and lability, they are very characterized by easy transitions from laughter to tears and vice versa, as well as easy suggestibility. The children of this group have very pronounced play interests, which prevail even at school age. In the game, they show a lot of creativity and invention, they like to fantasize, replacing and crowding out life situations that are unpleasant for them. At the same time, they are quickly fed up with intellectual activity. Therefore, in the first grade of school, they have difficulties associated both with a small focus on long-term intellectual activity (they prefer to play in the classroom) and an inability to obey the rules of discipline. In the classroom, they “turn off” and do not complete tasks, cry over trifles, quickly 4

calm down when switching to the game, lack of independence and uncriticality to their behavior. they are characterized by common to all is the lag in mental development in all spheres of mental activity by the beginning of school age. This is expressed in a slower than normal rate of reception and processing of sensory information, insufficient formation of mental operations and actions, low cognitive activity and weakness of cognitive interests, limited, fragmentary knowledge and ideas about the environment4. Children lag behind in speech development (lack of pronunciation, agrammatism, limited vocabulary). Deficiencies in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere are manifested in emotional instability and excitability, the lack of formation of arbitrary regulation of behavior, the weakness of educational motivation and the predominance of gaming. Characterized by deficiencies in motor skills, especially fine, difficulty in coordinating movements, manifestations of hyperactivity. The essential features of children with mental retardation are uneven, mosaic manifestations of developmental insufficiency4. Subtypes of ZPR of constitutional origin:  Harmonic psychophysical infantilism. The basis is hereditary factors, or a disease in early childhood. They are 2-3 years behind in their physical development. It is characterized by a good development of speech; bright expressive emotions; friendliness; friendliness; attraction to older people. There are no gross violations of the cognitive sphere. When they go to school, they become underachievers. There is no personal readiness for school, gaming interests predominate, it turns the learning situation into a playful one, and in conversations openly speaks of an unwillingness to learn. It is expedient to return them to kindergarten before maturation. Possible 5

favorable dynamics, the features of hysteroid accentuation may also increase (the need to be in the center of attention, etc.).  Disharmonious psychophysical infantilism. Minor brain damage at an early stage of development. Lag in physical development. There is a violation of cognitive activity (lack of formation of mental operations, a narrowed volume of high memory; difficulties in analyzing spatial relationships). Attention fatigue, unstable, or its pathological inertia, stuck. Disharmony in reduced mental performance. emotional-volitional sphere, in communication. Short temper, affective instability, pugnacious, etc. Indifference to remarks. The dynamics are less favorable for alignment.  Psychophysical infantilism in endocrine insufficiency. Violation of metabolic processes. The lag in physical development, dysplasticity of the physique and impaired coordination of movements creates difficulties for communication, complexes, anxiety, etc. There is a slowdown in the flow of all mental processes. There is no brightness of imagination, there is no initiative (poor progress), mood swings are expressed with a predominance of the depressive component, the appearance of neurotic symptoms is noted. These features can be smoothed out, there is a positive trend. It should be noted that, in general, a favorable prognosis is characteristic of the constitutional ZPR, provided that a targeted pedagogical influence is made in an entertaining game form accessible to the child. Identification of such children at preschool age, early start of corrective work, training not from the age of 7, but from the age of 8, can completely remove the problems described above. The child may also be sent, by decision of the school psychological and pedagogical council, to a class of compensatory education. If there are 6

there is no class at the school, perhaps a duplication of the first class. Repeating does not injure children with constitutional mental retardation. They easily merge into a new team, quickly and painlessly get used to a new teacher. The psychophysical status that has changed during the first year of study, individual psychological and pedagogical support allow such a child to master the program of a mass general education school on an equal basis with other students, and there are no serious problems in their further education 1. 7

