The appearance of a child in the family is always a joy. For every parent, their baby seems special. But some features of development can alert. In such cases, you must not hesitate and rush to the doctor. Unfortunately, at present, the number of children with developmental disabilities has increased significantly. These babies require special attention and care. It is very important to determine the pathology at the initial stage, so as not to miss the chance to correct or alleviate the current situation. How to correctly determine the pathology? What does "a child with developmental disabilities" mean?
Necessary norms for development
Before we talk about the deviations of the child, we highlight the conditions necessary for the full development:
- The development and functionality of the brain should be normal.
- The work of the nervous system and physical parameters correspond to age and provide all the processes for life.
- Sense organscan provide a natural connection to the outside world.
- A child properly, systematically and consistently goes through all stages of education, from family to school.
What is considered normal in child development:
- Development in line with peers around him.
- Behavior meets accepted social norms.
- The development of the organism coincides with the established norms, while it is able to deal with negative environmental factors and resist disease.
There are more and more children with disabilities, as some of the developmental conditions are not met for one reason or another.
Reason for deviations
The main reasons for the development of deviations in children are divided into:
- hereditary;
- external (environmental influence).
To hereditary include:
- Genetic factor.
- Somatic.
- Brain damage.
Depending on when pathogenic factors could have influenced, the following periods of time are distinguished:
- Before childbirth.
- During labor.
- Postpartum up to 3 years.
The greatest influence on the development of mental functions has a harmful effect at the time of intensive cellular development of the brain, during the development of the embryo.
Biological influence
It is possible to identify biological factors that affect the developmentchildren:
- Genetic mutations.
- The mother had an infectious or viral disease during pregnancy: rubella, influenza.
- Parents are not Rh compatible.
- Mother has diabetes.
- Parents have STDs.
- Using drugs, especially by the mother.
- Biochemical effects. Factories, chemical fertilizers, uncontrolled intake of medications. These factors affect both pregnancy and the early stages of a child's development.
- Lack of oxygen for the fetus.
- Severe toxicosis in the second half of pregnancy.
- Mother's poor he alth. Poor nutrition, tumor processes, lack of vitamins.
- Chronic diseases in a child that began at an early age: asthma, diabetes, blood pathologies.
- Injury to the brain at an early age and severe infectious diseases.
- Injuries during pathological childbirth.
All these negative factors can cause a child with developmental disabilities.
Social Influence
Let's highlight the social factors that affect the development of the child:
Strong experiences of the future mother, accompanied by a significant release of hormones into the amniotic fluid
- Negative events and sentiments against the future baby.
- Stressful situations, often repeated.
- The state of the mother's psyche inperiod of labor activity.
- Bad attitude towards the child, separation from the mother, rough treatment, lack of warm relations.
All these factors require more professional advice from psychologists and teachers, as they can cause deviations in the mental development of the child, while biological ones require the attention of doctors.
What are the possible deviations
Several groups of deviations can be distinguished:
- Children with physical disabilities. This includes disorders in the musculoskeletal system, vision, hearing.
- Deviations in the mental development of the child. This is a speech disorder, mental retardation, as well as mental retardation and deviations in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere.
- Pedagogical deviations. Children without secondary education.
- Children with social disabilities who do not have the education to enter the social environment. In this case, preventive work is important.
It is also necessary to highlight periods in which one can notice striking deviations from development:
- Preschool.
- School junior.
- Teen.
For each period, the child must have certain skills, abilities, knowledge. Adults at this time should be especially attentive and give the child time for activities and communication.
Features of deviations in the development of children
Let's consider the features of deviations in children with a temporary developmental delay. The following signs are characteristic:
- Noticeable deviations are becoming at school.
- Child acting like he's in kindergarten.
- Not doing homework.
- Difficult to learn, read and write.
- Tired quickly.
- Complains of headaches.
- Insufficient physical development.
- There may be a delay in thinking.
A child with psychophysical infantilism has this feature:
- Understands the subject of the image.
- Can understand the meaning.
Children with developmental disabilities with signs of asthenia have the following manifestations:
- Nervous exhaustion.
- Fatigue.
- Frequent headaches.
- Bad memory.
- Carelessness.
- Excessive excitability.
- Excessive mobility, impulsiveness.
- Tearfulness.
- Shyness and lethargy.
- Slowness.
- Slowness.
- Sleep disorder.
- Rude.
- Instability of behavior.
Deviations are different for every child.
Mental development disorder
Mentally retarded children include:
- Morons. With proper development and training, there can be a high level of mental development. They have a profession, bear civil responsibility.
- Imbeciles. severely retarded children. They do not learn general rules, concepts. They can learn to write and read with great difficulty. Requires constant care.
- Idiots. Such children have impaired coordination, speech is not developed,can serve themselves. Need special care.
Children who stand out from the crowd of their peers with high development are also considered children with developmental disabilities. We will consider the features of such children further.
