What is mental retardation?

Question

What is mental retardation?

Answer 1

proper terms are mental disability or mentally challenged, or just a person with special needs

retardation is no longer an acceptable term, it refers to the retarded or slow learner, slow response, etc.

search mental and physical disabilities on your favorite search engine

Answer 2

It is a term from the 1950's denoting lower IQ or a label used for anyone that rebelled against the system.

And please don't use it in public, it is seen as insulting.

Answer 3

Mental retardation refers to  a slowing down of the person's mental state or the person's mental state is hindered. I hope the web site below helps you more than I can for you.

Answer 4

Mental Retardation (MR) is a substantial limitations in present functioning, significantly subaverage intellectual functioning--an IQ below 70, exists concurrently with limitations in two or more adaptive skill areas and manifests itself before the age of 18.  

The adaptive skill areas are: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and work.

Some of the learning characteristics are difficulty in learning, attention problems, problems using learning strategies, memory problems, inability to generalize and transfer, language problems and lack of self control.

Answer 5

Mental Retardation and MR are still acceptable in terms of education eg. IEP and testing. It is not polite however to refer to them as Retarded... so your question is fine. A person can score very low on the whole IQ test or be termed MR in lets say one of the subtests. So you can have a person that is functional however deemed MR for the certain sub test - let's say processing speed or coding. It is a term meaning slow according to the rest of the population. A person can have other issues and be deemed MR or Mentaly Retarded in some capacity. They can also be MR in one of the subtests and have a superior score in other parts of the test in other words can be brighter than the rest of the population in certain areas. The overall score is an indicator as to how a person will learn and what needs to be in place to assist the person.