Mental Retardation.

« For example, measles, chicken pox, and whooping cough may lead to encephalitis and meningitis, which can damage the brain. Physical trauma to the brain can also cause mental retardation.

Brain damage may result from accidental blows to the head, near drowning, severe child abuse, andchildhood exposure to such toxins as lead and mercury.

Experts believe that poverty and a lack of stimulation during infancy and early childhood can be factors inmental retardation.

Children raised in poor environments are more likely to experience malnutrition, lack of routine medical care, and environmental health hazards. IV PREVENTION Newborn screening programs can prevent some cases of mental retardation by identifying inherited conditions that may lead to retardation.

All states in the UnitedStates require a blood test for congenital hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria (PKU).

Infants with PKU cannot metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine, found in foodsthat contain protein.

Once identified, these infants can be given a low-phenylalanine diet that prevents retardation.

Some states require newborn screening foradditional inherited diseases. Adult screening tests can identify carriers of other conditions before couples conceive a child.

Individuals and couples with a family history of mental retardation canseek genetic counseling to evaluate their own risks and need for screening.

Specialized laboratory tests, including amniocentesis, can detect Down syndrome and othergenetic disorders in the early stages of pregnancy. Proper prenatal care, avoidance of alcohol and drugs during pregnancy, and routine immunization against measles and other childhood diseases can prevent someforms of retardation.

With pregnant women at risk of bearing a baby with a very low birth weight, magnesium sulfate treatments can reduce the risk of mentalretardation in the infant by 70 percent. New ways of preventing mental retardation may emerge as the Human Genome Project identifies more disease-causing genes.

This research may lead to new screeningtests and gene therapies that can remove defective genes that cause mental retardation and replace them with normal genes. V TREATMENT AND CARE Treatment and care of mentally retarded people has changed greatly in modern times.

Until the 1800s, families kept children with retardation at home, hidden frompublic view.

Later, state governments built large institutions to house the retarded, and physicians advised parents to institutionalize retarded children.

Few retardedchildren had the opportunity for education and training.

Experts now recognize that mental retardation is not always a lifelong disorder.

Some individuals diagnosed withmild mental retardation as children may gradually develop new skills through early intervention and educational services.

As adults, they may function in everyday life ata level that no longer warrants a diagnosis of retardation. All but the most profoundly retarded people usually can best develop their full potential by living in the community.

Most people with mental retardation have thecapacity to learn, advance intellectually, develop job and social skills, and become full participants in society.

They may marry, have families, and be indistinguishablefrom other people.

In order to achieve their potential, mentally retarded children need special education and training, which ideally begins in infancy and continues untilthey establish an adult role. A Education Early intervention programs can provide specialized teaching and other services for infants, toddlers, and preschool children.

Such programs try to optimizedevelopment of the individual’s strengths.

Whenever possible, children with mental retardation attend the same school they would attend if they did not have mentalretardation.

But they receive instruction modified for their specific needs.

Federal law in the United States requires that every school district provide services to mentallyretarded children in regular schools.

See Education of Students with Mental Retardation. B Living Arrangements The number of mentally retarded people living in large, state-sponsored institutions has declined since the 1960s and many of these institutions have closed.

Mostmentally retarded people live in one of a variety of community settings: group homes, supervised homes, adult foster care, personal care homes, board-and-carehomes, and other settings. Group homes provide care, supervision, and training for a small number of unrelated individuals.

In supervised apartments or homes, individuals live alone or withroommates.

Trained staff live in a separate unit in the same location.

In adult foster care, a mentally retarded person lives with a family other than his or her ownfamily.

The foster family provides meals, a comfortable home environment, and assistance with daily living skills.

Staff in a personal care home can provide help withdressing, bathing, and other personal needs.

Board-and-care homes provide sleeping rooms and meals.

Some social-service agencies provide assistance for people withretardation to live in the same kind of rented or owned apartments or houses as other people in the community.

Profoundly retarded people may live in nursing homesthat provide daily nursing care. C Employment Opportunities Many people with mental retardation are capable of working in a variety of full- or part-time jobs.

Studies have shown that most employers are satisfied with theperformance, work attendance, and loyalty of people with mental retardation.

Employees with retardation do not have more accidents on the job than other workers,nor do they raise employee health insurance or benefit costs.

Because people with retardation may take longer to master job tasks, supervisors may spend additionaltime with them during the first few days or weeks of employment.

Job coaching programs established in some communities provide a specialist who helps in the initialtraining of a mentally retarded individual.

Employers who hire individuals with mental retardation may be eligible for government tax credits and other incentives.

Peoplewith more severe mental retardation may work in other settings, including special facilities known as sheltered workshops. Despite their ability to work, most people with mental retardation do not have jobs.

Surveys indicate that only about 36 percent of mentally retarded adults have full-time or part-time jobs.

Reasons for this low employment rate may include a lack of training in vocational and social skills, lack of encouragement from others, and ascarcity of community programs that aid people with mental retardation in finding and maintaining employment.

In addition, employers may hesitate to hire people withmental retardation because of uncertainty over how to provide accommodations for their disability. Contributed By:Michael WoodsMicrosoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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