Features of children with mental retardation at preschool age Sensory-perceptual functions There are no primary sensory deficiencies in children of this category. At the same time, the presence of shortcomings in perception is quite obvious. A. Strauss and L. Letinen, in their work on children with minimal brain damage, wrote that these children “listen, but do not hear, look, but do not see”, which indicates an insufficient focus of perception, its fragmentation and insufficient differentiation. In the course of age development, the insufficiency of perception is overcome, and the faster, the more conscious they become. The lag in the development of visual perception and auditory perception is overcome faster. This happens especially intensively during the period of literacy. Tactile perception develops more slowly. Features of motor skills There is motor awkwardness and lack of coordination, which manifests itself even in such automated movements as walking, running. Many children, along with poor coordination of movements, have hyperkinesias - excessive motor activity in the form of inadequate, excessive strength or range of motion. Some children have choreiform movements (muscle twitches). In some cases, but much less often, physical activity is significantly reduced in relation to the norm. To the greatest extent, the lag in the development of the motor sphere is manifested in the field of psychomotor - voluntary conscious movements aimed at achieving a specific goal, expressed in slowness, inaccuracy and awkwardness of movements, difficulties in reproducing the postures of the hand and fingers. Particular difficulties are found when performing alternating movements, 8

for example, alternately bending into a fist and straightening the fingers of the hands, or bending the thumb while straightening the other fingers of the same hand. When performing voluntary movements that make it difficult for children, excessive muscle tension is often manifested, and sometimes choreiform twitches. Attention Children do not concentrate well on one object, their attention is unstable. Instability manifests itself in any other activity that children engage in. Greater concentration is observed in the conditions of an individual lesson, where the child's activity is regulated and stimulated by adults and various distractions are minimized. Lack of attention in children with mental retardation is largely associated with low performance, increased exhaustion, which are especially characteristic of children with organic insufficiency of the central nervous system. Memory There is a predominance of visual-figurative memory in comparison with verbal. Features of thinking Preschoolers in the group under consideration have a lag in the development of all types of thinking (visual, visual, and verbal), but this lag is manifested unevenly. It manifests itself to the least extent in visual-effective thinking, especially if we take into account the zone of proximal development. The lag in the development of visual-figurative thinking is very great. The development of verbal thinking in them also lags significantly behind what is observed in normal 9

developing peers. unevenness in the formation of various manifestations of this type of thinking. At the same time, a pronounced lack of formation of mental operations and actions is revealed: analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, distinction, comparison (a child, using one or another operation in the same conditions when solving a simple problem, cannot apply it to solving another task, somewhat more complex or performed in different conditions). The generalization of specific concepts (and real objects) and the classification of real objects, which are directly related to the assimilation of the vocabulary of a language, turn out to be accessible to children, although at a lower level than normally developing ones do. A significant lag is found in the manifestations of the ability to carry out judgments and conclusions. The peculiarities of the thinking of children of the type under consideration also include insufficient orientation in the conditions of the task and impulsiveness of actions. Features of speech development There is a belated appearance of the first words and first phrases, a slow expansion of the vocabulary and mastery of the grammatical structure. Often there are shortcomings in the pronunciation and distinction of individual sounds, insufficient distinctness, "blurring" of speech, which is associated with low mobility of the articulatory apparatus due to insufficient speech practice. Specific features and difficulties of word formation are revealed. In the formation from a familiar noun, adjectives that are absent in their dictionary, they can use a productive, but not suitable suffix in this case, resulting in neologisms (“window”, “school”). ten

Sentences build them in an extremely primitive way and make many mistakes: they violate the order of words, do not agree on definitions with the word being defined, they replace the story from the picture with a simple enumeration of the objects depicted on it. Children experience great difficulties in understanding the relationships conveyed by the forms of the instrumental case (“Show the ruler with a pencil”), attributive constructions of the genitive case (“father’s brother”, “daughter’s mother”), structures with an unusual word order (“Kolya hit Vanya. Who is a fighter? ”), comparative constructions (“Kolya is higher than Vanya, but lower than Serezha”). Significant difficulties are caused by their understanding of some forms of expression of spatial relations (“Draw a circle under a square”). The speech stream for them acts as something whole, they do not know how to divide it into words, especially since they are not able to isolate individual sounds in a word. There is no cognitive attitude to speech. Game activity The game of children with mental retardation is generally characterized by monotony, lack of creativity, poverty of imagination, insufficient emotionality, low activity of children compared to the activity observed in the norm. The plot game is distinguished by the absence of a detailed plot, the unclear lack of coordination of the participants' actions, the division of roles and the equally unclear observance of the game rules. Children of the described category generally do not start plot games on their own. They sometimes take toys, look at them, perform object-play actions, just walk, run around the room, or do some other thing. The meaning of the game for them is to perform actions with toys, at best, the game is procedural in nature with plot elements. eleven

