A deficitous development is ... A deficient mental development according to Lebedinsky

Violations in the functioning of the children's body today are often found. Psychologists increasingly note the presence of some deviations in the formation of the psyche in children. Deficit development is just one of these aspects of the distortion of the mechanism in the work of different psychosomatic directions. It implies a lack of presence and fulfillment of certain properties and functions in the body, which subsequently leads to a lag, distortion or deformation of the further development of the child at the stages of his growing up and inhibits his complete formation as a person. The diversity of its influence on various systems of the functioning of the human body gives rise to a lot of possible deviations that affect different organs and senses of perception.

The problems of various types of mental development disorders were dealt with by the associate professor of the Department of Neuropsychology at the Faculty of Moscow State University, who became the laureate of the Lomonosov Prize, and the candidate of psychological sciences V.V. Lebedinsky. The psychologist attributed the deficit development in terms of mental parameters to one of the varieties of mental dysontogenesis, the classification of which he proposed in his work. Along with such pathologies of the child’s psyche as signs of general underdevelopment, delayed, damaged, distorted and disharmonious development, the described anomaly in the psychoemotional state of children affects serious aspects of their health.

So, what is it - a characteristic of deficit development? Is this pathology due to congenital or acquired factors in the formation of the child's body? Why is this problem relevant today? And what violations of the deficit development of the psyche include this kind of mental dysontogenesis?

The concept

This term was first proposed by V.V. Kovalev in 1976. The interpretation of this definition suggests that deficit development is a pathology of personality formation in those children who are endowed with severe defects in hearing, vision, and the musculoskeletal system, the lack of sensory stimuli in which causes signs of deprivation and distortion of the emotional sphere.

V.V. Lebedinsky considered this concept from the perspective of one of the components of mental dysontogenesis.

Mental dysontogenesis is a pathology in the development of the child psyche, characterized by violations of the timing and pace of development of individual body systems and its components. The classification of specific deviations proposed by Lebedinsky provides for the presence of six basic manifestations of mental dysontogenesis:

• underdevelopment;
• delayed development;
• development is damaged;
• distorted development;
• development is disharmonious ;
• development is scarce.

This classification was developed with a distinction between the manifesting anomalies arising due to specific causal relationships. It is understood that the manifestation of a particular disease corresponds to each specific type of dysontogenesis. What examples of deficit development are presented by Lebedev's system of psychopathologies? And what is the etiology of its manifestation?

Etiology

Speaking about the characteristic of deficit development, the reasons for its development and varieties, it is necessary to understand that the pathogenesis of this condition is not based on one specific phenomenon. The fact is that this kind of anomaly is represented by a number of all kinds of violations in the development of the psyche of the child. Therefore, the conditions and causes of diseases in each case are different. Their etiology is ambiguous. It all depends on the basis on which factor of the organic disturbance a particular deformation of the functioning of the body's system arose.

It should be noted that the deficit development of the psyche includes several basic violations of the organic systems of the child:

• vision problems;
• hearing problems;
• disorders of the musculoskeletal system;
• somatic disorders.

Lack of and underdevelopment of individual motor and sensor systems entails the appearance of phenomena of complete or partial isolation. So, signs of visual impairment lead to underdevelopment of coordination between the speech apparatus and actions. Further manifestations of such failures in the development of the child depend on the depth of the defeat of a particular function. Nevertheless, the potential primary preservation of intellectual aspects, regulatory and sensory systems is crucial.

Visual impairment

In psychology, a science that studies the patterns and characteristics of the mental development of children with distorted and deformed vision is called typhlopsychology. Impaired functioning of vision, as a type of deficit development, can manifest itself in several ways. Blindness can be different, respectively, and children with similar pathologies are conditionally divided into groups:

• totally blind patients (blind);
• blind children with light perception (distinguish between light and dark spots);
• blind patients with residual vision;
• visually impaired children;
• visually impaired.

Quite a serious value in assessing the capabilities of the child has the moment of occurrence of visual impairment. In cases of congenital blindness, children generally have no experience with eye contact and sensation. It is difficult for them to imagine how things and objects look, they do not understand what brightness, color, remoteness, and so on are. Lack of visual experience and lack of understanding entails difficulties in the child occupying an upright body position. In view of this, fear develops, a fear of comprehending space, new phenomena and objects, and this, in turn, contributes to a delay in the development of spatial aspects of development, distortion of gait, orientation, because perception and understanding of the body scheme develops late.

