Characteristics of mentally retarded children
Learning:
Because of their limited ability, their learning persistence is short and their memory is poor; Low application ability; The motivation of learning is not spontaneous; Lack of abstract thinking, weak understanding and comprehension ability; Lack of learning transfer ability, unable to use the knowledge and skills flexibly. Nevertheless, as long as they are given opportunities, most people with mental retardation can learn daily life and vocational skills.
Emotionally: They are usually simple-minded and straightforward. As long as someone is willing to talk to them and care about them, they will be very happy. Communication:
Their expressive ability, especially verbal expressive ability, is very poor, and they often can't express what they want to say. Poor abstraction and adaptability, and may not be able to handle problems independently.
Behavior: Some mentally retarded people may have problems in their behavior (for example, losing their temper to attract others' attention), which is usually related to the methods of discipline and the attitudes and expectations of society towards them. People with low intelligence are often competent for tasks that people with normal intelligence may find boring, such as simple and repetitive operations by hand.
Learning characteristics of mentally retarded children
The cognition and thinking mode of external things are the factors that affect behavior.
1, lack of integration ability
You can't completely integrate a thing, so you know that everything is a part, and each part is independent.
2. Poor short-term memory
Short-term memory is the ability to remember things immediately after knowing them, and it will be transformed into long-term memory after strengthening. The reason of poor short-term memory is that the speed of brain information processing is too slow.
3. Post-cognitive and abstract thinking disorder:
Post-cognition is to recall, supervise, review and improve after doing something. Children with mental retardation lack this ability because of their poor short-term memory, and they will immediately forget what they have just done. So there is no way to review and improve your behavior afterwards. Children with mental retardation have poor abstract thinking ability. In fact, moderate and severe children don't even have abstract thinking, because abstract thinking requires the development of brain nerves to a fairly high degree.
4. Sequential processing is superior to parallel processing:
Sequential processing is to deal with things step by step in chronological order, while parallel processing is to deal with many things at the same time in a period of time. When teaching children, we should use sequential explanations as much as possible, so that they can finish things step by step.
5, lack of recognition ability:
Children's ability to distinguish the same event in different environments and scenes is insufficient. It is that children often can't tell when they can do it and when they can't.
6. Attention deficit:
We often think that people with mental retardation are too distracted. In fact, this is from the standpoint of our teachers and parents. As far as children are concerned, he is very focused and focuses on his own interests.
Potential of mentally retarded people
The potential of mentally retarded people is the same as that of ordinary people. People with mental retardation have a lot of potential, and with proper training, their potential can be brought into play.
Self-care: most people with mild to moderate mental retardation can take care of themselves in daily life; People with severe mental retardation can also master some daily life skills through repeated learning, such as grooming, going to the toilet and cooking. Do not rely on others.
Interest: People with mental retardation can develop a wide range of interests, including music, dance, sports and art. In the process of interest development, they can enjoy the fun brought by various activities, and they can also give full play to their talents and enrich their personal lives.
Work: People with mild to moderate mental retardation can acquire skills and make contributions to society through proper training. The following are some jobs that people with mental retardation can do: fast food restaurant/restaurant waiter, courier/messenger, supermarket warehouse service, office cleaning, car cleaning, boutique/stationery store sales, factory/sheltered workshop processing and packaging. In fact, as long as they are given opportunities, people with intellectual disabilities can live independently and become a burden to their families/society.