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This article throws light upon the four levels of mental retardation in humans. The levels are: 1. Mild Mental Retardation 2. Moderate Retardation 3. Severe Retardation 4. Profound Mental Retardation.
Level # 1. Mild Mental Retardation:
About 90 per cent of the mentally retarded persons are found to belong to this category. They have I.Qs of 55 to 69. They have the mental age of 8— 10 year old child. However, only one per cent of this category of mentally retarded requires institutional care. The rest of this group are able to complete their minimum education in special classes and they can somehow manage unskilled jobs.
They require little supervision. So this group is considered as educable. They are capable of showing the social behaviour of adolescents. Though intellectually inferior, they have no actual brain damage, neurological disorder or organic defect whatsoever. With special training and proper care they can be taught be self supporting and to earn their livelihood independently.
Level # 2. Moderate Retardation:
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Otherwise known as trainable retarded, moderately retarded people have the I.Q. range of 40 to 54 on the Wechsler scales. They have the mental age of a 5.7 to 8.2 year old child. About 6 per cent of the mentally retarded belong to this category.
As against the mild retarders, some kind of brain damage or physical or neurological disorder is found in most of the moderately retarders. They appear to be clumsy and untidy both physically and mentally and suffer from motor in coordination.
Though they somehow manage to speak, their speed of learning is quite slow. Though some of them may require institutionalization, they can manage to live safely under the protection of their family members.
They are in-fact, trainable and are capable of learning simple routine jobs and moderately simple skills. Given proper training, treatment and sympathy, they can manage to earn their own livelihood and live independently in the society.
Level # 3. Severe Retardation:
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Severe retarded people have the I.Q. ranging from 25 to 39. They represent more than three per cent of the retarded individuals. The majority of them are permanently institutionalized and require constant care and attention.
Even they face problems while learning simple tasks. Since they are incapable of doing anything independently, they require complete care and attention. Severe mental retardation is more often than not associated with some sort of organic pathology like some genetic disorder or severe brain damage due to accident, brain hazards and etc.
Level # 4. Profound Mental Retardation:
This category has I.Q. less than 25 i.e., mental age of a 3 year old child. It represents 1% of the mentally retarded people. They are completely incapable of looking after themselves. Thus, they require complete hospitalization, immense attention and personal care. They even cannot attend to their basic physical needs. They fail to learn even the simplest skills.
In profound retardation majority deformities of the brain, head and body are often observed. Thus, there is gross physical disorder and lack of proper resistance as a result of which in many cases a great percentage of profoundly retarded people die at a very early age. In other words, their life span is very short.
The above classification of mental retardation has been made oil the basis of I.Q. scores only. But since the AAMD definition of mental retardation also includes adaptive behaviour, as a significant criterion for diagnosis, a person with an I.Q. of 60 if scores very high on an adaptive behaviour scale, he may not be considered so much mentally retarded as the I.Q. (60) alone would suggest.
In addition to the above categories DSM III-R has presented unspecified mental retardation as a sub type reserved for those persons having an anticipated I.Q level below 70 who are strongly suspected to have mental retardation but cannot be tested by standard intelligence tests or are too non-cooperative or highly impaired to be tested.