Intellectual disability

Mental retardation (abbreviated as MR), is a term for a person who has limitations in mental functioning and in skills such as communicating, taking care of him or herself, and social skills. A general, defined condition with various symptoms, caused by a lack of development of the brain before birth. These limitations will cause a child to learn and develop more slowly than a typical child. Children with mental retardation may take longer to learn to speak, walk, and take care of their personal needs such as dressing or eating. They are likely to have trouble learning in school. They will learn, but it will take them longer. There may be some things they cannot learn.

Mental deficiency is the condition of a person deemed to possess a level of intellectual capacity that is so far below normal as to seriously impact the individual's ability to function in society.

There are three criteria before a person is considered to have mental retardation, their IQ is below 75, they have significant limits in two or more adaptive behavioral areas, and they have been so afflicted since childhood. Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome and fragile X are the three most common causes of mental retardation.

Mental retardation is not a disease. Mental retardation is also not a type of mental illness, such as depression. There is no cure for mental retardation. However, most children with mental retardation can learn to do many things. It just takes them more time and effort than other children.

You made this site.

Traditional terms

The three traditional terms denoting varying degrees of mental deficiency long predate psychiatry. They were originally used in English as simple forms of abuse, and this is still the main usage. Their now obsolete use as psychiatric technical definitions is of purely historical interest. There have been some efforts made among mental health professionals to discourage use of these terms.

• Idiot stems from Gr. Idiotos - someone who does not participate in politics. The term now indicates the greatest degree of mental deficiency, where the mental age is 2 years or less, and the person cannot guard himself against common physical dangers. The term is gradually being replaced by the term profound mental retardation.

An 'idiot' is the corresponding term for a person affected by idiocy.

The word idiot comes from the Greek word ιδιωτης, idiôtês, "a private citizen, individual", from ιδιος, idios, "private". In ancient Athens, an idiot was a person who declined to take part in public life, such as democratic city government. Since such activities were honorable and could directly affect all citizens, idiot was a term of derision.

• Imbecility was a type of mental deficiency less extreme than idiocy and not necessarily inherited. It is now usually subdivided into two categories, known as severe mental retardation and moderate mental retardation.

• Moron was defined by the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded in 1910, following work by Henry H. Goddard, as the term for an adult with a mental age between eight and twelve; mild mental retardation is now the more widely-accepted term for this condition. Alternative definitions of these terms based on IQ were also used. For example, the following data based on the Wechsler adult IQ test (WAIS) were used in 1958:

Class	IQ
Conway	1
Idiot	below 20
Imbecile	20-49
Moron	50-69
Borderline deficiency	70-79

Today the following ranges are in standard use:

Class	IQ
Profound mental retardation	below 20
Severe mental retardation	20-34
Moderate mental retardation	35-49
Mild mental retardation	50-69
Borderline deficiency	70-79

In other Westen nations, such as Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain, the term Mental Retardation is now considered Politically incorrect. The term Intellectual Disability is currently favoured.

References

• Wechsler, David The Measurement of Adult Intelligence (1944), Baltimore, The Williams & Wilkins Company.

External links

• Mental Deficiency Theories - from a criminology course, but provides a good overview