IPHREHAB
MENTAL RETARDATION AND MANAGEMENT TEAM
Management Team
• Management of a case of mental retardation is undertaken by a team consisting of psychiatrist or physical medicine expert, psychologist and a special educationalist.
• The other members of team included are speech therapist, physicooccupational therapist, social worker and a vocational counsellor.
After a thorough assessment, the case is referred to either special school whenever possible, home based training or vocational training.
• In overall management, there is very significant role of counsellor to help the parents in understanding and accepting the child's problem.
• This requires a life long adjustment. In order to assist the parents in dealing effectively with the situation, counselling for behaviour modification is essential, as a part of the whole rehabilitation management plan.
• The focus of counselling depends upon the individual needs and requirement of the mentally retarded and his family.
• The parent counselling is done as given below;
(1) To provide information regarding the condition of the mentally retarded child. The counsellor should explain child's condition in simple words to the parents and give enough trial.
Further information regarding management of his associated medical problem and other disabilities must be made available to the parents. The false hopes should be avoided.
(2) Development of correct attitudes towards their handicapped child. Usually parents have wrong beliefs, ideas and thoughts regarding causes and treatment of their disabled child. They blame each other for being responsible for the birth of such child due to lack of awareness. Parents tend to believe that the child would become normal in due course of time. Hence counsellor should give correct information on the nature, causes and treatment of mentally retarded child.
Educational and Treatment Settings
• Only about 8 percent of mentally retarded students attend regular schools. The majority of mentally retarded students attend schools for children with special needs; a minority are home schooled.
There are real advantages to be had by mainstreaming mentally retarded children into regular schools where they can interact with non-disabled peers
• Some mildly mentally retarded children can attend a regular school with learning support. While attending regular classes most of the day, they may also attend a learning support classroom.
• Special education and learning support classrooms are designed to help children learn both academic and independent living skills.
• Special education is closely tied to social training and vocational training in that special education classes are designed to encourage self-determination.
• Traditional learning environments are not always beneficial for students who have more severe forms of mental retardation.
• In order to ensure that students who have more severe forms of mental retardation are properly accommodated, they may be placed in a special school.
• Such alternative schools are staffed by special education and learning support professionals.
Useful Methods for Teaching Mentally Retarded Students
• Mentally retarded individuals do better in environments where visual aides such as charts, pictures, and graphs are used as much as possible. Such visual components are useful for helping students to understand what is expected of them.
• The typical academic curriculum also incorporates social skills training and practical learning. Social skills help students navigate through social situations, maintain meaningful relationships, and thrive in the work environment.
• Individuals with mental retardation benefit from the same teaching strategies used to teach individuals with learning disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism.
• It is helpful to break tasks down into small steps and introduce the task one step at a time to avoid overwhelming the individual.
• Once the student has mastered one step, the next is introduced.
• Mentally retarded individuals do better in environments where visual aides such as charts, pictures, and graphs are used as much as possible. Such visual components are useful for helping students to understand what is expected of them.
• Individuals with mental retardation require immediate feedback in order to make a connection between their answers, behaviors, or questions and the teacher's responses.
• A delay in providing feedback may interrupt the connection between cause and effect in the student's mind, and the point will be lost.
• Most people are kinesthetic learners who learn by doing, by completing a hands-on tasks and appreciating the results.
• This is especially true for mentally retarded students who cannot comprehend abstract lectures very easily at all.
For example, a teacher who wants to teach the concept of gravity has several options: She can tell students that things are pulled towards the earth by a force known as gravity; she can show students how gravity works by dropping something; or she can instruct the students to drop something while teaching the concept.
