Mental retardation is understood as a syndrome of retardation of mental development as a whole or only of its individual functions, as well as a slowdown in the realization of potential. The latter is expressed in insufficient knowledge, limited basic ideas and general immaturity of thinking. The main difficulties such children have to deal with are related to social adaptation. However, ZPR is a complex disorder in which, depending on its degree, the mental, physical and psychological components of the activity are affected. At the same time, we can talk about what relates to the borderline form of violations of ZPR in children. Symptoms can be pronounced due to the unevenness of mental functions, which can be associated with both damage and underdevelopment.
Causes of ZPR in children
Symptoms of this disorder are closely related to the causes that led to the onset of the disease. Biological pathologies include pregnancy pathology, asphyxia, or other injuries sustained during childbirth, prematurity, infections, and a genetic predisposition. For social reasons - unfavorable conditions of upbringing, limitation of life, psycho-traumatic situations.
Manifestations of ZPR in children
Symptoms of the disorder are very diverse. So, in such children, a delay in physical development is often found: muscle failure, growth retardation, underdevelopment of muscles. In addition, the formation of a walk can be delayed,
both speech and the stages of the game.
Emotional-volitional sphere
Features of development affect the emotional-volitional sphere. So, in children with ZPR organic infantilism appears: the brightness and liveliness of emotions are not so pronounced than in healthy children, the volitional component is poorly developed. It is much more difficult for such a child to make a volitional effort, to force himself to do something. This leads to the fact that the cognitive sphere begins to suffer.
Field of knowledge
Violations are also observed here. These include instability of attention, reduced switchability, slowness. If ZPR is found in children, the symptoms of deviation indicate that they need a longer period for processing and receiving both visual and any other impressions. The game is usually distinguished by the scarcity of the creative process and the poverty of imagination, some monotony. Due to the increased exhaustion in such children, a low level of performance. However, impaired attention can be combined with an increase in speech and motor activity. This set of deviations is characteristic of the manifestations of ZPR in children. Its symptoms, not complicated by other manifestations, are referred to as “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”.
Speech
The speech of children with ZPR and the features of its formation depend, first of all, on the severity of the violation. So, for example, only a slight delay may be detected, indicating a discrepancy with the level of the norm. In more severe forms, a violation of the lexical and grammatical side of speech can be observed. A child with ZPR has a much smaller supply of information about the world around him. Such children have not fully formed both spatial and temporal representations.