Signs and symptoms of mental retardation in a child - features of the development of children, behavior, habits. Mental retardation is not a sentence for mental retardation in children symptoms

Parents are sometimes discouraged when their child is diagnosed with a delay mental development(ZPR). Most often, this violation is well corrected with the right approach of parents and teachers. But for this it is necessary to identify early in the child this deviation from the norm. The tests in the article will help to do this, and a unique table will help determine the type of ZPR in a child. Also in this material are tips for parents of babies with a delay psychological development.

What does the diagnosis of mental retardation mean - to whom and when is a delay in psychological development given?

Mental retardation (MPD) is a violation of the normal development of the psyche, which is characterized by a lag in the development of certain mental functions (thinking, memory, attention).

The diagnosis of STD is usually made in children under 8 years of age. In newborns, mental retardation cannot be detected, since it is normal. When a child grows up, parents do not always pay attention to the limitation of his mental abilities or attribute it to a young age. But some children may be given in infancy. It points to some disturbances in the functioning of the brain, which at an older age may manifest itself in the form of ZPR.

When visiting a kindergarten, a child’s mental retardation is not always possible to diagnose, since there the child does not require any intense mental activity. But when entering school, a child with a mental retardation will clearly stand out from the rest of the children, because he:

• hard to sit in the classroom;
• hard to obey the teacher;
• focus on mental activity;
• not easy to learn, as he seeks to play and have fun.

Physically, children with mental retardation are healthy, the main difficulty for them is social adaptation. Children with mental retardation may be dominated by a developmental delay either in the emotional sphere or intellect.

• With a delay in the development of the emotional sphere mental abilities of children are relatively normal. The emotional development of such children does not correspond to their age and corresponds to the psyche of a younger child. These children can tirelessly play, they are not independent and any mental activity is very tiring for them. Thus, while attending school, it is difficult for them to concentrate on their studies, obey the teacher and obey discipline in the classroom.

• If the child has hslow development of the intellectual sphere , then, on the contrary, he will calmly and patiently sit in the classroom, listen to the teacher and obey the elders. Such children are very timid, shy and take any difficulties to heart. They come to a psychologist's consultation not because of disciplinary violations, but because of learning difficulties.

Tests for the detection of mental retardation - 6 ways to determine the delay in mental development in a child

If parents have doubts about the mental development of their child, then there are some tests that will help identify mental developmental disorders.

You should not interpret the results of these tests yourself, since only a specialist should do this.

Test No. 1 (up to 1 year)

The physical and psychological development of the child should correspond to his age. He should start holding his head no later than 1.5 months, roll over from his back to his stomach - at 3-5 months, sit and stand up - at 8-10 months. It is also worth paying attention to. A child at 6-8 months old should babble, and by 1 year old, pronounce the word "mother".

The KID-R scale for assessing the development of a child aged 2 to 16 months - and

Test #2 (9-12 months)

At this age, the child begins to form simple mental skills. For example, you can hide a toy under a box in front of a child and ask with surprise “Where is the toy?”, The kid in response should remove the box and enthusiastically show that he found the toy. The child must understand that the toy cannot disappear without a trace.

Test No. 3 (1-1.5 years)

At this age, the baby shows interest in the world around him. He is interested in learning something new, trying new toys by touch, showing joy at the sight of his mother. If such activity is not observed for the baby, this should arouse suspicion.

RCDI-2000 Child Development Scale 14 months to 3.5 years of age - download the PDF form and instructions for parents to fill out

Test #4 (2-3 years old)

There is a children's game where you need to insert the figures into their corresponding holes. At the age of two or three years, the baby should do this without problems.

Test #5 (3-5 years old)

At this age, the child's horizons begin to form. He calls a spade a spade. The child can explain what a machine is or what kind of robot the doctor does. At this age, you should not demand a lot of information from the baby, but nevertheless, a narrow lexicon and limited outlook should arouse suspicion.