Deficit development and impaired vision, as well as congenital blindness, are closely interlinked. In cases where visual impairment arose at an early stage in the formation of children's sensations and activities, an underdevelopment of the sphere of psychomotorism occurs, in which there is a weak possibility of grasping, the differentiation and difference in movements of the child is late. If vision was lost at a later age, there is a certain experience of visual images and impressions, this makes it easier to develop fine motor skills, the formation of ideas, substantive activities and the definition of concepts. If a visual impairment arose at a later stage of growing up the child, the situation changes somewhat: he already has experience of ideas and impressions due to the visual perception of many things and objects he has seen, so he can take advantage of this experience even if he is blind. Thus, the later blindness occurs, the less significant impact it has on the subsequent development of the child. However, the more difficult it will be for him to adapt to the resulting violation and use the possibilities of compensation: they allow you to compensate for deficit functions by developing related ones. So, for example, blind children adapt to their lifestyle and begin to hear much better, smell, perceive information by the organs of touch.

Hearing impairment

Another defect described in the work of V.V. Lebedinsky is hearing impairment. Deficit development and damage to the listening apparatus, as in the case of vision, determines the division of children into categories that characterize them as deaf (not hearing) and hearing loss (hearing impaired). In turn, those babies who are deaf before the development of speech are considered deaf. Guys who acquired this pathology later are considered to be late-deaf, retaining speech. They are able to talk, which is not given to children with congenital deafness.

How does this kind of pathology affect related areas of child development? What is the manifestation of deficient development such as hearing loss and deafness?

• Perception and sensations. In deaf children, these two sectors develop according to the same laws as in healthy children. However, the specificity of the pathology entails the untimely establishment of an interfunctional interaction between perception and speech, which ultimately contributes to a negative impact on the meaningfulness of perception.
• Attention. It also works to the full extent, as well as for hearing children, but it is accompanied by more active activity of visual analyzers. This is not surprising: the one who sees poorly begins to hear better, and the one who is deaf uses his vision more as a compensating action. At the same time, concentration of attention on visual objects in the deaf is accompanied by rapid eye fatigue compared to hearing healthy children.
• Memory. Here there is a direct correlation of memory training along with the development of the speech apparatus, especially logical speech. Therefore, it is rather difficult for those children who are deaf before learning to speak.
• Thinking. Here there is a weak development in terms of a generalized method of action for the hearing-impaired and deaf: in this case, more elementary methods are used (copying, according to the sample). If, for example, you explain the essence of the phenomenon to a healthy child for five minutes, you will have the same explanatory conversation with the deaf for twenty minutes. The same applies to the number of impressions: explaining to a child by way of example the essence of building a pyramid from different colors and shapes, the deaf will have to show you the same thing three times, while a healthy person will need only one time. Features of the development of speech will impede the normal transition from concrete-conceptual to abstract thinking.
• The speech apparatus. In deaf children, three types of speech are distinguished - verbal, gestural, and dactyl. This is the so-called polygolossy. Primary images of words are formed in such children in different ways: auditory - in hearing, visual - in deaf, articulation - supported by motor and gesture aspects.

Speech impairment

An example of deficient development (early or late) is also the distortion and disruption in the functioning of the child's speech apparatus. The most obvious of them is dumbness.

Based on the global significance of speech as the most important mental function inherent exclusively to man, such anomalies are very depressing for parents. Indeed, in the course of verbal communication, mankind throughout the history of existence exchanges thoughts, acts on each other. Thanks to verbal communications, the awareness of the world by one person is regularly enriched and renewed, which ultimately affects the public consciousness as a whole, providing for a direct connection with the achievements of the whole cultural and social-production progress of mankind. So, speech is considered an integral part of the communicative function, on the basis of which a mass of mental processes is formed and develops, including memory and perception.

The described variant of deficit development caused by speech disorders occupies a special place in psychology and provides for the existence of a classification of deviations of the speech apparatus in the form of corresponding levels.