Insufficient emotionality of preschoolers with mental retardation is also manifested in their attitude to toys, there are no favorites. Features of the emotional sphere There is a lag in the development of emotions: emotional instability, lability, ease of changing moods and contrasting manifestations of emotions. They easily and, from the point of view of the observer, often unmotivatedly move from laughter to crying and vice versa. An insignificant occasion can cause emotional arousal and even a sharp affective reaction that is inadequate to the situation. Such a child sometimes shows goodwill towards others, then suddenly becomes angry and aggressive. At the same time, aggression is directed not at the action of the individual, but at the personality itself. Often, preschoolers with mental retardation have a state of anxiety, anxiety. They actually do not need interaction with their peers, they prefer to play alone, there are no pronounced attachments to anyone, emotional preferences of any of their peers, i.e. friends are not distinguished, interpersonal relationships are unstable. Interaction is situational. Children prefer communication with adults or children older than themselves, but even in these cases they do not show significant activity. Difficulties that children encounter when performing tasks and their expectations often cause them to have sharp emotional reactions, affective outbursts. Fear of failure significantly reduces the productivity of children in solving intellectual problems and leads to the formation of low self-esteem in them. Only specific emotions are successfully identified. Own simple emotional states are recognized worse than the emotions depicted in 12

character pictures. At the same time, it should be noted that children with mental retardation quite successfully identify in the pictures the causes of the characters' emotional states3. 13

Features of children with mental retardation at school age It is extremely difficult for children with mental retardation to comply with the school regime, to obey clear rules of behavior, difficulties in school adaptation are found. During the lessons, they cannot sit still, spin around, get up, sort through the objects on the table and in the bag, climb under the table. At breaks, they run aimlessly, shout, and often start meaningless fuss. A significant role in this behavior is played by the hyperactivity characteristic of most of them. Their educational activity is characterized by low productivity: they often do not master the tasks given by the teacher, they cannot concentrate on their implementation for a relatively long time, they are distracted by any extraneous stimuli. Features of attention Attention is unstable, combined with increased distractibility. Instability manifests itself in different ways: in some children, at the beginning of the task, there is maximum concentration for them, which steadily decreases as the activity continues, and the student begins to make mistakes or completely stops performing the task, in others, the greatest concentration of attention occurs after a certain period of performing the given actions, and then gradually decreases. There are children who have periodic fluctuations in attention (G.I. Zharenkova). Usually the stable performance of any activity is limited in class I to 57 minutes3. Perception In the absence of primary deficiencies in vision, hearing, and other types of slowness and sensitivity, they are noted to be inaccurate, 14

fragmentation of perception, difficulties in identifying a figure against the background and details in complex images, poverty and insufficient differentiation of visual images of representations. At the same time, there are no difficulties in recognizing objects familiar to them in realistic images, which additionally indicates the absence of primary insufficiency of sensory functions. With age, the perception of children with mental retardation improves, indicators of reaction time improve, reflecting the speed of perception. With age, in the process of learning and development in children of the category under consideration, perceptual operations and purposeful perception of the representation are formed and improved. (observation), images develop Memory According to generally accepted ideas and opinions of teachers, students with mental retardation remember and reproduce educational material much worse than their normally developing peers. Features of involuntary memorization:  The productivity of reproduction of involuntarily imprinted material in first graders with mental retardation is 1.6 times lower on average than in their normally developing peers, and turns out to be even worse than in normally developing preschool children who are 2 3 years younger. Those who were more active with the material showed better results.  Memorization of visual material is higher than verbal. Arbitrary memorization in children with mental retardation is formed at a much slower pace, the best indicators are observed with voluntary memorization of visual material. Children with mental retardation remember less after each presentation, and 15

