Mental retardation is as an important
research area of clinical psychology. Rehabilitation
of mentally retarded individuals is one
of the major goals of the therapeutic aspect
of clinical psychology. Therefore, research
in this area is theoretically and practically
very much useful and relevant.
Traditionally mental retardation is an
incomplete mental development.
What is mental Retardation ?
According to the new definition by the American
Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR),
an individual is considered to have mental
retardation based on the following three
criteria:
Intellectual functioning level (IQ) is
below 70-75; significant limitations exist
in two or more adaptive skill areas; and
the condition is present from childhood.
(defined as age 18 or less). ( AAMR, 1992).
" Mental retardation refers to sub-average
general intellectual functioning which originates
during the developmental period and is associated
with impairment in adaptive behaviour "
(Rick Rober, 1961).
Mentally retarded persons cannot adapt
themselves adequately to their environment.
To summarize mental retardation is an impaired
mental ability. The legal definition is
easy: " Everybody with an I.Q. lower
than 70 or (in the main 75) on the Binet
Scale is mentally retarded.
Down syndrome is the most common genetic
(chromosomal) cause of mental retardation,
caused in almost all cases by a third Chromosome
21. In addition to particular genetic and
physical features, most children with Down
syndrome display specific problems in linguistic
grammar, expressive language, and articulation.
For example, most children with Down syndrome
do not progress grammatically beyond the
3-year level, and their grammatical abilities
almost invariably fall below their overall
mental age levels (Fowler, 1990). Similarly,
skills in expressive language, as opposed
to those in receptive language, are much
more delayed. Indeed, by the time children's
mental ages reach 24 months, significant
delays (6+ months) in expressive language
abilities are evident in 83% to 100% of
children with Down syndrome (Miller, 1999).
Regarding articulation, 95% of parents report
that others show at least occasional difficulties
understanding the speech of their child
with Down syndrome (Kumin, 1994).
For the rehabilitation of mentally retarded
persons and for their own self sufficiency
and independence, it is very much necessary
to train them through various types of tasks
and materials. In short, psychology can
contribute a lot for the rehabilitation
of the mentally retarded.
In the present research, an attempt is made
to measure the relative effectiveness of
cognitive tasks in producing the behavioural
change in mentally retarded individuals.
The mentally retarded individuals here are
Down syndrome boys and girls with high mental
levels and low mental levels.
Over the past decade, a quiet transformation
has taken place in behavioral research on
persons with mental retardation. In earlier
years, researchers compared persons with
mild, moderate, severe, and profound levels
of mental retardation. Recently, however,
increasing numbers of studies have divided
research groups by participants' etiology
or cause of mental retardation. Comparing
the 1980s to the 1990s, the numbers of behavioral
studies increased from 10 to 81 for Williams
syndrome, from 24 to 86 for Prader-Willi
syndrome, and from 60 to 149 for Fragile
X syndrome. Even for Down syndrome, the
sole disorder with a long-standing tradition
of behavioral research, the number of behavioral
studies almost doubled, rising from 607
articles during the 1980s to 1,140 articles
during the 1990s (Dykens & Hodapp, 2001).
In this research study, observational method
was used. It was a pre-planned structured
observation. This is the primary technique
of collecting data.
Observation was taken in a natural environment
of the mentally retarded institute. The
subjects with High mental level HML and
Low mental level LML were taught through
two types of task.
(1). Cognitive task
(2). Motor task
Training was done in a semicircle of subjects,
then their retention as a measure of behavioural
change, was measured.
Sample:
For each type of task, 30 (male subjects)
and 30 (female subjects) were selected purposively
from the mentally retarded institution,
situated in Tehran city. The subjects with
HML and LML are distributed equally for
both the types of task for training purposes.
Thus each group consisted of 15 HML individuals
and 15 LML individuals.
Collection of Data:
The present research study was conducted
in two parts: Firstly, for 6 days various
motor tasks and cognitive tasks were taught
to the mentally retarded Down syndrome subjects
through verbal instructions and secondly,
the retention as a measure of behavioural
change was measured on the 7th day, after
giving 24 hours rest period for the consolidation
of the learnt association.
Design:
The design of the present research study
is a separate group design with 2* 2 factorial
design as described in Table No: 1.
| Types of Task |
High mental |
Low mental |
| |
Level B1 |
Level B2 |
| Cognitive Task A1 |
15 |
15 |
| Motor - task A2 |
15 |
15 |
Variables:
Independent variables:
1). Types of task.
a). Cognitive - task.
b). Motor - task.
2). Mental level.
a). High mental level (HML).
b). Low mental level (LML).
Dependent variables:
(1). Behavioural change measured as the
retention score of test - score.
Controlled variables:
(1). 6 days training was given for proper
exposure.
(2). Rest period of 24 hours was given for
the consolidation of the learnt association.
(3). Tasks were selected and modified according
to the Persian speaking population.
(4). The number of subjects were equal in
each cell.
Tools:
The tools used in this study consist of
various cognitive tasks and motor tasks.
Each task is defined through five units
and until wise one score is given. Thus
each task would have a maximum score of
five and minimum of zero.
In this way, various types of task were
taught to the mentally retarded individuals
and after that the retention score for each
subject was calculated. The various types
of task selected according to the mental
level (ML) of M.R are as follows:
| Cognitive -
task. |
Motor - task. |
| 1). Name body
parts |
1). Combing
hair. |
| 2).
Money concept |
2). Washes hand and face. |
| 3).
Geometrical drawings. |
3).
Threads a Needle |
| Cognitive -
task. |
Motor - task. |
| 1). Self concept. |
1). Brushing
teeth. |
| 2).
Colour concept. |
2). Use fingers to animals. |
| 3).
Name 5 common pick up objects. |
3). Jumping & running. |
Theoretical Framework.
Pratap L.(1977) stated that in the education
of the mentally retarded children, there
are three distinct and important phases
which need to do clearly understood: They
are home-training, schooling and rehabilitation.
The school is the must to bridge the gap
between the home and community. The school
therefore, is expected to offer a type of
education, which prepares the mentally retarded
children to move into society. Special education
has to be different from normal school education.
Teaching the mentally retarded children
is a highly challenging task, where some
concrete and substantial results are expected
to be seen in those taught.
Recently it has been indicated that mentally
retarded individuals are passive; they cannot
act properly or correctly, (Ferretti &
Cavalier, 1991). Despite this inability,
training can help them to learn how to use
appropriate strategies, (Arthur. J. Baroody.
1996).
But methods of training have an important
bearing in this matter.
maximum cognitive development levels of
mild mentally retarded children are concrete
and to operational level.
So it is evident that using concrete methods
on one hand and multi-sensory
methods for overcoming their attention deficit
on the other hand, can be very useful.
The researcher also believes that high-level
functions without automisation of low-level
functions have limitations and have some
deficit in automatic processing. The subjects
will have problems in performing high level
skills, (Edward C. Merill, 19969). But investigations,
believe that function can be automised by
extensive stimulus and that in which each
stimulus has its own response. (Negative
or positive).
So automization of processing various tasks
can lead to high level of functions in these
children. This research, with regard to
Piaget's opinion on one hand and the recent
approaches to mentally retarded learning
characteristics on the other, will consider
the effectiveness of two methods in learning
tasks.
The researcher plans to understand the
change in behavioural patterns in the case
of the mentally retarded after a certain
period of actuate training.
This way the study is targeted to evaluate
the method of training the mentally retarded
through two types of task.
(1). Cognitive tasks &
(2). Motor tasks.
Skill training is one of the major areas
of training mentally retarded individuals.
