Is Autism A Form Of Retardation

Mental Retardation Signs And Symptoms

Mental retardation begins in the first two decades of life. The age and characteristics of onset depend on the cause of the disability and the severity of the neuropsychiatric dysfunction. The identification of children with more severe mental retardation typically occurs early in life. These children often have dysmorphic features and associated medical conditions and higher rates of behavioral and psychiatric disturbances. Individuals with severe intellectual disability may show delayed motor, language, and social accomplishments within the first 2 years of life. Individuals with mild intellectual disability may not be recognized until early school age because that is when their difficulties with academic learning become apparent.

Depending on its cause, mental retardation may be stable and nonprogressive or it may worsen with time. After early childhood, the disorder is chronic and usually lasts an individuals lifetime however, the severity of the disorder may change with age. For example, visual or hearing difficulties, epilepsy, childhood psychological or head trauma, substance abuse, and other medical conditions may affect the course of the disorder. Conversely, an early intervention may improve adaptive skills.

As a family, you may suspect your child has an intellectual disability when your child has any of the following:

Signs of intellectual disability can range from mild to severe.

Differences Between Autism And Mental Retardation

Despite the similarities between autism and mental retardation, there are a number of important differences between autism and intellectual disability, such as the following:

• Autism cases vary in IQ range, with both below and above average test results. In fact, it is quite common for people with severe autism to have an IQ of 70 or below. Some people with autism have high IQs, and a small population are considered genius level. This differs from people with intellectual disability who generally have IQs of 70.
• A person with intellectual disability develops and performs slower than his peers but he gains skills at an even pace. A person with autism’s progress may not be so clear cut. The autistic person may make progress in some areas easily but has difficulties with skills, such as language, communication and social interaction.
• Intellectual disability may present speech and vocabulary challenges but not to the same degree as a case of severe autism, which can render someone nonverbal.
• A person with autism may experience mindblindness or appear to lack empathy for others because of problems understanding the emotions and emotional responses of others. Mindblindness is not as common in mental retardation.

Can Adhd Turn Into Bipolar

Research studies show that about 70 percent of people with the condition also have ADHD, and that 20 percent of people with ADHD will develop Bipolar Disorder. The tragedy is that, when the disorders co-occur, the diagnoses are often missed. It can take up to 17 years for patients to receive a diagnosis of BD.

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What Causes Mental Retardation

Mental retardation happen because the brain gets injured or a problem prevents the brain from developing normally. These problems can happen while the baby is growing inside his or her mom, during the babys birth, or after the baby is born. Many times, though, doctors dont know the cause.

Here are some problems that can cause intellectual disabilities:

Doctors figure out that someone has an intellectual disability by testing how well the person thinks and solves problems. If a problem is spotted, doctors and other professionals can work with the family to decide what type of help is needed.

What Are The Different Types Of Mental Retardation Syndromes

There are a few different types of mental retardation syndromes that can affect people, of which Down syndrome and autism are some of the most commonly known. Mycrocephaly and cretinism are some forms of mental retardation that are caused by underdevelopment of the brain.

Down syndrome is the most common genetic condition in the U.S. Roughly one in every 691 babies in the U.S. is born with the syndrome. The syndrome is genetic and occurs when the individual has an extra copy of chromosome 21. This genetic condition results in developmental problems in the brain. Down syndrome is easily identified by abnormal facial features such as a flat nose, thick eyelids, and large ears, among others.

Autism is among the most enigmatic of the different types of mental retardation syndromes. Autism seems to affect people in very different ways. Research has brought some understanding of this disorder, but there is still much to learn about the brain function of people with autism. It is understood that people with autism think differently than those with normal brains, which diminishes the social interactive abilities, but also sometimes increases abilities in areas like math. Verbal skills are typically underdeveloped, and eye contact is rare in people with this disorder.

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Postwar Conceptualizations Of Autism And Infant Psychopathology

After the war, the controversies over how to describe infantile thought continued. The diagnoses of schizophrenia, psychosis and autism in children were largely interchangeable during the 1940s and 1950s. In the USA, Bender and others employed a Kleinian model to understand infant and child psychopathology and focused on schizophrenia as the central psychopathological problem of childhood. Bender was an important figure in the development of perceptual tests for children. In 1947, she published a study on one hundred schizophrenics who had attended the Childrens Department at Bellevue during the period 193747. She defined childhood schizophrenia as

pathology in behavior at every level and in every area of integration or patterning within the functioning of the central nervous system, be it vegetative, motor, perceptual, intellectual, emotional or social.