Test No. 6 (5-7 years old)

At this age, the baby freely counts up to 10 and performs computational operations within these numbers. He freely names the names of geometric shapes and understands where there is one object, and where there are many. Also, the child must clearly know and name the primary colors. It is very important to pay attention to his creative activity: children at this age should draw, sculpt or design something.

Factors causing ZPR

There can be several reasons for mental retardation in children. Sometimes these are social factors, and in other situations, the cause of ZPR is congenital pathologies of the brain, which are determined using various examinations (for example,).

• To the social factors of mental retardation include inappropriate conditions for raising a child. Such children often do not have a parent or maternal love and worries. Their families may be anti-social, dysfunctional, or these children are brought up in orphanages. This leaves a heavy mark on the psyche of the baby and often affects his mental health in the future.
• To the physiological causes of ZPR include heredity, congenital diseases, severe pregnancy of the mother or transferred to early childhood diseases that affect the normal development of the brain. In this case, due to brain damage, the mental health of the baby suffers.

Four types of mental retardation in children

Table 1. Types of ZPR in children

ZPR type	Causes	How is it manifested?
ZPR of constitutional origin	Heredity.	Simultaneous immaturity of physique and psyche.
ZPR of somatogenic origin	Previously transferred dangerous diseases that affect the development of the brain.	The intellect in most cases does not suffer, but the functions of the emotional-volitional sphere are significantly behind in development.
ZPR of psychogenic origin	Inappropriate conditions of education (orphans, children from incomplete families, etc.).	Decreased intellectual motivation, lack of independence.
Cerebro-organic origin	Gross violations of maturation of the brain due to pathologies of pregnancy or after serious illnesses in the first year of life.	The most severe form of mental retardation, there are obvious delays in the development of the emotional-volitional and intellectual spheres.

In most situations, parents perceive the diagnosis of mental retardation very painfully, often not understanding its meaning. It is important to realize that mental retardation does not mean that the child is mentally ill. ZPR means that the child develops normally, only slightly behind his peers.

With the right approach to this diagnosis, by the age of 10, all manifestations of mental retardation can be eliminated.

• Study this disease scientifically. Read medical articles, consult a psychiatrist or psychologist. Parents will find useful articles: O.A. Vinogradova "Development of verbal communication of preschool children with mental retardation", N.Yu. Boryakova "Clinical and psychological and pedagogical characteristics of children with mental retardation", D.V. Zaitsev, Development of communication skills in children with intellectual disabilities in the family.
• Contact the experts. Children with mental retardation need to consult a neurologist, a psychoneurologist, as well as the help of a teacher-defectologist, a teacher-psychologist, a speech therapist.
• It will be useful to use didactic games in teaching. You need to select such games based on the age and mental abilities of the child, they should not be heavy and incomprehensible to the baby.
• Children of senior preschool or primary school age must attend FEMP classes(formation of elementary mathematical representations). This will help them prepare for the assimilation of mathematics and the exact sciences, improve logical thinking and memory.
• Highlight a specific time (20-30 min) to complete the lessons and every day at this time sit down with the child for lessons. Initially help him, and then gradually accustom to independence.
• Find like-minded people. For example, on thematic forums you can find parents with the same problem and keep in touch with them, exchanging your experience and advice.

It is important for parents to understand that a child with mental retardation is not considered mentally retarded, since he perfectly understands the essence of ongoing events, and consciously performs the assigned tasks. With the right approach, in most cases, the intellectual and social functions of the child eventually return to normal.

Mental retardation (or ZPR for short) is characterized by a lag in the formation of mental functions. Most often, this syndrome is detected before admission to school. Children's body realizes its potential at a slow pace. The delay in mental development is also characterized by a small stock of knowledge in a preschooler, the scarcity of thinking and the inability to engage in intellectual activity for a long time. For children with this deviation, it is more interesting to just play, and it is extremely problematic for them to focus on learning.

Mental retardation is most often detected before admission to school, when the intellectual load on the child increases significantly

Mental retardation captures not only the psychological aspects of the personality. Violations are seen in different types activity, physical and mental.