"lose" more, often during reproduction, the same object is repeatedly called. General features of short-term memory: small volume, slow increase in productivity during repeated presentations, increased inhibition of traces as a result of interference from side effects, disturbances in the order in reproduction, low selectivity. General features of memory: the predominance of visual over verbal; underdevelopment of self-control, which manifests itself most clearly in the introduction during reproduction and in changes in words offered for memorization; weak selectivity of memory, mediated memorization (instead of a word for which a certain picture was chosen, the name of the object depicted on it was reproduced); inability to deliberately apply rational methods of memorization (for example, use a plan when memorizing a coherent text or correlate in a certain way, comprehend the memorized material); low mental activity in the process of reproduction3. Thinking Cognitive activity is extremely low, which is the most pronounced manifestation of their low level of mental activity in general and extremely weak cognitive motivation. the ability to choose from the available "arsenal" the operation necessary in this particular case, limited experience in the use of mental operations and actions, it turns out to be defective orientation in the conditions of the task. 16

By the end of primary school age, visually effective thinking is the closest to the level of formation corresponding to the average norm. Younger students with mental retardation cope with the solution of simple problems of the corresponding type just as successfully as their normally developing peers, while more complex problems are solved if they are provided with one or two types of assistance (for example, after additional stimulation and demonstration of a detailed sample). The level of verbal thinking is much lower. Features of speech development Children with mental retardation by the beginning of school age do not experience difficulties at the level of elementary everyday communication with adults and peers. They own the everyday everyday vocabulary and grammatical forms necessary for this. However, the expansion of the vocabulary of addressed speech beyond the framework of repeatedly repeated everyday topics leads to the fact that there is a misunderstanding of some questions asked to the child and instructions containing words whose meaning is unknown or not clear enough to the child, or grammatical forms not learned by him. Difficulties in understanding can also be associated with deficiencies in pronunciation, which are quite often observed in children with mental retardation. These shortcomings are usually not significant, mainly reduced to fuzziness, “blurring” of speech, however, they lead to defects in the analysis of perceived speech material, which in turn leads to a lag in the formation of language generalizations. As a result, children often, even knowing the right word, cannot use it or use it incorrectly. This is associated with a significant number of errors, agrammatisms in their speech. Vocabulary 17

Poverty is manifested both in the small number of words used (the active vocabulary is especially narrow), and in the fact that the words used by children have either too limited meaning, or, on the contrary, too broad and undifferentiated. Sometimes words are used in general in an inadequate sense. The stock of words denoting the properties and attributes of objects is especially limited. In the speech of children, there are mainly adjectives denoting the color, size and shape of objects, less often the material from which they are made. Often, instead of adjectives of the latter kind, children use nouns with a preposition (“fence made of boards” instead of “board fence”). Very few evaluative adjectives. One of the most common categories of words in children's speech are nouns. The content of the concepts denoted by the available words also differs significantly from that characteristic of normally developing children. Often it includes insignificant features in the absence of defining ones. This leads to significant difficulties and errors in the classification and grouping of objects. Most students with mental retardation do not separate verbs from words denoting objects and their signs (“cooked ear”, “gave it to my sister”, “snow came”). Significant difficulties are noted in the use and understanding of prepositions, especially those denoting spatial and temporal relationships - “because”, “through”, “from under”, “behind”, “between”, “before”, “after”, etc. In the spontaneous speech of children, many of these prepositions are absent altogether. Grammar structure of speech 18