What Are The Different Types Of Mental Retardation

The types of mental retardation usually fall into five categories caused by genetic mutations or abnormalities that develop before birth. They include cranial abnormalities, cretinism, phenylketonuria , Down syndrome, and nonsydromic mental retardation. All types of mental retardation typically cause mental delays measured by intelligence quotient tests. Often, people with mental retardation also suffer developmental delays, affecting their ability to perform basic life skills.

Down syndrome represents one of the types of mental retardation caused by an extra chromosome at birth. Sometimes called mongoloids, children born with this defect usually develop a flat face and nose that appear too broad. The eyes typically are slanted and the tongue seems larger than normal. Other physical characteristics include a short neck and hands with stubby fingers. The little fingers on both hands might be curved.

There is no cure for Down syndrome, but early intervention might help people with the condition live more productive lives and cope with disabilities. Many patients with the disorder live partially independent lives as adults, with a life expectancy up to 55 years. The only known risk associated for this genetic disorder is the age of the mother when she becomes pregnant. Women over 45 years old face a greater chance of delivering a child with Down syndrome.

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Meaning And Characteristics Of Mental Retardation

Mental Retardation, also known as Intellectual Disability, is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significantly impaired intellectual and adaptive functioning. It is defined by an IQ under 70, in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors that affect everyday, general living.

Adaptive skills are the skills needed for daily life. These skills include the ability to speak a language and understand words, lack of communication, use of community resources, health, self-care, and social skills, and functional academic skills .

A child is generally diagnosed with mental retardation before the age of 18. Family members suspect intellectual and developmental delays when a child enters milestones at a slower rate. For example, a child may be more reluctant to develop motor skills than other children his age. He may take longer than usual to go over.

According to the slow development of motor skills, a child with mental retardation may be hesitant to develop language and daily living skills. He may be incapable of brushing his teeth or eat by himself. He may also start talking much later than other children his age.

Mental Retardation classifies intofour categories:

Mild Mental Retardation – IQ from 50-55 to 70

Moderate Mental Retardation – IQ from 35-40 to 50-55

Severe Mental Retardation IQ from 20-25 to 35-40

Child Psychology And Psychiatry In Britain And The Introduction Of Autism Prior To 1959

As Gillian Sutherland, Deborah Thom, Nikolas Rose and others have documented, the 1920s and 1930s in Britain witnessed a vast expansion of charitable and governmental services to cater for the psychological problems of children . In 1913, the Mental Deficiency Act was passed in England and Wales which ensured institutional care for all children identified as mental defectives. In that same year, Cyril Burt was appointed as the first official government psychologist in the UK and tasked with assessing the levels of psychological disturbance in the child population. He worked with infant welfare centres, school medical inspection officers and reformatory and industrial schools in order to do this . In the late 1920s, the Commonwealth Fund, an American philanthropic body, began to provide funds for the purposes of improving child guidance services in Britain . Early child guidance clinics were used to direct child-rearing practices and to guide the behaviour of problem children . The expansion of psychological services offered growing opportunities for child psychological professionals to observe and assess infants and children.

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What Happens If Adhd Is Left Untreated

For adults, untreated ADHD also affects job performance and lifetime earnings, marital satisfaction, and likelihood of divorce. Thats because untreated kids sometimes dont learn impulse control, emotional regulation, and social skills. As adults, they can sometimes fall behind the curve and dont always catch up.

Symptoms Of Autism And Mental Retardation

Autism: Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name. They have less eye contact and do not have the ability to use simple movements to express themselves, such as pointing at things. They make a repetitive movement, such as hand flapping, head rolling, or body rocking and they intended and appears to follow rules, such as arranging objects in stacks or lines. They also have very limited focus, interest, or activity, such as preoccupation with a single television program, toy or game.

18 month old boy with autism, obsessively stacking cans

Mental Retardation: Patients with mental retardation have delay in oral language development, deficits in memory skills, difficulty in learning social rules, difficulty with problem-solving skills, delays in the development of adaptive behaviors such as self-help or self-care skills and lack of social inhibition.

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The Blurred Line Between Autism And Intellectual Disability

Doctors often conflate autism and intellectual disability, and no wonder: The biological distinction between them is murky. Scientific progress depends on knowing where the conditions intersect and part ways.

by Emily Sohn / 15 April 2020

Soon after Patrick Kelly started school at age 5, his teachers told his parents he belonged in special-education classes. His academic performance was poor, and his behaviors were disruptive: hand-flapping, rocking, hitting his head with his wrists and tapping his desk repeatedly. He often seemed as if he was not paying attention to people when they spoke to him. He would stare off into the distance, head turned to the side.