Mental retardation is an intermediate form of disorders in the development of the baby. Some mental functions develop more slowly than others. There is damage or defective formation of individual areas. The degree of underformation or the depth of damage present may vary from case to case.

• problems during pregnancy (past infections, injuries, severe toxicosis, intoxication), fetal hypoxia recorded during the gestation period;
• prematurity;
• birth trauma, asphyxia;
• diseases in infancy (trauma, infection, intoxication);
• genetic predisposition.

Social reasons:

• long-term isolation of the child from society;
• frequent stresses and conflicts in the family, in the garden, situations that cause psychological trauma.

There is a combination of a number of factors. Two or three causes of mental retardation may be combined, resulting in aggravation of disorders.

Types of ZPR

ZPR of constitutional genesis

This type is based on hereditary infantilism, affecting the mental, physical and psychological functions of the body. Emotional level with this type of developmental delay, as well as the level of the volitional sphere, they are more reminiscent of the levels of primary school age, which means they occupy an earlier stage of formation.

What is general characteristics of this type? It is accompanied by a wonderful mood, easy suggestibility, emotional behavior. Vivid emotions and experiences are very superficial and unstable.

ZPR of somatogenic genesis

This type associated with somatic or infectious diseases in a child, or chronic diseases of the mother. Mental tone in this case decreases, emotional developmental delay is diagnosed. Somatogenic infantilism is supplemented by various fears that are associated with the fact that children with developmental delay are not confident in themselves or consider themselves inferior. The uncertainty of a preschooler is caused by multiple prohibitions and restrictions that take place in the home environment.

Children with developmental delay should have more rest, sleep, be treated in sanatoriums, as well as eat right and receive appropriate treatment. The health status of young patients will influence the favorable prognosis.

An unhealthy family environment and constant bans can also cause a child's mental retardation.

ZPR of psychogenic origin

This type is often called stressful situations and traumatic conditions, as well as poor education. Environmental conditions that do not correspond to the favorable upbringing of children can worsen the psychoneurological state of a child with developmental delay. Vegetative functions are among the first to be violated, and then emotional and psychological ones.

A species that involves a partial violation of some body functions, which is combined with immaturity nervous system. The defeat of the central nervous system is of an organic nature. The localization of the lesion does not affect the further impairment of mental activity. The defeat of the central nervous system of such a plan does not lead to mental disability. It is this variant of mental retardation that is widespread. What are the symptoms for him? It is characterized by pronounced emotional disturbances, and the volitional aspect also suffers extremely. A noticeable slowdown in the formation of thinking and cognitive activity. This type of developmental delay is generally characterized by a slowdown in the maturation of the emotional-volitional level.

ZPR of cerebral-organic genesis is characterized by impaired development of the emotional-volitional sphere

Features of the manifestation of ZPR

Physical development

In children with developmental delay, it is always quite difficult to diagnose the syndrome. This is especially difficult to understand in the early stages of growth. What are the characteristics of children with mental retardation?

For such children, a slowdown in physical education is characteristic. The most frequently observed signs of poor muscle formation, low muscle and vascular tone, growth retardation. Also, children with developmental delay learn to walk and talk late. Playful activity and the ability to be neat also come with a delay.

Will, memory and attention

Children with mental retardation have little interest in their activities or work being evaluated, praised, they do not have the liveliness and emotional perception inherent in other children. Weakness of will is combined with monotony and monotony of activity. The games that children with developmental delay prefer to play are usually completely uncreative, they lack fantasy and imagination. Children with developmental delay quickly get tired of work, because their internal resources are instantly depleted.

A child with mental retardation is characterized by poor memory, inability to quickly switch from one type of activity to another, and slowness. He cannot fix attention for a long time. As a result of a delay in a number of functions, the baby needs more time to perceive and process information, visual or auditory.

One of the most striking signs of developmental delay is that the child is unable to force himself to do something. The work of the emotional-volitional sphere is inhibited, and, as a result, there are problems with attention. It is difficult for the child to concentrate, he is often distracted and cannot "collect his strength" in any way. At the same time, an increase in motor activity and speech is likely.