The ways of word formation coincide with those observed in normally developing children: the use of suffixes in order to transform a word. Among the independently transformed words, as in normal children, nouns predominate. However, if normally developing children are characterized by about twice the formation of nouns with an independent meaning (sea sailor) than nouns with one shade or another (bridge bridge), then in children with mental retardation, both of these forms of word formation appear approximately equally. . They form adjectives much less; in terms of the formation of single-root verbs, they turn out to be approximately at the same level as normally developing schoolchildren. The roots of words are easily connected by children with other suffixes that are usually not compatible with them, resulting in such neologisms as “grozaki”, “grozilka”, “groznik” (from the word “thunderstorm”), “krasnik” (from the word “kra sit”), etc. The period of word creation (including the formation of neologisms) is a normal phenomenon in the process of speech development in preschool childhood (“from two to five”) and usually ends already at senior preschool age. In children with mental retardation, this phenomenon is observed even in the second year of schooling. The insufficient formation of the grammatical structure of the speech of children with mental retardation may not be detected in spontaneous speech, therefore it is often noticed only when the child starts school. It manifests itself in difficulties in mastering new forms of speech (narration and reasoning) and appears in situations that require detailed speech statements. 19

The lag in speech development, as shown by the studies of G. B. Shaumarov, K. K. Mamedov and others, persists throughout the entire school education of children with mental retardation. Features of the emotional-volitional sphere and personality: emotional lability, weakness of volitional efforts, lack of independence and suggestibility, personal immaturity in general. Emotional lability is manifested in the instability of moods and emotions, their rapid change, the easy onset of emotional arousal or crying, sometimes unmotivated manifestations of affect, the manifestation of anxiety and anxiety. At school, there is a state of tension, stiffness, passivity, self-doubt. Inadequate gaiety and cheerfulness act rather as a manifestation of excitability, inability to assess the situation and the mood of others. Children of the first group are noisy and mobile: during breaks and walks they climb trees, ride railings, shout loudly, try to participate in the games of other children, but, not being able to follow the rules, quarrel and interfere with others. With adults they are affectionate and even importunate, but they easily come into conflict, while showing rudeness and loudness. Their feelings of remorse and resentment are shallow and short-lived. With mental inhibition, along with personal immaturity, lack of independence, indecision, timidity, and slowness are manifested. Symbiotic attachment to parents leads to difficulties getting used to school. Such children often cry, miss home, avoid outdoor games, get lost at the blackboard and often do not answer, even knowing the correct answer. Low grades and comments can make them cry. They cannot characterize their own emotional state in a given situation. This indicates a certain underdevelopment of the emotional sphere, which turns out to be quite persistent. twenty

Younger schoolchildren with mental retardation lag behind in the formation of voluntary behavior, more often they have impulsive behavior 3. The greatest difficulty in the development of voluntary activity is the formation of control over one's own activity. The development of the personality of children in this category is distinguished by a significant originality. They are characterized by low self-esteem, self-doubt. At senior school age, schoolchildren with mental retardation show a number of personality traits that are common with those observed in normally developing adolescents. This is a weakness, vulnerability of the individual, high extrapunitiveness of reactions with aggression to the environment, leading to conflict; incorrectness in relations with others; the severity of self-protective reactions; the presence of signs of character accentuation. But unlike normally developing peers, they have weakly expressed reactions of self-affirmation, self-determination, characteristic of this age. There is no urgent need to unite with peers, adults remain more significant for them 3. References 1. Blinova, L.N. Diagnosis and correction in the education of children with mental retardation / L.N. Blinova // study guide. - M. "NC ENAS". - 2001. - p.136 2. Lebedinsky, V.V. Disorders of mental development in childhood / V.V. Lebedinsky // textbook. allowance for students. psychol. fak. higher textbook Institutions. - M.: Publishing Center "Academy". – 2003. 3. Lubovsky, V.I. Special psychology / V.I Lubovsky / / textbook for students of defectological faculties of higher pedagogical educational institutions. - M "ASADEMA". - 2005. - p. 482 21

4. Nazarova, N.M. Special Pedagogy / N.M. Nazarova, // textbook for university students. - M "ASADEMA". - 2000. - p.517 22

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.

