MENTAL RETARDATION

What is MENTAL RETARDATION?

• Significantly subaverage intellectual functioning resulting in, impairment in adaptive behavior manifested before the age of 18.
• IQ less than 70
• Not a mental illness

What is the MAIN PROBLEM?

• Inadequate mental functioning

What is the AGE OF ONSET?

• 18 years OLD

What are the causes?

• Maternal infection
• Exact gestational age is not reached (premature)
• Nutritional deficiency
• Toxoplasmosis
• Anoxia
• Lead poisoning
• Recent infection - measles
• Environmental factors
• Thyroid deficiency
• Alcoholic mother
• RH incompatibility
• Damage to brain from various cause
• AIDS
• Toxemia
• Inherited factors
• Opiate intoxication
• Neurological/neuro developmental impairment

What are the LEVELS OF MENTAL RETARDATION?
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What are the PRINCIPLES OF NURSING CARE?

• Repetition
• Role modelling
• Restructuring the environment

What is the FOCUS OF EDUCATION?

• Reading, writing, basic arithmetic