Perception of information

It is difficult for children with developmental delay to perceive information in whole images. For example, it will be difficult for a preschooler to identify a familiar object if it is placed in a new place or presented in a new perspective. The abruptness of perception is associated with a small amount of knowledge about the world around. The speed of perception of information also lags behind and orientation in space is difficult.

Of the features of children with mental retardation, one more thing should be highlighted: they remember visual information better than verbal information. Passing a special course on mastering various memorization techniques gives good progress, the performance of children with mental retardation becomes better in this regard compared to children without deviations.

Special courses or correctional work of specialists will help improve the memory and susceptibility of the child.

Speech

The child lags behind in the development of speech, which leads to various problems in speech activity. Distinctive features the formation of speech will be individual and depend on the severity of the syndrome. The depth of the ZPR can affect speech in different ways. Sometimes there is some delay in speech formation, which practically corresponds to the level of full development. In some cases, there is a violation of the lexical and grammatical basis of speech, i.e. in general, underdevelopment of speech functions is noticeable. An experienced speech pathologist should be consulted to restore speech activity.

Thinking

Considering the issue of thinking in children with mental retardation, it can be noted that the greatest problem for them is the solution of logic problems offered in verbal form. Developmental delay also occurs in other aspects of thinking. Approaching school age, children with developmental delays have poor ability to perform intellectual actions. They cannot, for example, generalize, synthesize, analyze or compare information. The cognitive sphere of activity in case of mental retardation is also at a low level.

Children suffering from mental retardation are much worse than their peers are savvy in many matters related to thinking. They have a very meager supply of information about the world around them, have a poor idea of ​​spatial and temporal parameters, their vocabulary also differs significantly from that of children of the same age, and not for the better. Intellectual work and thinking do not have pronounced skills.

The central nervous system in children with developmental delay is immature, the child is not ready to go to the first grade at the age of 7. Children with mental retardation do not know how to perform basic actions related to thinking, are poorly oriented in tasks and cannot plan their activities. Teaching children with mental retardation to write and read is extremely problematic. Their letters are mixed, especially those that are similar in spelling. Thinking is inhibited - it is very difficult for a preschooler to write an independent text.

Children with developmental delays who enter a regular school become underachieving students. This situation is extremely traumatic for an already damaged psyche. As a result, there is a negative attitude towards all learning in general. A qualified psychologist will help to solve the problem.

Creation of favorable conditions

For the complex development of the child, it is necessary to create external favorable conditions that would contribute to successful learning and stimulate the work of various parts of the central nervous system. It is important to create a developing subject environment for classes. What does it include? Developing game activities, sports complexes, books, natural objects and more. Communication with adults will also play an important role. Communication should be meaningful.

For such children, it is extremely important to get new impressions, communicate with adults and friendly-minded peers.

The game is the leading activity for a child of 3-7 years old. Practical communication with an adult who would teach a child to manipulate this or that object in a playful way is of paramount importance for children with mental retardation. In the process of exercises and classes, an adult helps the child to learn the possibilities of interaction with other objects, thereby developing his thought processes. The task of an adult is to stimulate a child with a developmental delay to learn and explore the world around him. You can consult a psychologist for advice on these issues.

Educational games

Corrective classes for children with mental retardation should be diversified didactic games: nesting dolls and pyramids, cubes and mosaics, lacing games, Velcro, buttons and buttons, inserts, musical instruments, gaming devices with the ability to extract sounds. Also, sets for comparing colors and objects will be useful, where different-sized homogeneous things that are different in color will be presented. It is important to "provide" the child with toys for role-playing games. Dolls, cash register, kitchen utensils, cars, home furniture, animals - all this will be extremely useful for full-fledged activities and games. Children are very fond of all kinds of activities and exercises with the ball. Use it for rolling, tossing or teaching your child to throw and catch the ball in a playful way.

Play with sand, water and other natural materials should often be referred to. With such natural "toys" the child really likes to play, besides, they do an excellent job of forming tactile sensations using the play aspect.

