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Show The Mentally Retarded: How We Can Help Them Now A young couple, eager to have a second child, had grave misgivings. Their first child had been mentally retarded, and they feared that another child might face the same fate. Their doctor urged them to have the baby, and, as he predicted, the second child was completely normal. This changed attitude toward mental retardation is based on new scientific findings and affects the Uvea of the parents and the child. Today almost all states provide for the education of retarded children (although the number of special classes is still inadequate). Important educational techniques, such as programmed learning, which involves the use of visual aids, teaching machines, and the like, have been adapted for the training of the retarded. The University of Chicago has a "task force" of faculty members, students, and neighborhood residents who go into culturally deprived areas (where the number of mentally retarded is above the national average) and initiate these educational programs at the nursery school level. At the Devereux Schools in Pennsylvania, Texas, and California, programmed learning through teaching machines is a part of the curriculum for the retarded. Once the retarded child was dismissed as "nobody's baby," but today there are even special camps for him. Before education takes place, though, the degree of retardation is carefully appraised. If a child is deemed severely retarded, he requires a protective environment for education. While he may never be able to earn a living, he can be taught to care for his personal needs. Now, happily, the nation's two million mildly retarded children, with proper training, are taught to achieve as adults. A recent University of Nebraska and Rehabilitation Services Administration study shows how effective With new educational programs gaining acceptance, today's mentally handicapped may become tomorrow's productive citizens By FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER away. With counseling, her attitude changed. Her son actually was only mildly retarded. When her behavior changed, so did his. Help also must come from tha re- education can be. When the project's researchers interviewed 61 men and were women, who as teen-agepupils in an "opportunity school," there were some startling discoveries. The average I.Q. of the group had risen from below GO to more than 80. of the group is still retarded, but half now hovers rs One-four- th and the remaining near normality has become normal. This one-four- th exploded the myth that a retarded person's I.Q. cannot be increased. In planning education for the children, it is essential to differentiate between those who are retarded through disease, accident, and inherited disorders (25 percent) and those affected because of poor living conditions and parental deprivation (75 percent). Even though more than 200 causes of retardation have been identified, physicians can assign the cause in only 25 percent of the cases, those that have physical origins injuries to the baby's head before or during birth and diseases striking the expectant mother. Retardation can also be caused by an factor and by metabolic disorders. Best known among these metabolic disorders is PKU Happily, however, factor and PKU, both the if discovered early, can be treated Rh-bloo- d Rh-blo- lie '"' J - " Volunteer teachers are helping these retarded toddlers Vearn coordination. 1 I lfp rA Proper education, started early, 1 will lead to an adjusted, productive life. to prevent retardation. Still' other physical causes are meningitis, lack of oxygen, and, of course, the extra chromosome of mongolism. Planning also includes disproving old myths. One such is heredity. Parents, thinking that a child is retarded because of heredity, recoil from having other children. Even when there is more than one retarded child in the same family, heredity may nof be the cause. Still another myth is that the best place, perhaps the only place, for the retarded is an institution. Today social workers in specialized clinics make every effort to help the family and the retarded child to live together comfortably. The Child Development Clinic at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, for instance, counsels parents of the retarded in child care. One mother complained constantly of her child's temper tantrums. She behaved toward him at such moments in exactly the same way as she had treated an older and normal child. The truth was, as became clear during counseling, that this mother, succumbing to her disappointment about a child who was different, didn't bother to di: cipline him because she didn't think he was worth the trouble. In despair, she wanted him sent tarded child's brothers and sisters. They react both favorably and unfavorably to him. While some defjop psychosomatic complaints because of an unconscious feeling that they can only divert their parents' attention from the retarded child to themselves by being ill, others assume a greater maturity because of their responsibility for his care. The way the brother and sister of the retarded child reacts to him depends, of course, on how the parents handle the retardation. Mrs. William Gorham, the wife of the assistant director for program planning at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, says: "We enjoy our retarded little girl's company; she's a delight to have around. She goes to a special school, and we have accepted her difference as a normal part of our family life." Parents of retarded children find comfort in helping other parents in the same predicament. I met sfffre of these parents at the National Association for Retarded Children in New York recently and was impressed by their enthusiasm. The siblings of the retarded have also formed brother and sister groups. Some youngsters in Brother-Siste- r Groups, Association for the Help of Retarded Children, New York City chapter, remarked, "We learned how to talk about it and felt free to discuss our problems. We helped,. one another to be prepared for any unexpected behavior." "Within the last 10 years," says Charlotte H. Waskowitz of the Psychiatric Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, "there have been vast development and rapid progress in dealing with the problem. "Much of the credit belongs to the parents of retarded children who have shown the way with their and courage." . Chil-ren- 's Family Weekly, November U,l68 u |