Abnormal child: causes of anomalies, symptoms and signs, developmental features

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Domestic and world experience shows that the number of young patients with various developmental disabilities is steadily increasing. Society as a whole and individual families are destabilizing, in some cases there are no normal economic, hygienic and environmental conditions for mothers and children of different ages. Adverse factors lead to various developmental abnormalities and diseases.

The concept of "abnormal child"

Abnormal children are children whose mental deviations lead to disruption of normal development. Deviations can be physical or mental. A defect disrupts development only under certain conditions. Despite the fact that the upbringing, training, introduction to professional activities and normal social life of abnormal children is a difficult pedagogical task, development is really seriously disturbed by no means in all cases.

The concept implies the presence of deviations in development, caused, as a rule, by the influence of the disease and necessitating the creation of special conditions for training and education. In the process, some defects can be completely corrected, while others are subject to only partial rehabilitation. There are general patterns in the development of abnormal children that are characteristic of all children, as well as a number of special patterns.

The anomalous group consists of complex and diverse patients. Anomalies affect social development, cognitive abilities and learning opportunities in different ways. The complexity and nature of violations are determined by specialists during psychological and pedagogical work.

It is important to consider that not every child with a defect is abnormal. This group includes only those children whose he alth disorders lead to a number of deviations. This is an important difference from a defect in an adult and a child.

This means that, for example, a child who has lost hearing in one ear or lost one eye most often does not have developmental disabilities, and therefore is not abnormal. Patients in whom the normal developmental process is disrupted due to a defect can be classified as abnormal. That is, we are not talking about a separate defect, but about the general mental development of abnormal children.

Primary and secondary defects

The difficulty of raising abnormal children lies in the presence of an initial defect caused by some factor, andadditional (secondary) violations. Secondary disorders arise under the influence of a primary defect in the process of further development. This is a general pattern in the development of abnormal children.

Thus, intellectual deficiency, which has arisen as a result of organic damage to the brain, usually causes a violation of higher processes that determine development and interaction in society. Secondary underdevelopment is manifested in the primitivism of the simplest psychological reactions, negativism, high self-esteem, insufficient formation of volitional qualities.

Not only primary abnormalities affect secondary symptoms. In certain cases, secondary deviations affect the primary factor. For example, with the interaction of defective hearing and the negative speech consequences that arose against this background, the following situation is possible. The child does not use the residual functions of hearing if he does not develop speech. Only under the condition of overcoming the secondary defect (that is, complex correction and the development of oral speech), the possibilities of the remaining hearing are optimally used.

An important regularity of the abnormal development of children is the following ratio of the initial defect and violations that have arisen in the future: the further the symptom is from the root cause, the more it can be corrected. It turns out that the underdevelopment of higher mental functions is more susceptible to influence than the underdevelopment of elementary processes.

Causes leading to anomalies

At the heart of the anomalousdevelopment lie organic or functional disorders of the nervous system, peripheral disorders of a particular analyzer. Causes are divided into congenital and acquired. Primary defects are visual or auditory perception disorders resulting from damage to the child's visual or hearing apparatus, respectively, violations of the simplest intellectual operations as a result of damage to the central nervous system, and so on.

Violations can be caused by various factors. Adverse effects are possible during fetal development (prenatal disorders), labor (natal), after birth (postnatal). The combination of intrauterine pathology and birth defects is called perinatal injury.

Deviations can be caused by various factors affecting the prenatal period: aggravated heredity, deviations of the genetic code, chronic diseases of the parents or acute conditions of the mother during pregnancy, parental drug abuse, alcohol and smoking, physical trauma and mental disorders in women during pregnancy, Rh factor conflict, unfavorable environmental conditions, occupational harm.

Hereditary burden is manifested through the structure of the germ cells of the parents. Chromosomes transmit information about the signs of developmental anomalies, which leads to mental retardation, speech, hearing, vision, musculoskeletal disorders in a child, and so on. According to medical statistics, per thousandnewborns account for five to seven children with chromosomal abnormalities.

Another group of causes are pathologies of labor activity: rapid labor, weak labor activity, prolonged labor with stimulation, entanglement of the child with the umbilical cord in the event of asphyxia, untimely delivery, natural trauma. Vital factors of violation: infectious diseases with complications in the brain, skull trauma, concussion, concussion, tumors, neuroinfections, and so on. In some cases, the influence of several pathological factors is noted - polyetiology.

Categories of children with anomalies

Defectology classifies the abnormal development of a child:

1. Children with severe speech impairments.
2. Children with severe hearing impairments (hard of hearing, late deaf, deaf).
3. Children with CNS-based developmental disorders (mentally retarded).
4. Children with profound visual impairments (visually impaired, blind).
5. Children with complex developmental disorders (deaf-blind, blind mentally retarded).
6. Children with musculoskeletal disorders.
7. Children with psychopathic behavior.

Some researchers identify other groups of anomalies: children with sensory disability (this includes dysfunctions of the musculoskeletal system, vision, speech, hearing, sensorimotor), with an asthenic or reactive state and conflict experiences, with psychopathic behaviors, mentally retarded, mentally retarded (Ibecils,idiots, oligophrenics in the degree of debility), children with initial manifestations of mental illness (epilepsy, hysteria, schizophrenia) or developmental distortions.

Early hearing loss

Secondary disturbance is the result of abnormal development. For example, a child may lose hearing at an early age due to meningitis. With inflammation of the meninges, the cranial nerves are usually involved in the process. If the inflammation affects the auditory nerve, the child's hearing is impaired. In difficult cases, hearing loss may be observed. Deafness disrupts the normal developmental process of a small patient.

