Mentally Handicaped
...It is also referred as mental retardation or mental handicap. mental handicap is defined by the American Psychiatric Association in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as a disorder with (1) significantly sub-average intellectual functioning (an IQ score of approximately 70 or below) (2) concurrent deficits or impairments in present adaptive functioning in at least two of the following skill areas : communication, self-care, home living, social / interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self-direction, functional academic skills, work leisure, health and safety. (3) onset before the age of 18. There are four levels, reflecting different degrees of severity : mild (IQ = 55-70), moderate (IQ = 40-55), severe (IQ = 25-40) and profound (IQ below 25). Approximately 90% of children with mental retardation are functioning at the mild levels and can benefit from mainstream schooling.
Characteristics
Children with intellectual disability have an impaired ability to process information. They have problems in central processing, which is the use of memory, reasoning and evaluation. Weak ability in organizing or classifying information is one of their difficulties. School age children usually quickly learn to cluster or group things or events into meaningful categories, e.g. banana, apple and grapes belong to the set of "fruits" whereas red, yellow and green belongs to the set of colors. However, children with mental retardation are less able to group and tell similarities among concepts (Krik, Gallagher & Anastasiow, 1999).
Memory, another central processing function, is also difficult for children with intellectual disability. The greater the severity of intellectual deficit, the greater the deficit in memory. Memory problems can stem from poor initial perception or poor judgment about applying of what has been stored to a...
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