As a rule, a violation of the intellect is the loss of the ability to remember any information, as well as to interpret it clearly. A person loses not only a certain stock of information studied earlier, it also becomes more difficult for him to apply in life the skills that he has always possessed, it becomes impossible to realize his skills in the professional field. The emotional part of a person’s life also becomes poorer, he loses the ability to experience deep feelings, the ability to empathize.
Reasons
A common cause of intellectual disability is heredity. Intellectual disabilities can occur due to two genetic reasons:
- First, disorders are genetically transmitted from parents, even if they outwardly seem quite he althy, but are carriers of recessive genes.
- The second cause of intellectual disability is a genetic mutation or an incorrectly formed chromosome set (instead of 46 chromosomes, more or less).
Children conceived under the influence of alcohol or drugs often have intellectual disabilities, letsometimes imperceptible under certain conditions or until a certain time. Alcoholism or drug addiction of the mother during pregnancy negatively affects the condition of the fetus, its nervous system, problems with which can provoke deviations in physical or mental development.
During pregnancy, the expectant mother needs to protect herself from infections, diseases that pass even in mild form, injuries (especially in the abdomen, back and lower back), as all of the above can provoke intellectual impairment. Many expectant mothers are afraid of having a baby before the due date, and with good reason, because this is also one of the causes of developmental delays.
The passage of a child through the birth canal is not only the strongest stress that haunts babies in nightmares, but also an extremely dangerous journey, as a result of which the child can be injured. Some of them are triggers for the development of intellectual disabilities. Lack of oxygen in the first minutes of life can also cause mental retardation.
Dangerous infections carried by a child in the first months of life is another reason for the violation of intelligence in the future.
Manifestation
At the very beginning, the patient cannot show his feelings to others in ordinary situations. Further, everything only gets worse, and the person is no longer capable of any feelings, his emotional reactions decrease, he looks detached, insensitive and cold.
Manloses the meaning of life, purposefulness. In advanced cases, the character of the patient completely changes beyond recognition, acquires features unusual for him. Clarity of thought is impaired. It is difficult for a person to focus on one thought and express it. He loses interest in any of his past hobbies and ends up withdrawing into himself, becoming fixated on his inner musings.
Types of intellectual disability
Organic lesions of the brain, as a rule, lead to persistent irreversible impairment of mental activity. This results in various forms of intellectual impairment. In another way it is called "mental retardation". There are two types of intellectual disability:
- oligophrenia is a congenital form of underdevelopment of the intellect;
- dementia is a lifelong form of dementia.
Congenital oligophrenia, in turn, can be of varying severity and severity. There are three main subspecies of this pathology, namely:
- mild oligophrenia (debility). The characteristic of intellectual disorders is as follows: the presence of certain mental abilities (formation of speech, the presence of mechanical memory, the ability to count), this form allows you to perform low-skilled physical labor;
- moderate underdevelopment (imbecility). This form is characterized by poor and tongue-tied speech, very low learning ability, and clumsiness. With such a pathology, the patient can be accustomed to minimal self-service, but he must perform some simple work.exclusively under external control;
- the extreme degree of underdevelopment (idiocy) is characterized by a complete lack of mental thinking and speech, a complete inability to gain self-service skills.
Oligophrenia is a consequence of pathologies of intrauterine development, pathological, constitutional and genetic influences on the fetus, as well as a consequence of brain damage in the first three years of a child's life. The main signs of oligophrenia include the following violations of intellectual activity according to severity:
- any mental defect, combined with impaired speech, motor skills, memory, expression of emotions, behavioral defects;
- total mental underdevelopment.
Another equally common form of intellectual disability is dementia, which is always acquired and never congenital. Dementias are characterized by mental (intellectual) degradation, decrease in emotional manifestations, will, exit from the circle of interests inherent in the past.
Considering this pathology, we can distinguish the following subspecies: total (or global, diffuse) and focal (lacunar). With total dementia, intellectual abilities are completely impaired. There is a disintegration of the personality, acute memory disorders are observed, there is no critical worldview. Such dementias can be the result of brain injuries, cerebral disorders of the brain, repeated strokes, and can develop in old age. With partial dementia, the intellect is partially preserved, selective memory is present. statesAcquired dementia is characterized by dizziness, frequent headaches, nausea, convulsions, spasms, mental disorders.
Special attention should be paid to the manifestations of organic dementia in children, since its signs should cause concern:
- such neurodynamic pathologies as rapid mental fatigue, a sharp slowdown in actions, inability to various types of stress, impaired logical thinking;
- lethargy, slowness, passivity, apathy, low initiative;
- impaired critical perception and focus of thought.
Social Intelligence
Violation of social intelligence is a pathology of social cognition. In general terms, with such a pathology, a person is not able to perceive and control the objects and relations of society during his activity and adjust to those around him. Of course, social intelligence in itself is not a sufficient condition for the formation of personality, but its good condition is mandatory. Pathology is possessed by people suffering from schizophrenia. In the study of a large number of such patients, an assessment was made of the judgment of social situations, memory for names, sense of humor.
Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that intellectual impairment is a pathology, which at first was considered a consequence of cognitive abilities, but later it began to be isolated as an independent process, treatable, albeit very difficult. Methods have also been found to formsocial intelligence, which makes it possible for social adaptation of "special" people. Such methods include modeling situations from real life, increasing the role of intelligence in everyday practice, speech motivation (the possibility of understandable communication), and others. Currently, using well-known methods, patients have the opportunity to join our social world, but it is worth remembering that they require more attention and support.
Speech and intelligence
If a child cannot speak clearly and articulately, consciously build sentences, then this is a reason to think: does he have any intellectual deviations? Of course, don't panic right away. During the examination, a competent specialist will be able to determine what the violations are connected with - with improper brain function or malfunctions of the speech apparatus (occlusion, etc.). Causes of impaired speech and intelligence:
- Heredity. If the father or mother has any disorders of the speech apparatus, then it is quite possible that these disorders will pass to the child.
- Some infectious or inflammatory diseases of the mother during pregnancy can lead to incorrect formation of brain areas responsible for correct speech.
- Illnesses suffered in the first months of life also affect the formation of the speech apparatus and speech problems in the future.
- Inappropriate environment (drinking parents, drug addict parents).
- Parents who neglect their children should not be surprised if their childrenwill acquire speech impairments.
Speech disorders in some cases can provoke poor academic performance, intellectual retardation, misunderstanding with peers, ridicule.
Therefore, it is worth helping the child, taking him to specialists and making due efforts to correct the shortcomings.
Emotional Intelligence
Basic Emotional Intelligence Disorders can manifest as an uncontrollable outburst of emotions as a reaction to certain situations. As a rule, a person in this case, reacting emotionally, is not aware of the degree of his feelings.
Emotional response, or, in other words, emotional reactions, expressed in an acute form, is what a person experiences in a given situation. They are somewhat similar to mood swings, but last much shorter.
Explosiveness is an excessive excitability of the patient, a violent reaction to various events. Such a reaction, as a rule, can occur even without a special reason.
Emotional stuckness is a prolonged state of apathy that may not stop for a long time and has a strong impact on a person's behavior. This usually happens with people who hold a grudge against someone for a long time, it is difficult for them to cope with this feeling. It starts hurting them from within. The feeling of loss of feelings - no matter how tautological it may be, but it is a terrible state in which a person becomes detached.
Hearing and intelligence
Children with both hearing and intellectual disabilities are slowly aware of changes in their environment, are poorly aware of themselves and rarely know how to control their emotions, actions and actions. There are several types of combination of these violations:
- One impairment is congenital and one is acquired (hearing impairment is congenital and intellectual impairment is acquired as a result of disease or vice versa).
- Both disorders are congenital.
- They are acquired as a result of illness or injury.
Education of students with intellectual disabilities is impossible in ordinary schools, as it will be extremely difficult for them to understand the tasks of the teacher and even more difficult to cope with them at the proper level. A different approach is needed here. Two solutions can be distinguished: the first is homeschooling, the second is training in a specialized institution. Being home-schooled, a child with hearing and intellectual disabilities will not feel out of place. The specialist will find an approach, be able to interest the student and make the learning process easy, colorful and interesting. Education in special institutions is also a good option. In addition to the correct educational process and proper attention of specialists, the child will receive communication skills, learn to contact with other people, make friends, help and support.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis of intellectual and developmental disorders, including in the early stages in children,allows you to identify deviations in the development of mental abilities and take a range of important measures to eliminate possible causes and consequences. Conditions for positive outcomes of activities:
- Basic IQ.
- How significant is the deviation from the norm.
- Correct diagnosis.
- History and causes.
A number of tests are used by psychiatrists to determine baseline, the magnitude of its deviation and the correctness of the diagnosis.
Basic tests, their features and differences
At the initial stage of a person's life, an assessment of psychomotor and speech development is carried out. The evaluation is carried out by observing the child. The development of speech, the ability to distinguish the color of objects and their size, as well as the accuracy of his movements are assessed. For preschoolers and students, psychological methods are widely used to study the personal understanding of sayings, poems, etc.
- The main test for diagnosing intellectual disability is the Wechsler technique, most people know it as the IQ.
- Eysenck test. It should be understood that for the correct diagnosis of the deviation of an intellectual disability, it is necessary to conduct such tests only by experienced psychiatrists. It is also important to understand that research should only be conducted in dynamics.
Treatments
Treatment of intellectual disabilities in adults and children will differ significantly from each other depending on the stage of the disease. It's worth understandingthat everything is purely individual.
There is a specific treatment for intellectual impairment - this is a therapy aimed at eliminating the causes that led to the disorder of the intellect. After identifying the causes, individual therapy is selected for each patient. Equally important in the restoration of intelligence, regardless of whether the disorders were congenital or acquired, is the adaptation of the patient in society.
A special program should be drawn up for children, including educational and educational aspects. They need to be trained in essential skills that will be useful to them in society.
We must not forget that a patient suffering from an intellectual disability needs the support of those who are close to him. It is difficult for the patient to realize and understand some situations, which depresses even more, and he begins to understand that he is different from the rest. That is why it is important to give such people all your love and understanding, then it will become much easier for them.