• Level 1: total underdevelopment of speech. This degree of violation implies the child’s inability to speak a habitual speech for everyone, his vocabulary practically does not include any words, this is more like some onomatopoeic complexes that are incomprehensible to people around him, often accompanied by gestures and active facial expressions.
• Level 2: distorted speech. At this stage, we can talk about increased speech capabilities compared to the previous level. A child is able to pronounce some words and sentences, albeit rather distorted in terms of grammar and phonetic pronunciation.
• Level 3: partially broken vocabulary. Children with such a plan can be considered pathologies closest to normal spoken language, because their ability to speak includes quite acceptable speech without gross lexical and phonetic deviations, but with individual grammatical impairments.

All levels of speech anomalies can be diverse, it all depends on the degree and localization of the affected functions, as well as on the period of the lesion and the severity of the secondary deviation arising from a leading defect.

In addition, deficient mental development can manifest itself in the form of various speech pathologies. All of them have separate names, are characterized by various causes and signs of manifestation. Similar speech abnormalities can be expressed as:

• dysphonia - a violation characterized by the absence or disturbance of phonation due to a pathological change in the functioning of the vocal cords;
• bradyllalia - the term is synonymous with bradyphrasia, manifests itself in a pathologically slowed down pace of speech caused by specific malfunctions of the speech centers in the cerebral cortex; the anomaly may be functional or organic by the nature of its device;
• tachilalia - the opposite of bradyllia: implies an abnormally accelerated pace of speech;
• stuttering - a well-known definition that provides for the distortion of the tempo-rhythmic aspect of speech, which is caused by convulsive urges of the muscles of the speech apparatus;
• dyslalia - the problem concerns defects in sound pronunciation; the hearing is normal and the innervation of the speech apparatus is preserved;
• rhinolalia - the sound pronunciation is deteriorated and the timbre of the voice is distorted, which is a consequence of anatomy and physiological defects;
• dysarthria - implies a failure in the robot pronouncing the speech aspect, caused by an organic sign of insufficient innervation of the vocal cords.

Musculoskeletal system

In addition to the described main directions of the pathological condition caused by deficient mental development, Lebedinsky put forward in his theory the significance of the effect on the musculoskeletal system of the human body.

As previously mentioned aspects of mental anomalies in the development of the child, deviations in the functioning of the musculoskeletal system can be both acquired and congenital. The main aspects and causal factors in this matter are three categories of diseases:

• pathology of the nervous system;
• congenital malformations of the musculoskeletal system;
• acquired diseases, deviations and distortions of the musculoskeletal system.

Despite the widest range of pathogenesis of such problems with children's health, a defect in the motor system is considered the most active. Most of the kids have this kind of deviation: the features of motor disorders are related to one degree or another with the properties of the formation of cognitive and sensory functions, with the specificity of the severity of the formation of cognitive functions in general. In the clinical structure, the leading one is considered to be a motor defect (underdevelopment, delayed formation, loss or violation of supporting functions).

It is noteworthy that some children with this disease are not affected by deviations in the part of cognitive perception, and they do not require any special education and training. But, unfortunately, not all children with defects in the musculoskeletal system are exempted from such measures. Many need special care and specific living conditions, support for training and further work.

Cerebral palsy

Most children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system suffer from cerebral palsy (cerebral palsy). Cerebral palsy, no matter what variety it is, is considered a rather serious and serious disease of the nervous system, often leading to disability. Its occurrence is associated with the underdevelopment or damage to the baby’s brain in the early stages of its development: it can be a period of intrauterine stay, and getting damage directly during labor, and during the first year of life. Often, disorders of the motor apparatus in children suffering from cerebral palsy are combined with various mental disorders, speech defects, and the functions of other analyzers, including vision and hearing. In view of this, sick children often require special care, psychological, pedagogical, social and medical assistance.

Unfortunately, a pathology of this kind is not the only disease that a child can suffer due to disorders of the musculoskeletal system. , .

, , . , , (), . . , – , , .

Musculoskeletal disorders are classified by specialists in several areas of deficit and delayed development.