The physical education of a preschool child and his healthy psyche in the future directly depend on the game. Active play and exercise on a regular basis will be excellent methods for teaching a child to control his body. It is necessary to do exercises constantly, then the effect of such exercises will be maximum. Positive and emotional communication during the game between the baby and the adult creates a favorable background, which also contributes to the improvement of the nervous system. Using imaginary characters in your games, you help your child to show imagination, creativity, which will contribute to the formation of speech skills.

Communication as a development aid

Talk to your child as often as possible, discuss every little thing with him: everything that surrounds him, what he hears or sees, what he dreams about, plans for the day and weekends, etc. Build short, clear sentences that are easy to understand. When talking, consider not only the quality of words, but also their accompaniment: timbre, gestures, facial expressions. When talking to your child, always make eye contact and smile.

Mental retardation involves the inclusion of listening to music and fairy tales in the correctional training program. They have a positive effect on all children, regardless of whether they have any disabilities or not. Age also does not matter, they are equally loved by children of 3 and 7 years old. Their benefits have been proven by years of pedagogical research.

Books will help you develop your speech in the process of learning. Children's books with bright pictures can be read together, studying the drawings and accompanying them with voice acting. Encourage your child to repeat what they heard or read. Choose the classics: K. Chukovsky, A. Barto, S. Marshak - they will become faithful helpers in the development of a child's personality.

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 emotional development in the formation of the personality of a child with mental retardation, as well as 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:

constitutional origin;

Somatogenic origin;

Psychogenic origin;

Cerebro-organic origin.

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;

causes of a socio-psychological nature.

Biological reasons include:

various options for the pathology of pregnancy (severe intoxication, Rh conflict, etc.);

prematurity of the child;

birth trauma;

various somatic diseases (severe forms of influenza, rickets, chronic diseases- vices internal organs, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal malabsorption syndrome, etc.)

minor brain injury.

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

early separation of the child from the mother and upbringing in complete isolation in conditions of social deprivation;

lack of full-fledged, age-appropriate activities: subject, game, communication with adults, etc.

distorted conditions for raising a child in a family (hypo-custody, hyper-custody) or an authoritarian type of education.

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 most late emerging brain systems. Infantilism can be harmonic (associated with a violation of the 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 respects 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 at favorable conditions show nice results alignment.

This group also includes:

Disharmonious infantilism (disease pituitary dwarfism) - lack of growth hormones, the cause is violations endocrine system. Children are characterized by increased fatigue, distracted attention, pedantry and good thinking skills.

Hypogenital infantilism - underdevelopment of secondary sexual characteristics. Children are prone to reasoning on any topic for a long time.

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 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:

in the sensory sphere - ceases to hear;

in the motor sphere - decreases physical strength, coordination of movements worsens (posture, handwriting);

in the cognitive sphere - attention worsens, interest in tasks disappears, mental activity becomes less productive;

in the emotional-volitional sphere - there is an increased sensual impressionability, attachment to the mother, inhibition of contact with strangers, tearfulness, lack of independence.

Improving and corrective work with children with asthenic conditions includes the following areas:

Therapeutic and recreational activities, including drug treatment;

Organization of the protective regime of educational work, taking into account the condition of the child: strict alternation of rest and study; reduction in the number of lessons; extra day of rest during the lesson, give the child a rest by changing activities;

Psycho-corrective measures are aimed at developing the skills of educational and cognitive activity and correcting negative trends (increasing the level of self-esteem, correcting fears, etc.).

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.

Option abnormal development personality 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.

Option pathological development neurotic-type personality 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 a somatic state, along with frequent signs delays in physical development (underdevelopment of muscles, insufficiency 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; can be observed and different kinds body dysplasticity. 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 typical healthy child liveliness and brightness of emotions; 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. mental processes, their slowness and reduced switchability, as well as the lack 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 in their cognitive, emotional-volitional sphere, behavior and personality as a whole. The following common features for CRA of various etiologies were identified:

low performance as a result of increased exhaustion;

immaturity of emotions and will;

limited stock of general information and ideas;

poor vocabulary;

unformed skills of intellectual activity;

incomplete formation of gaming activity.

