Mental Retardation

Chapter 5 Summary

Mental Retardation refers to substantial limitation in present functioning. It is characterized by

significantly sub-average intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with related limitations
in two or more of the following adaptive skill area: Communication, self-care, Home living,
Social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure and
work.
There are four criteria in the definition which are explained below.
Substantial Limitation in present Functioning – means that the person has difficulty in
performing everyday activities related to taking care of one’s self, doing ordinary task at
home and work related to the other adaptive skill areas. It is also include academic work,
if the person goes to school.
Significantly sub-average intellectual functioning – means that the person has
significantly below average intelligence. Intellectual functioning is a broad summation of
cognitive abilities, such as the capacity to learn, solve problems, accumulate knowledge
and adapt to new situation. The intelligence quotient score is approximately in the
flexible lower IQ range 0-20 and upper IQ range of 70-75 based on the result of
assessment using one or more individual intelligence tests.
Limitation in the adaptive skills or behavior – show in the quality of everyday
performance in coping with environmental demands. Persons with mental retardation fail
to meet the standards of personal independence and social responsibility expected of their
chronological age and cultural group. The quality of general adaptation is mediated by
the level of intelligence. Adaptive skills are assessed by means of standardized adaptive
behavior scales.
Related limitation in the adaptive skills areas – means that the person has difficulty in
performing in the following tasks:
1. Communication – the ability to understand and communicate information by
speaking and writing through symbols, sign language and non- symbolic behavior
like facial expression, touch or gesture.
2. Self-care – the ability to take care of one’s needs in hygiene, grooming, dressing,
eating, toileting.
3. Home living
4. Community
5. Social skills
6. Self-direction
7. Health and safety
8. Functional academics- basic skill taught in school
9. Leisure- recreational activities that are appropriate of the person.
10. Work
Mental retardation has been known by many different names. Which is the old labels
are mentally defective, mentally deficient, feebleminded, moron, imbecile and idiot

Heward cites Five essential assumptions in using the AAMR definition:

1. The existence of limitations in adaptive skills occurs within the context of
community environments typical of the individual’s age peers and is indexed to
the person’s individualized needs for supports.
2. Valid assessment considers cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as difference
in communication, sensory, motor and behavioral factors.
3. Specific adaptive limitations often coexist in other adaptive skills or other
personal capacities.
4. The purpose of describing limitation often coexist with strength.
5. With appropriate supports over a sustained period, the life- functioning of the
person with mental retardation will generally improve.

Classification of Mental Retardation

In the previous classification system there are still widely used today.
1. Mild MR with IQ scores from 55-70
2. Moderate MR with IQ scores from 40-54
3. Severe MR with IQ scores from 25-39 and
4. Profound MR with IQ scores below 25

Current books in special education use two classification

1. The milder forms of mental retardation and
2. The more severe forms of mental retardation that cluster the moderate, severe
and profound types.

EMR “educable mental retardation” and TMR “Trainable mental retardation”

are no longer used.

Four categories of mental retardation according to the intensity of needed

supports are:
1. Intermitted supports the person needs help only at certain periods of time and
not all the time. Support will most likely be required during period of
transition, for example moving from school to work.
2. Limited supports are required consistently, though not on daily basis. The
support needed is of a non-intensive nature.
3. Extensive supports are needed on a regular basis; daily support are required
in some environments, for example daily home living task.
4. Pervasive supports are daily extensive supports, perhaps of a life sustaining
nature required in multiple environment.
Causes of Mental Retardation
 Prenatal/ Biological( occurring before birth)
 Perinatal(occurring during birth)
 Postnatal and environmental( occurring shortly after birth)

Biological causes- known for about two-thirds of individuals with more severe forms that
include the moderate, severe and profound types. The causes listed are conditions, diseases
and syndromes that are associated with mental retardation. Some of this conditions may or
may not require special education services. The term syndrome refers to a number of
symptoms or characteristics that occur together and provide the defining features of a given
diseases or condition.
Environmental causes- traced to a psychological disadvantage, which is a combination of poor
social and cultural environments early in the child’s life.
The following factors are found to contribute to environmentally caused mental retardation
1. Limited parenting practices that produce low rates of vocabulary growth in early
childhood
2. Instructional practices in high school and adolescence that produce low rates of academic
engagement during the school year.
3. Lower rates of academic achievement and early school failure and early school dropout
and
4. Parenthood and continuance of the progression into the next generation.