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

1. Biological:

• pregnancy pathologies: severe toxicosis, intoxication, infections, injuries;
• prematurity;
• 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 adverse conditions: a monotonous environment, a narrow circle of friends, 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, self-catering);
• 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.

Impaired mental function(ZPR) - the tempo lag in the development of mental processes and the immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere in children, which can potentially be overcome with the help of specially organized training and education. Mental retardation is characterized by an insufficient level of development of motor skills, speech, attention, memory, thinking, regulation and self-regulation of behavior, primitiveness and instability of emotions, and poor school performance. Diagnosis of mental retardation is carried out collegially by a commission consisting of medical specialists, teachers and psychologists. Children with mental retardation need specially organized correctional and developmental education and medical support.

General information

Mental retardation (MPD) is a reversible impairment of the intellectual and emotional-volitional sphere, accompanied by specific learning difficulties. The number of persons with mental retardation reaches 15-16% in the child population. ZPR is more of a psychological and pedagogical category, however, it may be based on organic disorders, therefore this condition is also considered by medical disciplines - primarily pediatrics and child neurology. Since the development of various mental functions in children is uneven, usually the conclusion "mental retardation" is established for preschool children not earlier than 4-5 years old, but in practice - more often in the process of schooling.

Causes of mental retardation (ZPR)

The etiological basis of ZPR is biological and socio-psychological factors leading to a tempo delay in the intellectual and emotional development of the child.

Biological factors (non-rough organic damage to the central nervous system of a local nature and their residual effects) cause a violation of the maturation of various parts of the brain, which is accompanied by partial disorders of the mental development and activity of the child. Among the causes of a biological nature that act in the perinatal period and cause mental retardation, the most important are the pathology of pregnancy (severe toxicosis, Rh conflict, fetal hypoxia, etc.), intrauterine infections, intracranial birth trauma, prematurity, nuclear jaundice of newborns, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc., leading to the so-called perinatal encephalopathy. In the postnatal period and early childhood, mental retardation can be caused by severe somatic diseases of the child (hypotrophy, influenza, neuroinfections, rickets), craniocerebral trauma, epilepsy and epileptic encephalopathy, etc. ZPR is sometimes hereditary in nature and in some families is diagnosed from generation per generation.

Mental retardation may occur under the influence of environmental (social) factors, which, however, does not exclude the presence of an initial organic basis for the disorder. Most often, children with mental retardation grow up in conditions of hypo-custody (neglect) or hyper-custody, authoritarian nature of upbringing, social deprivation, lack of communication with peers and adults.

Secondary mental retardation can develop with early hearing and vision impairments, speech defects due to a pronounced deficit in sensory information and communication.

Classification of mental retardation (ZPR)

The group of children with mental retardation is heterogeneous. In special psychology, many classifications of mental retardation have been proposed. Consider the etiopathogenetic classification proposed by K. S. Lebedinskaya, which distinguishes 4 clinical types of mental retardation.

ZPR of constitutional genesis due to delayed maturation of the CNS. It is characterized by harmonic mental and psychophysical infantilism. In mental infantilism, the child behaves like a younger child; with psycho-physical infantilism, the emotional-volitional sphere and physical development suffer. Anthropometric data and behavior of such children do not correspond to chronological age. They are emotionally labile, spontaneous, characterized by an insufficient amount of attention and memory. Even at school age, they are dominated by gaming interests.

ZPR of somatogenic genesis due to severe and prolonged somatic diseases of the child at an early age, inevitably delaying the maturation and development of the central nervous system. In the anamnesis of children with somatogenic mental retardation, bronchial asthma, chronic dyspepsia, cardiovascular and renal failure, pneumonia, etc. are often found. Usually, such children are treated in hospitals for a long time, which in addition also causes sensory deprivation. ZPR of somatogenic origin is manifested by asthenic syndrome, low performance of the child, less memory, superficial attention, poor development of activity skills, hyperactivity or lethargy in case of overwork.

