Mental retardation disorders

Mental retardation refers to a particular state of functioning that begins in childhood in which limitations in intelligence coexist along with adaptive skills.

Through history we have been able to see how the treatment given to people with mental retardation has been changing. We have gone through the era in which there was a certain recognition, to the welfare stage (seclusion in asylums or hospital institutions), to the therapeutic rehabilitation (predominance of the medical model and specialized and segregated equipment), until we reached the educational stage (right to education, school integration, more responsibility on the part of the teacher and the educational model focused on aids to progress).

The concept and definition of mental retardation has also undergone many changes in the last 40 years, each change is a reflection of the continuous effort made to improve the understanding of the condition, as well as to develop a more precise, practical and oriented terminology and classification. 'habilitation.

In 1992, the ninth edition of the manual was published, proposing a substantial change in the definition and classification of this phenomenon. The new concept of mental retardation ceases to be observed as an absolute trait of a certain individual and begins to focus on the interaction between his limited intellectual functioning and the immediate environment. On the other hand, he considers that it is not enough to define the deficiencies but it is necessary to propose help and support systems that allow the improvement of skills and facilitate social integration and personal well-being.

Mental retardation refers to substantial limitations in ordinary development. It is characterized by significantly below average intellectual functioning, together with limitations associated with two or more of the following areas of adaptive skills: communication, self-care, home life, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academic skills, leisure and work. Mental retardation manifests itself before the age of 18.

Definition of adaptive skill areas:

The essential work will not be to diagnose and classify individuals with mental retardation and with this information to determine the treatments and services they need, but to evaluate them multidimensionally based on their interaction with the contexts in which they develop and, based on this assessment and the environment, determine the treatments and services that are needed.

This is why people will not be classified according to their CI but according to the type and intensity of reinforcement they need. So instead of establishing a classification system based on the levels of intelligence (mild, medium, severe and profound), a classification system based on the intensity of the reinforcements required by people with mental retardation (limited, intermittent, extensive or generalized).

One of the most interesting aspects is the consideration that a valid assessment must take into account cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as the differences in communicative and behavioral aspects of the person to avoid assessing people from other cultures and languages with the tests and scales specific to the dominant culture.

In order for the school to make a significant contribution to the development process of students with mental retardation, it is necessary to start from the student's level of competence, which is why a precise assessment must be carried out: what he knows and what he doesn't he knows how to do it, how he does it, what are his previous experiences, interests, attitudes, motivations.

The role of the teacher tutor is key, the learning conditions must be intentionally arranged. These students have initial attention difficulties, so attention must be ensured, avoiding giving instructions when the student is distracted. The aspects to be learned must be made easily distinguishable and clear: give simple instructions, use vocabulary available to them, use drawings, codes... Situations must be offered aimed at stimulating the student to put in relation to his previous experiences and learnings with what he wants to learn at the moment and therefore this is how memory is practiced.

In order to work on symbolization and abstraction, we must start from the concrete, linked here and now. Starting from what he has learned well and from functional and meaningful aspects for him. Give strategies in specific aspects in which they have particular difficulty.

Therefore, the educational environment must be structured in a consistent way and gradually made more flexible: analyze the curricular objectives and contents, therefore give priority to certain objectives and contents, sequence them, choose appropriate methodological techniques and strategies, arrange the resources with which we have (people, materials, spaces, organization) in a way that favors learning, analyze and adjust the aid according to the needs of the students, motivate and reinforce every aspect of the teaching-learning process and above all program the generalization of learning.

It is important to evaluate whether the milestones are being achieved. The guidelines for educational intervention with students with mental retardation must be quick according to the characteristics of each one, depending on the functional limitations of the cognitive aspects, the limitations in the transfer processes from one situation to another, the self-concept and social relations and limitations in the learning process. All this implies needs in cognitive development, in the generalization of what is learned to other concepts, in motivation, in reinforcement and in mediation in learning.