Auditory analyzer is extremely important in the development of speech. This is the closest function that depends on the auditory analyzer. With early deafness does not develop speech. Silence in this case is a secondary defect that arose as a result of impaired development. Mastering speech is possible only with special training. Pronunciation is often insufficient, vocabulary is accumulated slowly, lexical meanings are acquired inaccurately.

Defeat of the visual analyzer

Early visual impairment also leads to a number of developmental abnormalities. A blind child has other (other than normal) ideas about the world, ways and forms of psychological activity. The most famous secondary manifestation of abnormal development is the lack of orientation in space. Even more characteristic is the presencelimited range of subject representations.

A secondary manifestation in children who lost their sight early is a change in motor skills, and especially in gait. This is due to the need for orientation in space with the help of kinesthetic sensitivity and touch. For the blind, weak expressiveness of facial expressions is also characteristic. All this is a developmental pattern for abnormal children.

Intellectual defects

The greatest number of secondary defects develops with mental retardation caused by organic damage to the brain. This category of abnormal children is characterized by underdevelopment of memory and thinking that occurs as they grow and with attempts to socially interact with peers.

Oligophrenia or general mental underdevelopment is most common among the various types of backwardness. Oligophrenia is a group of various pathological conditions, the common feature of which is an acquired in early childhood or congenital defect in the development of the psyche with intellectual insufficiency. With such anomalies, not only the intellect is disturbed, but also the emotional-volitional sphere, the process of character formation.

Deep mental retardation

Abnormal development of a child with mental retardation experts divide into three degrees according to the depth of the defect. The deepest is idiocy. At the same time, there is practically no speech, the patient does not recognize others, the face does not express any emotions, and attention is almost impossible to attract. There is a decreasesensitivity.

Imbicility is easier on the depth of backwardness than idiocy. Such children have some opportunities for learning, with considerable difficulty and subject to special training, but they master speech, acquire certain work skills and self-service skills, the speech reserve is very poor.

The easiest degree of backwardness is debility. Reduced intelligence, combined with mental retardation in general, does not allow children with debility to master the general education program of an ordinary school. Speech defects such as agrammatism, lisp, sigmatism are often observed.

Developmental disorders in children

Separately allocate delayed mental development. Developmental delay implies the presence of syndromes of temporary lag of the psyche in general or its individual parts, a slow rate of realization of the properties of the body encoded in the genotype. In an abnormal child, the delay may be constitutional, somatogenic, psychogenic or cerebro-organic in origin.

Distorted mental development is mostly represented by the syndrome of childhood autism, which differs from all other anomalies in the greatest severity of both the psychological structure of disorders and clinical disharmony. Autism is manifested in immersion in the inner world, the absence or significant reduction in contacts with relatives and peers.

The disharmonious development of abnormal children has the following patterns: impaired development, which is characterized by disharmony in the volitional and emotional spheres, anomalies of character. Mainsigns of psychopathy are uncontrollability of the personality, a pathological change in character, aggressiveness, conflict, unmotivated cruelty, refusal of help and treatment. During a period of vivid manifestations, this can be dangerous both for the child himself and for those around him.

Classifications of psychopathies

The following systematics of psychopathy is currently considered generally accepted: epileptoid, hysteroid, schizoid, psychasthenic, cycloid psychopathy. A child with schizoid psychopathy is similar to an autist, the emotional sphere is characterized by a lack of harmony between sensitivity and vulnerability in relation to one's own inner world, coldness and indifference in relation to the experiences of others.

With cycloid psychopathy, has a tendency to mood swings. At an early age, such a deviation is rarely diagnosed. Epileptic psychopathy shares many features with epilepsy, but is distinguished by the absence of seizures and dementia. We are talking about persistent features in the form of tension of drives and emotions, unmotivated mood swings.

Psychasthenic psychopathy is characterized by the presence of fears and anxious fears in an abnormal child that arise for any reason. Other symptoms: fear of everything new, unfamiliar, extreme indecision, difficult adaptation. Hysteroid psychopathy is characterized by egocentrism, that is, the child's desire to attract attention and always be at the center of events.

Psychopathies are usually associated with defeatnervous system at an early age or during fetal development. Unfavorable external factors influence: alcoholism or drug addiction of parents, long-term conflict situations, aggressiveness and violence in the family, quarrels. The impact of psychotraumatic factors can lead to an irreversible restructuring of the personality as a whole.

Education and upbringing

The end result of the development of the cognitive activity of an abnormal child is affected by the nature of the violation of mental and physical development. Educational level can vary dramatically. Some children acquire only basic knowledge and self-care skills, while others have great opportunities.

The psychology of abnormal development of children is currently being studied by many specialists (doctors, defectologists, psychologists, teachers). This is facilitated by the development of medicine and psychology. Today there are special institutions for mentally retarded children and children with hearing, speech, vision defects, where specialists seek to harmonize the abnormal and normal development of the child.

The organization of special educational and educational institutions initially developed from charitable institutions and private foundations. Today, the process has already come to the state system of education and training of abnormal children. In ordinary schools, mixed classes are even open, where children with minor disabilities can study together with the guys without any deviation.

Pedagogical principles

Important when working with patientssearch for optimal correctional and educational means and possibilities for compensating the defect. But it should be borne in mind that the pedagogical impact on the development of an abnormal child is the more successful, the less biological disturbance.

The defect must be detected early in development. The optimal educational work and correction for a particular case is immediately organized. A blind child needs to be taught independent movement, self-care, for deaf children it is important to learn speech earlier, which allows the normal development of psychological functions.

For a mentally retarded child, the main conditions that ensure more or less normal further development will be feasible tasks and reasonable requirements that stimulate labor activity, cognitive interests, develop independence, form character, emotional-volitional sphere and mental processes. The main task of training is the consistent and gradual expansion of the zone of proximal development and the zone of actual development.