Intellectual disabilities: what it is, features, and treatment

Intellectual disability is a delay in cognitive development than some of the kids, it can be understood due to the difficulty of learning, with little interaction with others, and an inability to carry out simple activities that are appropriate for their age.

Intellectual disability, also referred to as DI, is a disorder of the development is that it occurs in about 2% to 3% of children and can be due to a variety of situations, from complications during pregnancy or birth, even genetic defects, such as Down Syndrome and fragile X, for example).

This disorder may be perceived by their parents or a teacher at the school, however, the treatment should be done by a multidisciplinary team with the aim of stimulating all of their cognitive functions, facilitating the learning process and the relationship with other people. Therefore, it is important that your child has a follow-up to the direct and constant as a pediatrician, speech therapist, teacher, and therapist, for example).

Key features

The main characteristics of intellectual disability are:

• The difficulty of learning and understanding.
• The difficulty of adapting to any environment;
• The lack of interest in the day-to-day basis;
• The isolation of the family, the peers, or the teacher, for example.
• The difficulty of co-ordination, and concentration.

In addition to this, it is possible for a child to have a change in appetite, excessive fear, and will not be able to carry out the activities before they could.

It is possible to identify an intellectual disability by looking at the behavior of the children in the day-to-day life. It usually does not present the same behavior as that of other children of the same age, and always have an adult or an older child or adult is on hand to assist in the performance of an action, for example.

Possible causes

The most common cause of intellectual disability, are all genetic disorders such as Down’s syndrome, fragile X, the Prader-Willi, Angelman, and Williams, for example. Any of these conditions occur due to a mutation in the DNA, which can result from, among other conditions, on an intellectual disability. Other possible causes of intellectual disability are:

• Complications of pre-natal care , and that they are the ones that take place during pregnancy and as a result the formation of the fetus, diabetes, pregnancy, drug use, tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, and infections, such as syphilis, rubella, and toxoplasmosis;
• Perinatal complications , which occur in the onset of labor through the first month of the life of the baby, such as a decrease in the supply of oxygen to the brain, and malnutrition, prematurity, low birth weight, and severe jaundice in the newborn;
• Malnutrition and severe dehydration , which can happen even to the end of the teenage years, and lead to intellectual disability;
• Poisoning or intoxication with drugs or heavy metals;
• Infection during infancy and early childhood, which may lead to impairment in brain, thus decreasing the brain, such as meningitis, for example.
• The situations they decrease the supply of oxygen to the brain , which can result in intellectual disability.

In addition to these causes, it’s an intellectual disability might happen in the inborn errors of metabolism are genetic disorders that may occur in the metabolism of the child and lead to the development of a number of diseases, such as congenital hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria.

How is it treated

The case is made of a diagnosis of an intellectual disability, it is important for the cognitive and intellectual impairment of the child to be excited about it often, and it is important to follow-up by a multidisciplinary team.

In high school, for example, it is important for teachers to understand the need of the difficulty of a student and develop a plan of study specific to your child. In addition to this, it is important to keep it integrated, and encourage them to touch and interact with others, which may be accomplished by means of a board game, jigsaw puzzle and mime, for instance. In this activity, as well as to promote the social interaction, it allows the child to become more concentrated, which makes you learn a little bit faster.

It is also important for the teacher to observe the progress of the child, and returning to the business or activities of the easiest, if necessary. During the stimulation process of learning, it is interesting that the teacher is to identify the way in which the child assimilates the best of the content or information, whether through the use of stimuli, visual or hearing impairments, for example, so that it is possible to draw up a plan of education that is based on the best-response of the child.

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