Definition of Mentally Challenged

Millions of people in the United States are considered to be mentally challenged. This terminology combines many different illnesses and disorders associated with people's mental states into one group. Many who are mentally challenged face physical and mental problems that prohibit them from having a normal life. Over time, attitudes toward the mentally challenged have increasingly become more compassionate and understanding, and improved diagnosis, treatment and care of people in this group has given them greater opportunity to function as regular members of society.

The Facts

• To be mentally challenged, or to have a developmental disability, is to be confronted with a cognitive, emotional or physical impairment, especially one related to abnormal sensory or motor development. The difficulty appears in infancy or childhood and involves a failure or delay in progressing through the normal developmental stages of childhood. There are over six million people in the United States who are mentally retarded to some extent, with two million confined into institutions. The leading form of mental disability is Down syndrome, which makes up about 20 to 30 percent of all cases. The most common way to diagnose the severity of a person's intellectual incapacity is by administering an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test. The examination tests children to see if they have a higher or lower intellect level than what is considered standard mental capacity. A young person who scores below a 70 on the test is considered to have a mental deficiency problem. Most mental conditions are nonprogressive, meaning that these conditions will not deteriorate any more over time.

History

• Throughout history, people who were labeled as being mentally challenged have been treated differently, and sometimes horribly. In ancient Greece, babies were killed in Sparta if they were suspected of being mentally challenged. In the second century AD, mentally challenged children were sold for entertainment and amusement purposes in Rome. In the Middle Ages, the mentally challenged were sold into slavery, abandoned, or left out in the cold. In 1690, John Locke's landmark publication entitled An Essay Concerning Human Understanding defined the difference between mental retardation and mental illness. Strides were made in the 19th and 20th centuries as people understood the functions of a mentally challenged person and built schools and taught curriculums tailored to their abilities; tests were conducted to identify the level of a person's intellect. Lawmakers passed the Education for the Handicapped Act in 1975 and the American with Disabilities Act in 1990 which furthered the commitment to give individuals who are mentally challenged a chance at a normal life by providing rights to an education and fair employment opportunities.

Function

• People who are mentally challenged have weaknesses that affect them in all functional areas. They have trouble in the cognitive area such as thinking, problem-solving, concept understanding, information processing and overall intelligence. They have physical problems with their motor skills such as walking and speaking correctly. They may have physical deformities in the face and in other areas of the body. People who have Down syndrome have abnormal hearing tunnels that lead to more ear infections. Some may lose hearing for weeks at a time even though it has been treated. Emotional problems persist as some children get extremely hyper, irritated and become uncontrollable at times.

Causes

• A person who has a mental condition can trace the root of the problem back to their conception. Hereditary traits and abnormal chromosomal gene pairing are among the causes. Inappropriate behavior by their parents, such as smoking and alcohol and drug abuse that can affect a child's development and mental state, are another factor. Starvation, food deprivation and lack of clean water very early in life could play a part as well. Other causes of a mental disability can be traced to problems during labor and at their birth(s), such as oxygen shortage during delivery. A child that is exposed in the womb to diseases such as measles or meningitis, or to harmful properties like mercury or lead, can be developmentally challenged as well.

Misconceptions

• Although the words idiot, imbecile, feeble-minded and moron may sound offensive, these terms were adapted to classify mental states and not to make fun of people who show signs of having difficulty or being incompetent. In 1910, the American Association on Mental Deficiency used the word feeble-minded to describe a person whose development halted at an early age, causing them to have trouble keeping up intellectually with their peers. Terms were adopted for three levels to determine the extent to which this halted development rendered a given individual. Idiot referred to a person's mental development being cut short at the capacity of a 2-year-old; imbecile equated to the development of a 2- to 7-year-old; and moron that of a 7- to 12-year-old at maturity.