Prevention and Treatment of Mental Retardation

Prevention of mental retardation depends on understanding the various causes. The field of medical genetics has not been able to prevent a more severe genetic cause of mental retardation, but the amazing advances in genetics may change this situation in the not too long. If the cause of retardation is not known, then the prevention is not possible. However, treatment to enhance the ability of the person to live independently can be an option.

When poor neighborhoods become a source of mild retardation, enrichment programs, such as Head Start, to prevent exacerbation experienced weakness and sometimes can overcome the weaknesses that have occurred.


a. Residential Treatment. Since the 1960s, most people who have retardation can master the competencies required to function effectively in society. The prevailing trend is to provide educational services and community services for individuals and not care very nature such supervision in the homes of major mental illness. Since 1975, individuals who are mentally retarded are entitled to receive appropriate treatment in an environment with very minimal restrictions. Children who are mentally retarded to live at home or in nursing homes are equipped with educational and psychological services. Only people who have mental retardation and severe and very severe physical disabilities who tend to stay in various mental institutions (Cunningham & Mueller, 1991).

b. Based Behavioral Intervention operant conditioning. The program was developed to increase the level of functioning of individuals with severe retardation. Some of the pioneer project has intervened in children with Down syndrome during the infant and early childhood as a effort to improve their function. Such programs generally include systematic instruction in the home and social development-related treatment centers. Defined specific behavioral goals, and in the operant mode, children are taught various skills step by step and in sequence (a, l., Clunies-Ross, 1979; Reid, Wilson, & Faw, 1991).

Children with severe mental retardation usually require intensive instruction to be able to eat, use the toilet, and dress himself. The principles of operant conditioning is then applied to teach various components of the feeding activity to the child. For example, the child can be given a booster to constantly try to take a spoon until she was able to do so. Operant approach is sometimes called applied behavior analysis, is also used to reduce inappropriate behavior and self-injuring behavior. Abnormal movements and actions of self harm is often times can be reduced by giving the amplifier on alternate responses.

c. Cognitive Intervention. Many children who are mentally retarded are not able to use various strategies to solve problems, and if they have a strategy, they often do not apply it effectively. Self Instructional Training to teach the children to guide their problem solving efforts through the spoken words. Meichenbaum and Goodman (1971) details the five-step procedure:

1. Teachers perform related tasks, say the instructions aloud to himself while the children watched and listened.
2. Children listen to and perform these tasks while the teacher would like the instructions to the child.
3. The boy repeated the task while instructing himself say aloud.
4. The boy repeated the task while whispering instructions to herself.
5. Children are ready to perform the task while giving instructions silently to yourself.

Children who experience severe mental retardation using a variety of signs instead of speaking to guide him perform related tasks. Self-instructional exercises have been used to teach self-control and how to focus and how to master a variety of academic tasks to children who suffered retardation. Children with severe retardation can effectively master the skills of taking care of myself through this technique.

c. Instruction with Computer Assistance. Computer assisted instruction are increasingly being used around the location of all types of education. These instructions are very suitable to be applied in education for individuals who are mentally retarded. Visual and auditory components in a computer to maintain concentration for students who are unable to concentrate, the level of the material can be tailored to the individual that ensures the success of learning, and computers to meet the need for much repetition of material without becoming bored or impatient like that can happen to the teacher. Computer assisted instruction program has proven better than traditional methods to teach how to spell, use the money, arithmetic, reading text, word recognition, writing, and visual discrimination to persons who are mentally retarded (Corners, Caruso, & Detterman, 1986).