I. Prenatal causes- or those that originate during conception or pregnancy until before
birth are chromosomal disorders such as trisomy 21 or down syndrome, klinefelter
syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Prader- willi syndrome, Phenylketonuria and William
syndrome.
II. Perinatal causes include:
 Intrauterine disorder- such as maternal anemia, premature delivery, abnormal
presentation, umbilical cord accidents and multiple gestation in the case of
twins, triplets, quadruplets and other types of multiple births.
 Neonatal disorder- such as intracranial hemorrhage, neonatal seizures,
respiratory disorder, meningitis, encephalitis, head trauma at birth.
III. Postnatal causes include:
 Head injuries\
 Demyelinating disorders
 Degenerative disorders
 Seizures disorders
 Malnutrition
 Environmental deprivation
 Hypo connection syndrome
Cultural-familial retardation- refers to the existence of lowered intelligence of unknown
origin associated with a history of mental retardation in one or more family
members. The condition may result of having lack of adequate stimulation
during infancy and early childhood.
Learning and behavioral characteristics
Deficits in cognitive functioning
 Sub-average intellectual skills- A characteristic of persons with mental
retardation is below average mental ability as measured by standardized test.
 Low academic achievement- Due to sub- average intellectual functioning,
persons with mental retardation are likely to be slower in reaching levels of
academic achievement equal to their peers.
 Difficulty in attending to tasks- the attention of these children tend to be
distract by irrelevant stimuli rather than those that pertain to the lesson.
These attention problems contributes to the development of concomitant
problems such as difficulties in remembering and generalizing newly learned
lessons and skills.
Deficits in memory- they have difficulty in retaining and recording information in
short term or working memory. Information encountered a few seconds earlier
cannot be recall.
 Difficulty with generalization of skills- inability to generalize related to the
inability to think abstractly. Student with mental retardation often have
trouble in transferring their new knowledge and skills into setting or
situations that differ from the context in which they learned first those skills.
 Low motivation- Some student show lack of interest in learning their lesson.
Some of them develop learned helplessness where they expect to continue to
fail in doing certain tasks because they have not been able to do the tasks in
the past. To avoid failure, the person tends to set very low expectations for
oneself. Motivation is a problem for the person who has disability because
they learned. They having a comparison, which is this person, can do and he
is not.
Deficits in adaptive behavior- Due to the fact that adaptation to one’s social and
physical environment requires intellectual ability, persons with mental retardation
are likely to demonstrate significant deficits in adaptive behavior.
 Self-care and daily living skills-
 Social development- limited cognitive processing skills. Poor language
development, and unusual or inappropriate behaviors can seriously impede
( makahadlang) interaction with others.
 Behavioral excesses and challenging behavior
 Psychological characteristics- in the case of speech and language problems,
mentally retarded persons have slower psychological development and likely
to have some forms of associated physical problems.
 Positive characteristics- a person with mental retardation they also have a
positive characteristics which is friendliness and kindness
Assessment Procedures
In over all, in the Philippines where the educational system hardly provides
for clinicians like school psychologists or psychometricians, the classroom
teacher does initial assessment in order to identify who among the regular
students are in need of special education. Initial assessment is done through
teacher nomination. When a child manifests half or more than half of the
characteristics in the checklist, then the final assessment follows. Here,
guidance counselor or teacher administers the appropriate assessment tools
developed by the special education Division of the Bureau of Elementary
Education of the Department of Education.
When a child suspected to have a developmental disability such as mental
retardation a complete diagnosis of the condition is necessary. The
assessment covers more observation that is intensive and evaluation of the
child’s cognitive and adaptive skills, analysis of circumstances related to
causatives factors and the child’s current level of functioning.
In diagnostic assessment of children, parents and other significant individuals
in the child’s environment provide a rich source of information. The
components odf assessment, inform and standardized tests, home visits,
interview, and observation complement each other and form a firm
foundation for making correct decisions about the child.

Models of Assessment (RICHEY and WHEELER) 2000

Three assessment models are use in Western countries. These are the
traditional, team based and activity based models of assessment.

Traditional Assessment
In traditional assessment models, the parents fill in a pre-referral form
about the family history and developmental history of the child. Then the
child and parents are referred to a team of clinical practitioners for thorough
evaluation of the child’s intellectual, socio-emotional and physical
development, health condition and other significant information.

Team-Based Assessment Approaches

Children with mental retardation often have other problems, it is
necessary to involve a team of practitioners from different areas like
specialists in the traditional model of assessment.
 In multidisciplinary assessment individual team members independently
assess the child and report results without consulting or integrated their
findings with one another.
 In interdisciplinary assessment the members conduct an independent
assessment and evaluation individually the findings are integrated together
with the recommendations.
 Transdisciplinary assessment on the other hand, allows others team members
as facilitators during the assessment process. A natural extension of this
approach is the involvement of the family in the decision- making process.

Activity-Based Assessment
The activity-based model of assessment for young children with
developmental delays or disabilities is better than the other models because
of parental involvement as well as the development of meaningful, child-
centered, positive behavioral support and activity-based interventions.