As a rule, a violation of intelligence is a loss of the ability to remember any information, as well as clearly interpret it. A person loses not only a certain supply of information studied previously, it also becomes more difficult for him to apply the skills that he always possessed in life, it becomes impossible to realize his skills in the professional sphere. The emotional part of a person’s life also becomes poorer, he loses the opportunity to experience deep feelings, the ability to empathy.
Causes
A common cause of impaired intelligence is heredity. Intellectual disorders can arise due to two reasons related to genetics:
- First, the disorders are genetically transmitted from parents, even if they seem to be completely healthy, but are carriers of recessive genes.
- The second reason for impaired intelligence is a genetic mutation or an incorrectly formed chromosome set (instead of 46 chromosomes, more or less).
Children conceived in a state of alcohol or drug intoxication often have intellectual disabilities, albeit sometimes invisible under certain conditions or until a certain time. Alcoholism or addiction of the mother during pregnancy adversely affects the fetus, its nervous system, problems with which can provoke deviations in physical or mental development.
During pregnancy, the expectant mother must protect herself from infections, diseases that occur even in a mild form, injuries (especially in the abdomen, back and lower back), since all of the above can provoke intellectual disabilities. Many expectant mothers are afraid of having a baby ahead of schedule, and not without reason, because this is also one of the reasons for the lag in development.
The passage of the child through the birth canal is not only the greatest stress that haunts babies in nightmares, but also an extremely dangerous journey, as a result of which the child may be injured. Some of them are the trigger for the development of intellectual disabilities. Lack of oxygen in the first minutes of life can also cause a lag in mental development.
Dangerous infections carried by the child in the first months of life are another reason for impaired intelligence in the future.
Manifestation
At the very beginning, the patient cannot demonstrate to others his feelings in ordinary situations. Then everything only gets worse, and the person is no longer capable of any feelings, his emotional reactions are reduced, he looks detached, insensitive and cold.
A person loses the meaning of life, determination. In advanced cases, the character of the patient completely changes beyond recognition, acquires unusual features. Clarity of thinking is broken. It is difficult for a person to focus on one thought and express it. He loses interest in any of his past hobbies and eventually closes in on himself, becomes obsessed with his internal thoughts.
Types of Intellectual Disabilities
Organic lesions of the brain, as a rule, lead to persistent irreversible disturbances in mental activity. The consequence of this are various forms of impaired intelligence. In another way, it is called "mental retardation." There are two types of impaired intelligence:
- oligophrenia is a congenital form of underdevelopment of intelligence;
- dementia is a form of dementia acquired throughout life.
Congenital oligophrenia, in turn, can be of varying severity and severity. There are three main subspecies of this pathology, namely:
- mild degree of oligophrenia (debility). The characteristic of impaired intelligence is as follows: the presence of certain mental abilities (speech formation, the presence of mechanical memory, the ability to count), this form allows you to perform low-skilled physical labor;
- underdevelopment of an average degree (imbecility). This form is characterized by poor and tongue-tied speech, very low learning ability, clumsiness. With such a pathology, the patient can be accustomed to minimal self-care, but he must perform any simple work exclusively under external control;
- an extreme degree of underdevelopment (idiocy) is characterized by a complete lack of mental thinking and speech, a complete inability to acquire self-care skills.
Oligophrenia is a consequence of intrauterine developmental pathologies, pathological, constitutional and genetic effects 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 in severity:
- any mental defect combined with impaired speech, motor skills, memory, expression of emotions, behavioral defects;
- total mental underdevelopment.
Another, equally common form of impaired intelligence is dementia, which is always acquired and never congenital. Dementia is characterized by mental (intellectual) degradation, a decrease in emotional manifestations, will, a way out of the circle of interests inherent in earlier.
Considering this pathology, one can distinguish such subspecies: total (or global, diffuse) and focal (lacunar). With total dementia, intellectual abilities are completely impaired. There is a disintegration of the personality, there are acute memory disorders, there is no critical worldview. Such dementia can be the result of brain injuries, cerebral disorders of the brain, repeated strokes, and can develop in old age. With partial dementia, intelligence is partially preserved, selective memory is present. Conditions of acquired dementia are characterized by dizziness, frequent headaches, nausea, cramp, cramping, and mental disorders.
Separately, we should dwell on 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 stresses, impaired logical thinking;
- lethargy, slowness, passivity, apathy, low initiative;
- violation of 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 to adapt to those around him. Of course, in itself, social intelligence is not a sufficient condition for the formation of personality, but its good condition is necessary. 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 situations in society, memory for names, sense of humor.