• Signs of congenital dislocation of the hip - perhaps this is one of the most common malformations of childhood development of OA, accompanied by lameness and at later stages leading to coxarthrosis and disability. It is noteworthy that girls suffer from this ailment approximately 6 times more often than boys. The most conservative treatment of congenital femoral dislocation is the period of the first 3-4 months. If the therapy was ineffective or late, this problem threatens the child with a possible disability.
• Torticollis is another type of quite common pathology characterized by changes in soft tissues, nerves of the neck and skeleton, pronounced manifestations of the inclined position of the head with rotation in the opposite direction. The prerequisites for the formation of such a plan of pathology are most often the occurrence of hypertrophy of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, less often it can be a defect in the development of the cervical spine, which is provoked by the incorrect position of the head occupied by the child in the womb during pregnancy, or during labor.
• Deformity of the foot or clubfoot - signs of this congenital defect affecting one in 1000 newborns are more often observed in boys. In fifty percent of cases, clubfoot is bilateral. In this case, the deformation can be equinovarus (with the foot turned down and in), varus (with the heel turned inward) and valgus (with this type, the heel turns out). If parents notice pathology in a timely manner and seek medical help, the problem can be eliminated by conservative treatment methods. If after 4 months from the birth of a baby affected by pathology, no one is engaged in the elimination of the problem, it is much more difficult to cure it at later stages.

• Arthrogryposis - children suffering from the so-called congenital malformation also belong to the category of persons with deficient development. This disease refers to systemic ailments of the musculoskeletal system and is characterized by deformities of the extremities, their contracture, underdevelopment of muscles and joints, and fibrosis. There are quite a few varieties of this pathology, but the wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and hips are most often affected. Manifestations of the most severe form of this defect entail a defect in almost all joints, including the joints of the jaw. Arthrogryposis is treated the more successfully the earlier treatment measures begin. At the early stages, conservative procedures are performed - massages, gymnastics, at the age of 2-3 years, doctors resort to surgical intervention.
• Scoliosis is a well-known anomaly in the development of the spine. Congenital scoliosis is formed due to the anatomical departure from the normal value of the vertebrae or bone structures, the asymmetric position of the legs and pelvis. There is no way to counteract the occurrence of this anomaly, because it is formed even at the stage of the fetus being in the mother’s womb. However, after the birth of the baby, all your efforts should be directed to ensure that the abnormal process stops its development.
• Defects and underdevelopment of the extremities - like some previous congenital diseases, this kind of disorder occurs and forms during the fetal stay. Very often, doctors shrug their hands in response to the question of why such defects arise. These include congenital amputation, underdevelopment, the presence of a pseudoarthrosis, shortening of the arm (one or both), the presence of amniotic constrictions, squint, focomelia, campomelia, an abnormal number of fingers, finger joints. Conservative treatment in such cases is in vain. Surgical intervention is preferred.

Acquired ODE Anomalies

Acquired pathologies in individual musculoskeletal systems include the following possible injuries to the child's body:

• Injuries to the spinal cord and brain are usually divided into open and closed. Concussion refers to closed ones - it often occurs when a head is struck by a blunt object or a blunt object, contusion - in addition to pain in the head area, is accompanied by signs of focal symptoms, compression of the brain substance is the result of intracranial bleeding or bone fragments of the skull. Open injuries, in turn, are divided into penetrating and non-penetrating. The former are quite dangerous for life, since an object penetrated through the bony membrane of the skull, depending on the degree and depth of penetration, can cause irreparable harm to human health.
• Polyarthritis is an inflammation that affects several joints in a child simultaneously at an early age. Its occurrence can be due to several reasons - from a violation of the immune system in rheumatoid diseases to psoriasis against psoriatic arthritis.
• Skeletal pathologies (osteomyelitis, bone tumors) - all kinds of acquired dislocations, bone fusion as a result of improper prosthetics, etc. This also includes rickets, hypermobility of the joints (their increased mobility), dysplasia.

In his theory of the abnormal development of children, V.V. Lebedinsky assigns a special place to deficit development. He identifies a whole system of parameters that determines the influence and relationship of individual pathologies on the mental and physical development of the child as a whole. So, the development of a child is affected by the functional localization of the disorder, the time of its occurrence, the relationship between primary and secondary deviations, and the violation of interfunctional interaction. That is, of course, the focus of the occurrence of the defect should be carefully studied first of all: hearing loss affects visual acuity, and visual impairment leads to the activation of other analyzers - hearing, touch, smell. The second most important parameter is the time of the lesion. After all, a defect can be either congenital or acquired. Much depends on this, starting from symptomatic signs and ending with the choice of treatment methodology.

Be that as it may, the health of the child is a very important aspect, the control of which parents should support not only from the first days of the baby's life, but also from the first days of pregnancy. It is noteworthy that most congenital pathologies are based on the pathogenic effect of external factors on the fetus at the stage of fetal development.