Characteristics of Children with Special Needs: Children with Developmental Impairments - Light - Medium - Heavy (English version)

Written by: Dedy Murdani, S.Ag

Tuna Grahita is known by various names or other terms, such as weak mind, mentally retarded, and also mentally disabled. In English, the term tuna grahita is known as Mentally Handicapped, or Mentally Retarded. Children called mentally disabled are children who have weaknesses in the aspects of thinking and reasoning so that their learning and socializing abilities are below average. A mentally disabled child experiences a disruption in the development of his thinking power and all aspects of his personality, as well as limitations in terms of physical, intellectual, social and emotional or a combination of all of these things that affect the ability to live with his strengths in society, whatever that simple matter.

 Some children's weaknesses often make them considered lower human beings than other children their age. Children with mental disability or also known as mental retardation have intellectual abilities below average, usually IQ levels below 70 and also experience disturbances in adaptive behavior such as completing daily activities, and in some cases also usually experience other obstacles such as Down syndrome and does not show the theory of child development according to experts who should be according to their age.

Criteria for Tuna Grahita

There are several aspects that can make a child classified as mentally disabled or experience obstacles to child development, namely:

Experiencing the general functioning of intelligence or having below average intelligence and it is difficult to find ways to improve learning achievement in school.
Experiencing disabilities in adaptive behavior and not in accordance with several stages of the child's emotional development.
The characteristics of mentally disabled occur during early childhood development up to the age of 18 years.
Tuna Grahita Classification

The grouping of children who are mentally disabled is not needed to distinguish children from peers who do not experience limitations, but for the sake of their education. By knowing the classification of children who experience these limitations, it will be easy to determine the education they need. The following classification of mentally disabled children based on the level of obstacles they experienced:

1. Mild Blind Tuna
Physical condition of mild mentally retarded children in general is not different from other normal children, and has an IQ level that ranges between 50-70. Although experiencing obstacles in intelligence and social adaptation, but still has the ability in the academic field of social adjustment and the ability to work. Can still learn to read, write and count, and can finish fourth grade level education in general elementary schools. Often children with mild mental disability cannot be identified until entering school age, when children have difficulty following the lessons. About 75% of mentally disabled children belong to the mild mental disability group. 

2. Medium-Grained Tuna
Children who are included in this group are intellectual abilities and adaptability are under the mild mental disability group. This group can generally be detected from infancy or from an early age because of delayed development that is clearly visible. Some children have physical conditions that look clearly different from other children, especially in terms of face. But there are also some children who look normal physically. IQ levels are in the range of 30 to 50. Education that can be completed by children in this group is usually on the same level as second grade public primary schools. About 20% of mentally disabled children are this group. 

3. Severe Blindness
In this group, children's intelligence is very low and cannot receive or undergo academic education like the other two groups. With an average IQ level of 30 and under, children in this group will need help from others in their daily activities. They have almost no ability to practice taking care of themselves, practicing socializing or working. About 5% of children with severe mental disability and very heavy are in the group of mentally disabled children as a whole.



Characteristics of Children with Tuna Grahita

Characteristics of children who experience obstacles or disorders in the form of mentally disabled, can generally be seen from the following things:

Unbalanced physical appearance, for example the head is bigger or too small when compared to the overall body proportion. Physical abnormalities in the Mongoloid race are seen in a hunched body, flat face, small ears, mouth like gaping, and slanted eyes.
Does not show significant development in accordance with the stage of his age, behave and show unusual interactions for children his age.
Can not take care of themselves according to the development they should and are less able to help themselves.
Experiencing obstacles in speech development so that they have poor speech skills.
Experiencing obstacles to language development so that communication is also hampered.
Lack of attention to the environment or no attention at all, which is also known as apathy and indifference.
Lack of coordination of movements, so movements are often out of control, experiencing interference in the development of motion.
Having very unstable emotions, so behaving less naturally is continuously different from the social emotional development of early childhood in general.
Having a very weak memory, difficult and slow to learn new things.
His intelligence is very limited and has also limited interests.
The obstacle in teaching mentally disabled children comes from the limitations of their intelligence. They are unable to compete with other children who do not have these obstacles. Because of its uniqueness, of course special ways are needed to handle and provide education to mentally disabled children.

Providing Education for Children in the Best Schools
 In some children, this disorder will be detected when he enters school age. Parents need to listen to the advice of psychologists to determine the best school for children in accordance with their needs, and do not force children to enter public schools because of prestige. If what a child needs is an Extraordinary School, then direct the child to get an education there.
Learning starts with things that are certain
As far as possible learning materials for mentally disabled children should start with concrete things, because they have limitations in thinking abstractly. The learning material must also go through details in such a way, and academic material is still provided to the extent of their ability with cooperative learning methods and understanding various learning theories according to experts.

Providing Adequate Skills Materials
Emphasizing weighting on skill materials is very important in order to be able to provide life for children with mental disabilities, so that they do not depend too much on others to live their lives.

Teach Public Ethics and Governance
It should also be taught about how to behave in public, ethics, and basic social skills and use the stages of early childhood cognitive development to see the extent of their development if any.

Expand practice vocabulary
Vocabulary that can help children interact and communicate can be taught slowly so that the language skills can be trained as well. Focus your vocabulary training on words needed in daily life. The role of the family in children's education is very important to help provide training to him. 

Increase Social Interaction Activities
Due to the limited activities that can be done, the choice of mentally disabled children to do activities is only small. As a result children can develop passive behavior. We recommend that you teach more activities that will be able to make children interact actively with others.

Teach Sexual Education
Teaching mentally disabled children to recognize various things related to sexual development is also important. Children need to know what will happen to their bodies such as menstruation or wet dreams, and given a certain understanding in order to avoid sexual harassment. Parents can consult with a doctor or psychologist who can provide solutions around the handling of sexual problems of mentally disabled children.

Be
assertive Be patient but firm when dealing with children, and not be fierce or reproach and mental collapse. Learning the theory of developmental psychology can also bring benefits to educate children well.

Reduce the use of today's technology
Reduce activities that make children passive, like watching TV, playing games or other gadgets. Increase physical activity for children. Provide light tasks for children so that they can also foster a sense of responsibility and motivate children, and reward them with praise or positive remarks. It can also be a way to educate two-year-olds and children

The environmental habits and even the immediate family to give a stamp of condescension to children with developmental deficiencies often limit the children's movement. In fact, often parents also do not accept the condition of their own children, causing the development of mentally retarded children. So parents do not know how to deal with children with special needs. In fact, by providing proportional support, mentally disabled children can be trained to be independent and have involvement with their environment. All of these things will not be realized if parents or closest people cannot find a way to eliminate the selfish attitude to provide support by trying to understand their condition correctly.

Photo with Regina

Such is the explanation of the Characteristics of Children with Developmental Disabilities based on my knowledge and experience when teaching at SLB and hopefully it will benefit the readers. Thank you
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