Kellys teachers assumed he had intellectual disability, known at the time as mental retardation. Then when he was around 9, a routine eye exam at school revealed that he could barely see. With glasses, he went from underperforming to outperforming his peers in every subject but English in just two years. And it turned out that he had been listening in the classroom all along. Finally, at age 13, a psychologist diagnosed him with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified, a form of autism.

Intellectual Disability And Asd

Individuals with Intellectual Disability have deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning, which are observed during development . Intellectual functioning includes the ability to reason, problem solve, plan, think abstractly, exercise judgment, and learn. Adaptive functioning refers to the skills needed to live in an independent and responsible manner, including communication, social skills, and self-help skills .

While Intellectual Disability used to be diagnosed solely by administration of an IQ test, current guidelines emphasize the need to use both clinical assessment and standardized testing. Specifically, to receive a diagnosis of Intellectual Disability, an individual must have an IQ score near to or below 70 as well as significant impairments in adaptive functioning compared to other same-age individuals.

About 1 percent of the general population is thought to have Intellectual Disability, and about 10% of individuals with Intellectual Disability also have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or autistic traits. However, a much higher percentage of individuals on the autism spectrum have Intellectual Disability.

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Is Adhd A Form Of Retardation

4.1/5retardation

Then, is ADHD a form of autism?

The symptoms of autism spectrum disorders and ADHD overlap. Most children on the autism spectrum have symptoms of ADHD difficulty settling down, social awkwardness, the ability to focus only on things that interest them, and impulsivity. ADHD itself, however, is not part of the autism spectrum.

Subsequently, question is, what is ADHD classified as? ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is classified as a psychiatric disorder and the symptoms often continue through adolescence into adulthood.

Then, is ADHD considered a mental illness?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a mental illness that affects the way you act and focus. ADHD is usually diagnosed in school-aged children, but it can continue to cause problems into adulthood. About two-thirds of people living with ADHD continue to experience symptoms as an adult.

Do people with ADHD have a lower IQ?

Although, on average, ADHD people have IQ scores that are about 9 points lower than others, there is a wide spread of IQs in both ADHD and non-ADHD people. So many people with ADHD have higher IQs than those without ADHD and vice-versa.

Pain And Emotional Expression In Children With Autism Or Mental Retardation

• Child aged 3 to 6 years old .
• Diagnosis of mental retardation established according a pluridisciplinary staff
• Admitted to neuropediatric or genetic department for a venepuncture

Control group without developmental disorder :

• Child aged 18 months to 5 years old.
• Admitted to pediatrics department for a venepuncture

Information from the National Library of Medicine

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier : NCT01043822

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What Is The Best Therapy For Adhd

Behavioral therapy for ADHD. Behavioral therapy, also known as behavior modification, has been shown to be a very successful treatment for children with ADHD. It is especially beneficial as a co-treatment for children who take stimulant medications and may even allow you to reduce the dosage of the medication.

What Is The Difference Between Mental Retardation And Autism

There is a major difference between mental retardation and autism. Autism is not a form of mental retardation, even though many autistic people appear to act like people who suffer from retardation. In fact, autistic people generally are very intelligent. On the contrary, people who have mental retardation, by definition, lack the necessary skills for daily living and have below-average intellectual capability.

Austic people have inconceivable sensory experiences. In many cases, they may react to situations in a sensitive manner. It can also be difficult for them to interpret what they are experiencing. As a result, it is common for them to avoid being touched by other people. Their brains might have insufficient sensations to let the rest of their body know what is happening, which ultimately leads to more confusion for an autistic person.

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Extraordinary Abilities In Individuals With Autism

As research expands, autism is shedding many of its negative connotations. Many people with autism go on to lead successful lives in every type of industry. They are actors, entrepreneurs, inventors, teachers, doctors, you name it. American professor of animal science, Temple Grandin, is one such individual, and she has dedicated her time and resources to promoting education and awareness about ASD.

Without autism, people would still be sitting around the fire in the caves today. Without autism, neither Silicon Valley exists, nor can there be a solution to the energy problem.- Temple Grandin

Listed among Time Magazines 2010 list of 100 most influential people in the world, Grandin asserts that many of todays scientists and engineers in Silicon Valley have autism. She goes on to state that people with autism are successful graphic designers, computer scientists, photographers, software engineers, industrial designers, mathematicians, and computer programmers.