Highly developed babies
They are different from their peers in that:
- Can do multiple things at the same time.
- Very curious.
- Easy to trace causal relationships.
- Developed abstract thinking.
- Attention at a high level.
- Striving for excellence in what they do.
- Study skills are well developed.
You can highlight the psychological characteristics of such children:
- Good imagination.
- There is a sense of justice from an early age.
- Set the bar high for what they do.
- Have a good sense of humor.
- Had their failures badly.
- Children's fears are greatly exaggerated.
- May have psychic powers.
- There are problems with peers due to developed egocentrism.
- Sleep little.
You should be attentive to the child in order to timely notice the features of the change in the psyche as he grows up.
Features of deviations in mental development
Deviations in the mental development of the child are evaluated according to the following criteria:
- How memory is developed.
- Thinking.
- Development of speech.
- Perception of the environmentpeace.
What are the types of mental retardation:
- Psychogenic. It is the result of a lack of upbringing in the family. As a rule, these are children from dysfunctional families.
- Somatogenic. Delay due to illness. The child is very tired, weakened. Either we get too excited.
- Cerebro-asthenic. Organic brain damage. The child is overly excited, aggressive. The mood often changes dramatically.
Constitutional. Against the background of underdevelopment of the frontal lobes of the brain. The level of development lags behind by several years. This is how a 6 year old acts and needs like a 2 year old
Caution is required when diagnosing, as some of the signs listed may be manifestations of the child's character.
Diagnosis of abnormalities in a child
In order to confirm or deny that a child with developmental disabilities, it is necessary to conduct a medical and psychological examination.
At a medical examination:
- Visual examination of the child. The structure of the skull, features of the skeleton, limbs, development of sensory functions.
- Collecting information, existing complaints according to the mother.
- A neurological and mental condition.
Needs to be noted:
- Emotionality.
- Development of intelligence.
- Development of speech.
- Motor skills.
- The state of the psyche, the nervous system.
These are also possibleexaminations:
- X-ray of the skull.
- Computed tomography.
- Encephalogram.
Some diseases can be identified by external signs. This is especially true for congenital pathologies.
Mental examination needs analysis:
- Attention child.
- Memory.
- Intellect.
- Perceptions of the outside world.
- How a child thinks.
- How to express emotions.
As a rule, this is easily determined in a playful way. For this, visual material is used, as well as methods and techniques of work adjusted to the defect of the child. For the deaf, gestures are needed, for the mentally retarded, simple tasks. The complexity and the main task for the diagnostician is to interest the child in the game, he should not refuse. This is a prerequisite for correct diagnosis. After that, you can prescribe the correction of deviations in the development of children.
Teaching and raising children with disabilities
Correction includes the work of teachers, doctors and parents.
There are several principles for teaching children with developmental disabilities:
- Stimulation of conscious activity.
- Activity development.
- Using visual material.
- Systematic classes.
- Material availability.
- The correspondence between the material and the child's abilities.
- Strong fixing of material.
- Differential approach.
Especial attention is paid to the developmentmemory and logical thinking. Education aims not to adapt to the defect of the child, but to correct and overcome it. The education of children with developmental disabilities has two directions:
- Differential education.
- Inclusive education.
Correctional education should shape the child's mental functions and develop experience in overcoming existing impairments, whether it be a speech, hearing, motor or behavioral disorder. Training and education should also be a method of preventing the occurrence of secondary deviations. This is possible due to the unpreparedness of a child with developmental disabilities to exist in society.
For these children, exposure is needed:
- He althcare.
- Psychological.
- Pedagogical.
- Psychotherapeutic treatment should be provided directly and indirectly.
- Classes for groups and individuals.
A child with developmental disabilities in the family is not always correctly assessed by parents. Too much care or inattention to the child can aggravate the mental condition. Isolation also has a negative effect. Therefore, the joint work of teachers and parents is very important. It is necessary to provide qualified assistance to parents so that they can support children in acquiring knowledge and skills in case of certain disorders.
Conditions for the integration of children
Currently helping children with developmental disabilities and their parents.
Namely:
- Held earlydiagnosis of detection of developmental disorders.
- Early correctional and educational impact is organized from the first months of life.
- Children are selected taking into account the defect of deviations, the level of development and the child's ability to learn.
- Children who need special conditions are assigned to specialized institutions.
- Variants of curricula, manuals for the upbringing and education of children with developmental disabilities are being compiled.
- It is necessary to constantly monitor and watch the dynamics of the development of such babies.
Raising children with developmental disabilities has many challenges:
- Parents do not know how to work together with the child.
- Cannot emotionally support baby.
- Some have inadequate reactions to it.
- Inadequate parenting methods.
- Not enough communication with the child.
Only joint work of a specialist, teacher and parent can give tangible positive results in teaching a child with disabilities.
