Mental Retardation / Diagnostic Features / Degrees

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Mental Retardation

Mental Retardation / Diagnostic Features

The essential feature of mental retardation is significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning that is accompanied by significant limitations in adaptive functioning in at least two of the following skill areas :

communication, self-care, home living, social/interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self-direction, functional academic skills, work, leisure, health, and safety . the onset must occur before age 18 years .  mental retardation has many different etiologies and may be seen as a final common pathway of various pathological processes that affect the functioning of the central nervous system 

general intellectual functioning is defined by the intelligence quotient . obtained by assessment with one or more of the standardized individually administered intelligence tests 

significantly subaverage intellectual functioning is defined as an IQ of about 70 or below 

approximately 2 standard deviations below the mean

 Degrees Of Severity of Mental Retardation

Mild                                     IQ Level            50 - 55 approximatly 70

moderate                              IQ Level             35 - 40    to     50 - 55

severe                                   IQ Level             20- 25      to    35 - 40

profound                               IQ Level             below     20 or 25                                                     

severity unspecified  too impaired