Unit 9 mentally retarded children

In this unit you will learn about mental retardation and how it is manifested in people. Before you start working with the text try:

1. to explain the term“mental retardation” ['ment(ə)l ֽri:ta:'deı∫(ə )n] (олигофрения) in English.

2. to find synonyms and antonyms to:

mental, profound, incapable.

3. to answer the following questions:

1. What categories of mentally retarded people do you know?

2. Do these people need special services to help them succeed?

3. What normal facilities should be allowed to such people?

4. to guess the meaning of the following words and word combinations without using the dictionary.

Ethic, sex, version, neutral, intellectual, reaction, condition, a group of professionals, standard, person, sensitive, professional literature, imbecile, idiot, tests, a mental defective, Journal, episode, neutral terms, general, terminology, period, literature, descriptor, characteristics, result.

4. to do the following phonetic exercises:

Ex.1. Transcribe and pronounce the words given below.

Adaptive, albeit, concurrent, cute, encompassing, maternity, successive.

Ex. 2. Read the following clusters with assimilation.

Used tests; at the; used the; preferred terminology.

Ex.3. Pronounce the words from the text containing the sound [w] correctly.

When; we; ward; wonderful; what; with; widely; Wechsler; Stolwitz; way; qualities; whereas.

Ex.4. Pronounce the words from the text containing the sound [r].

Origin; row; parents; bright; experience; grow; several; arise; retardation; from; produced; recent; refers; concurrent; produces; interpreted; range; profound; moderate; probably; reduce; moron; Merrill; research; trainable; preferred; remember.

Ex.5. Pronounce the words from the text containing the nasal sound [ŋ].

Learning; handicapping; functioning; resulting; during; standing; having; labeling; being; referring; all-encompassing; think; doing; meanings; communicating; meaning.

Ex.6. Pronounce the words from the text containing the voiced sound [ð].

Them; their; other; the; those; that; with; these; further.

Ex.7. Pronounce the words from the text containing the voiceless sound [Ө].

Ethnic; healthy; authors; think.

Ex.8. Pronounce the words from the text containing the sound [v].

Severe; services; version; deviation, subaverage; developmental; individually; very; divides; levels; even; evident.

TEXT

Scan through the text to understand its main ideas. Use the given vocabulary notes.

Vocabulary notes

adaptive behavior – приспособительное (адаптационное) поведение

albeit (= all though it be (that) – хотя (и)

all-encompassing – всеобъемлющий, всеохватывающий

concurrent – сопутствующий, соответственный

cute – привлекательный; умный

defective – лицо с физическими или умственными недостатками

layperson (= layman) – непрофессионал, дилетант

maternity – материнство, материнский

mental retardation – олигофрения, малоумие, врожденное слабоумие

successive levels – ряд уровней (развития)

Children may experience physical, emotional, and learning problems as they grow. Several questions arise. What are the problems? Are they severe enough that the children should be labeled with a handicapping condition such as mental retardation? Do these children need special services to help them succed?

The most widely accepted definition of mental retardation is as follows: mental retardation refers to significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning resulting in or associated with concurrent impairments in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period.

Mental retardation can be distinguished from other conditions found in adulthood that are manifested by low intellectual functioning or maladaptive behavior.

Intellectual functioning basically refers to intelligence as measured by an individually administered intelligence test. The most commonly used tests are the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Wechsler, 1974) and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Thorndike, Hagen, & Sattler, 1986). The Stanford-Binet produces a composite score (CS) that is interpreted like an IQ. An IQ of 100 means that student's standing is at the very middle of the group, half of the group having higher scores and half having lower ones.

The American Association on Mental Retardation further divides the IQ/CS range into four levels: mild, moderate, severe, and profound.

Since 1960, professionals have become more sensitive in how they refer to persons with mental retardation. This change is part of the whole movement to reduce the negative impact of being labeled with mental retardation.

Until the 1950s, the professional literature used harsh terms such as "moron," "imbecile," and "idiot." The authors of the major intelligence tests, Wechsler (1949) and Terman and Merrill (1960), referred to persons with IQs below 70 as mental defectives. Research articles in the American Journal on Mental Deficiency used the term retardate. These terms became part of the layperson's speech.

Many professionals even find more neutral terms — the educable mentally retarded (EMR), the trainable mentally retarded (TMR), and the severely and profoundly mentally retarded (SPMR) (see MacMillan, 1982) — to be unacceptable because they imply an all-encompassing condition.

The descriptor "mentally retarded" becomes the only way in which we think of the person. As a result, we come to assume that the person is incapable of doing much. The preferred term is the person with mental retardation. This term suggests that mental retardation is one of many qualities, albeit an important one. Professionals must remember to be careful in referring to children and adults with mental retardation. Some labels have evident negative meanings, whereas others are more subtle in communicating a negative meaning.

(C.J. Drew, M.L. Hardman, D.R. Logan. Mental retardation. A life cycle approach (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.)