Memory: Insufficient formation 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 techniques 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 initial letter the names of these items. 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. Auxiliary method was not used to remember the right words, starting with a certain letter, and for inventing new (foreign) words for 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. Pevzner 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, there were cases of fluctuations in attention, a large number of distractions, exhaustion and fatigue.

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 give great importance 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 progress individual work apply techniques such 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:

Underdevelopment of orienting and research activities in the first years of life and, as a result, the child does not receive full-fledged practical experience necessary for the development of his perception. Perception features:

Insufficient completeness and accuracy of perception is associated with a violation of attention, mechanisms of arbitrariness.

Insufficient focus and organization of attention.

Slowness of perception and processing of information for full perception. A child with mental retardation needs more time than a normal child.

Low level of analytical perception. The child does not think about the information that he perceives ("I see, but I do not think.").

Decreased activity of perception. In the process of perception, the search function is disturbed, the child does not try to peer, the material is perceived superficially.

The most grossly violated are more complex forms of perception that require the participation of several analyzers and are of a complex nature - visual perception, hand-eye coordination.

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. On the first academic year learning, 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:

level of development of attention;

the level of development of perception and ideas about the world (the richer the experience, the more complex conclusions the child can draw);

level of development of speech;

the level of formation of mechanisms of arbitrariness (regulatory mechanisms). How older child, especially challenging tasks he can decide. By the age of 6-7, preschoolers are able to perform complex intellectual tasks, even if they are not interesting to them (the principle applies: “this is how it should be” and independence)6.

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 characteristics 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:

Analysis (they are carried away by small details, cannot highlight the main thing, highlight minor features);

Comparison (compare objects according to incomparable, insignificant features);

Classification (the child often classifies correctly, but cannot understand its principle, cannot explain why he did so).

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

Induction (the child is able to draw a general conclusion from particular facts, that is, from the particular to the general).

Deduction (from the general to the particular).

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:

Compliance with certain hygiene requirements when organizing classes, that is, classes are held in a well-ventilated room, attention is paid to the level of illumination and the placement of children in the classroom.

Careful selection of visual material for classes and its placement in such a way that excess material does not distract the child's attention.

Control over the organization of children's activities in the classroom: it is important to consider the possibility of changing one type of activity to another in the classroom, to include physical education minutes in the lesson plan.

The teacher must monitor the reaction, the behavior of each child and use an individual approach.

Questions for self-control:

How many types of ZPR were identified by K.S. Lebedinskaya? Name them.

What provokes the development of mental retardation of somatogenic origin?

Describe the common features inherent in the category of children with mental retardation?

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

The diagnosis of "ZPR" for many parents sounds like a sentence passed on their child. But is mental retardation so terrible? What should parents and teachers do so that a child with such a diagnosis harmoniously integrates into the ordinary life of society or even gets rid of the violations that make him different from his peers?

An important role is played by the diagnosis of mental retardation. After all, the “scenario” of helping the child, the accents placed by parents and teachers in the course of teaching and developing activities depend on the correctness of the diagnostic measures.

Mental retardation (MPD) is a violation of the pace of development of individual mental functions of a person: attention, memory, thinking, emotional sphere. In this case, mental development lags behind the norms accepted in the scientific world that are characteristic of a certain age.

What is a ZPR?

As a pedagogical diagnosis "ZPR" is made to a child of preschool age or primary school period. It is at these age stages that the correction of the development of the child is possible. With a negative result of the development of mental functions, this diagnosis changes to more serious ones: “constitutional infantilism” or “mental retardation”.

Causes of mental retardation

When diagnosing a ZPR, a specialist will definitely consider all potential causes delay in a particular child. Modern science distinguishes two groups of main causes, each of which has several factors that affect the development of the human psyche.

Biological causes associated with the functioning of the body of the child and his parents:

• pathological pregnancy, during which there could be infectious diseases, severe toxicosis, cases of injury to the mother and fetus, intoxication);
• intrauterine fetal hypoxia;
• premature birth;
• trauma or asphyxia of the fetus during childbirth;
• infectious, traumatic, toxic diseases of the child in early age;
• hereditary predisposition.