ZPR of psychogenic origin due to unfavorable social conditions in which the child resides (neglect, overprotection, abuse). Lack of attention to the child forms mental instability, impulsiveness, lag in intellectual development. Increased care brings up in the child lack of initiative, egocentrism, lack of will, lack of purposefulness.

ZPR of cerebro-organic genesis occurs most frequently. It is caused by a primary non-rough organic lesion of the brain. In this case, violations can affect certain areas of the psyche or manifest themselves in a mosaic way in various mental areas. The mental retardation of cerebral-organic genesis is characterized by the lack of formation of the emotional-volitional sphere and cognitive activity: lack of liveliness and brightness of emotions, low level of claims, pronounced suggestibility, poverty of imagination, motor disinhibition, etc.

Characteristics of children with mental retardation (ZPR)

The personal sphere in children with mental retardation is characterized by emotional lability, mild mood swings, suggestibility, lack of initiative, lack of will, and immaturity of the personality as a whole. There may be affective reactions, aggressiveness, conflict, increased anxiety. Children with mental retardation are often closed, prefer to play alone, do not seek to contact their peers. The play activity of children with mental retardation is characterized by monotony and stereotyping, lack of a detailed plot, poverty of imagination, and non-compliance with game rules. Motility features include motor clumsiness, lack of coordination, and often hyperkinesis and tics.

A feature of mental retardation is that compensation and reversibility of violations are possible only in conditions of special training and education.

Diagnosis of mental retardation (MPD)

Mental retardation in a child can only be diagnosed as a result of a comprehensive examination of the child by a psychological, medical and pedagogical commission (PMPC) consisting of a child psychologist, speech therapist, defectologist, pediatrician, pediatric neurologist, psychiatrist, etc. At the same time, an anamnesis is collected and studied, an analysis of the conditions life, neuropsychological testing, diagnostic examination of speech, study of the child's medical records. It is mandatory to conduct a conversation with the child, a study of intellectual processes and emotional-volitional qualities.

Based on information about the development of the child, members of the PMPK make a conclusion about the presence of mental retardation, give recommendations on the organization of the upbringing and education of the child in special educational institutions.

In order to identify the organic substrate of mental retardation, the child needs to be examined by medical specialists, primarily a pediatrician and a pediatric neurologist. Instrumental diagnostics may include EEG, CT and MRI of the child's brain, etc. Differential diagnosis of mental retardation should be carried out with oligophrenia and autism.

Correction of mental retardation (MPD)

Working with children with mental retardation requires a multidisciplinary approach and the active participation of pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, child psychologists, psychiatrists, speech therapists, defectologists. Correction of mental retardation should begin from preschool age and be carried out for a long time.

Children with mental retardation should attend specialized kindergartens (or groups), schools of type VII or correctional classes in general education schools. The peculiarities of teaching children with mental retardation include the dosage of educational material, reliance on visualization, multiple repetition, frequent changes in activities, and the use of health-saving technologies.

When working with such children, special attention is paid to the development of cognitive processes (perception, attention, memory, thinking); emotional, sensory and motor spheres with the help of fairy tale therapy,. Correction of speech disorders in mental retardation is carried out by a speech therapist as part of individual and group sessions. Together with teachers, correctional work on teaching students with mental retardation is carried out by defectologists, psychologists, and social teachers.

Medical care for children with mental retardation includes drug therapy in accordance with the identified somatic and cerebro-organic disorders, physiotherapy, exercise therapy, massage, hydrotherapy.

Forecast and prevention of mental retardation (ZPR)

The lag in the rate of a child's mental development from age norms can and must be overcome. Children with mental retardation are trainable and, with properly organized corrective work, positive dynamics are observed in their development. With the help of teachers, they are able to acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities that their normally developing peers master on their own. After graduation, they can continue their education in vocational schools, colleges and even universities.

Prevention of mental retardation in a child involves careful planning of pregnancy, avoidance of adverse effects on the fetus, prevention of infectious and somatic diseases in young children, and provision of favorable conditions for education and development. If a child lags behind in psychomotor development, an immediate examination by specialists and the organization of corrective work are necessary.