Based on the results, it was concluded that a violation of intelligence is a pathology that was initially considered a consequence of cognitive abilities, but later it began to be distinguished as an independent process, amenable to treatment, although very difficult. Methods for the formation of social intelligence were also found, which makes it possible to socially adapt “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 clearly and articulately speak, consciously build sentences, then this is an occasion to think: does he have any intellectual deviations? Of course, do not panic right away. A competent specialist during the examination will be able to determine what the violations are associated with - malfunctioning of the brain or malfunctions of the speech apparatus (occlusion, etc.). Causes of impaired speech and intelligence:
- Heredity. If the father or mother have any violations of the speech apparatus, then it is quite possible that these violations will pass to the child.
- Some infectious or inflammatory diseases of the mother during pregnancy can lead to abnormal formation of areas of the brain that are responsible for proper speech.
- Diseases transferred in the first months of life also affect the formation of the speech apparatus and problems with speech in the future.
- Unsuitable habitat (drinking parents, addict parents).
- Parents who do not pay due attention to their children should not be surprised if their children acquire impaired speech functions.
Speech disorders in some cases can provoke poor performance, lag in intellectual development, misunderstanding with peers, ridicule.
Therefore, it is worth helping a child, leading him to specialists and making the proper efforts to correct deficiencies.
Emotional intelligence
The main disturbances of emotional intelligence can manifest themselves in the form of an uncontrolled outburst of emotions in response to certain situations. As a rule, a person in this case, emotionally reacting, does not realize the extent of his feelings.
An emotional response, or, in another way, emotional reactions expressed in an acute form, is what a person experiences in a given situation. They are somewhat similar to mood swings, but they last much less.
Explosiveness is the patient's excessive excitability, a violent reaction to various events. Such a reaction, as a rule, can occur even without much reason.
Emotional getting stuck is a prolonged state of apathy, which may not stop for a long time and have a strong influence on human behavior. Usually this happens with people who have long held a grudge against someone; it is difficult for them to cope with this feeling. It begins to harm them from within. The feeling of loss of feelings - whatever the tautology is, however, it is a terrible condition in which a person becomes estranged.
Hearing and intelligence
Children who have both hearing impairment and intellectual impairment are slowly aware of changes in the space surrounding them, are poorly aware of themselves and are extremely rarely able to control their emotions, actions and actions. There are several types of combining these violations:
- One impairment is congenital, and one is acquired (hearing impairment is innate, and impaired intellectual development is a result of illness or vice versa).
- Both disorders are congenital.
- They are acquired as a result of illness or injury.
Teaching 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 home-based education, the second is training in a specialized institution. Studying at home, a child with hearing and intellectual disabilities will not feel at ease. The specialist will find an approach, be able to interest the student and make the learning process easy, colorful and interesting. Studying in special institutions is also a good option. In addition to the correct educational process and the proper attention of specialists, the child will gain communication skills, learn to communicate with other people, be friends, help and support.
Diagnostics
Diagnosis of impaired intelligence and development, including in the early stages of children, allows you to identify a deviation in the development of mental abilities and take a range of important measures to eliminate possible causes and consequences. Conditions for the positive results of events:
- The initial level of intelligence.
- How significant is the deviation from the norm.
- Correctly performed diagnostics.
- Anamnesis and causes.
To identify the initial level, the magnitude of its deviation and the correctness of the diagnosis by psychiatrists, a number of tests are used.
Main tests, their features and differences
At the initial stage of human life, an assessment of psychomotor and speech development is carried out. 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 its movements, are evaluated. For preschool children and students, psychological methods are widely used to study the personal understanding of sayings, poems, etc.
- The main test for diagnosing impaired intelligence is the Wexler technique, most know it as an intelligence coefficient.
- Eysenck test. It should be understood that for the correct diagnosis of deviations of intellectual impairment, it is necessary to conduct such tests only by experienced psychiatrists. It is also important to understand that research should be carried out only in dynamics.
Treatment methods
The treatment of intellectual impairment in adults and children will differ significantly from each other depending on the stage of the disease. It should be understood that everything is purely individual.
There is a specific treatment for impaired intelligence - this is a therapy aimed at eliminating the causes that led to an impairment of intelligence. 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, the patient’s adaptation in society has.
For children, a special program should be drawn up, including educational and educational aspects. They need to be taught primary skills that will be useful to them in society.
We must not forget that a patient suffering from intellectual impairment 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 what is different from the rest. That is why it is important to give such people all their love and understanding, then it will become much easier for them.