The social causes of ZPR can be the following:

• prolonged isolation of the child from society;
• unfavorable situation in the family with mental trauma: physical and psychological abuse, alcoholism of parents, indifference of parents, non-participation in the development of the child, etc.

Depending on the causes of mental retardation, there are different classifications of mental retardation. When diagnosing mental retardation, domestic psychologists often use the classification of clinical types of mental retardation according to the principle of origin of K. S. Lebedinskaya. She distinguishes 4 types of ZPR:

• constitutional origin (the child in his development is one stage lower than his peers: immature emotional-volitional sphere, game motives prevail over cognitive, superficial emotions);
• somatogenic origin (feeling of physical inferiority, capriciousness, uncertainty caused by previous diseases: operations with anesthesia, limited mobility, heart disease, etc.);
• psychogenic origin (caused by insufficient or excessive care, features of a neurotic nature, lack of cognitive activity, egocentrism, nervousness, increased anxiety, etc.);
• cerebro-organic origin (mental instability or retardation, expressing both in hyperactivity and in uncertainty, timidity, slowness).

Methods for diagnosing CRA

A deep analysis of the personality of the child, the circumstances of his birth, living conditions and upbringing are carried out through a whole range of activities carried out by specialists: the psychological and pedagogical commission.

1. Collection and study of psychological history
2. Psychological examination
3. Psychological Conclusion

The most serious for correct diagnosis is the stage of examination of the child, including a conversation with the child; work on the study of perception, memory, attention, ability to analyze, compare, generalize, classify information; acquaintance with the possibilities of the child in the sound and semantic sphere of speech activity, as well as the study of the emotional-volitional sphere.

Members of the psychological and pedagogical commission draw conclusions and, on their basis, formulate recommendations for teachers and parents that help bring all aspects of the child's development up to the established age norm.

In addition, the doctor may prescribe a number of additional clinical and laboratory tests that can clarify the diagnosis and establish its genetic nature. These are genetic, molecular and metabolic analyzes: chromosome tests, karyotype study, FISH analysis, molecular cytogenetic study and a number of special genetic analyzes when a certain disease is suspected.

Diagnostic signs of ZPR

The conclusions of psychologists and teachers, made on the basis of a survey of the psyche and intellect of the child, are based on three clinical and psychological syndromes.

Immaturity of the emotional-volitional sphere manifested in emotional instability, conflict, unregulated laughter, aggressiveness. The child does not control his actions, is not capable of being critical of himself. He does not want to obey laws and rules, there are no cognitive incentives, priority is given to gaming activities. IN kindergarten and school there are violations of discipline, he is not able to build stable relationships with peers and adults.

Backlog intellectual development accompanied by the inability to do one thing for a long time, increased level fatigue with loss of attention. In kindergarten and school, such a child shows a lag in speech development and in the performance of any educational tasks of a cognitive nature.

interpersonal development children with mental retardation are characterized by difficulties in communicating with peers, teachers and parents. Such children are most often lonely during games and activities, often show aggression, fear, lethargy, inability to conduct a dialogue with the interlocutor.

Children with a diagnosis of mental retardation, however, can become full-fledged members of society with the right approach to their development by teachers and parents.

What advice do experts give for the successful development of children with mental retardation?

1. Attend specialized kindergartens, schools or groups
2. Conduct regular classes on the development of all thought processes
3. Work with a speech therapist
4. More painting, sculpting, gluing, etc.
5. Train the emotional sphere with the help of modern techniques: art therapy, fairy tale therapy, game therapy, etc.)
6. form spatial and abstract thinking through special classes
7. Comprehensive approach to the development of a child with parallel drug treatment, physiotherapy, exercise therapy, massage and sports activities

And most importantly, remember that ZPR is a diagnosis that there are many chances to get rid of if adults do not have a deficit of love, attention, patience and wisdom.