Don't Tag Me as Mentally Retarded, as I Am Normal: A Case Study to Understand the Emotional Development, Dreams and Insecurities of Mentally Challenged People

IntroductionWe, the humans, have unique nature, traits and types of personalities. We consider ourselves as an important part of society and mostly interact with socially active people; but we often look down upon those people, who are unable to adapt basic social skills or have some kind of cognitive/mental disabilities. People with mental retardation or intellectual disability are mostly found wrestling with society to make people understand their feelings and emotions. These challenging people are often tagged as 'mental', which is inhumane to mankind.According to AAMR (1), mental retardation (MR) or intellectual disability (ID) refers to limitations in intellectual functioning and in two or more adaptive skills areas from the following: communication: self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and work. Manjunatha et al (2) defined mental retardation (MR) as subaverage general intellectual functioning, associated with disability in adaptive behavior. Mental retardation may occur as part of a syndrome or broader disorder (3), while Arizona Revised Statutes as cited in Smith and Strick (4) defined mental retardation as a disability associated with development rather than a mental disease. Multiple factors contribute for mental retardation which includes genetics, infections during pregnancy, infectious illness during infancy or drug abuse by mother during pregnancy.Pelegano and Healy (5) categorize mental retardation into five general categories: borderline, mild, moderate, severe and profound. The categorical divisions are based on the scores obtained though standardized tests of cognitive ability. The IQ of mild retarded is between 50- 70. They show no unusual physical signs, but are slow in all developmental areas. They can integrate themselves in society but need practical and vocational skills. Moderate retardation shows noticeable delay, particularly physically or in speech. Their IQ is between 35-49. They learn simple skills like communication, selfcare, safety habits etc., and perform simple tasks easily. Severe retardation shows marked delay in physical development. Their IQ is between 20-34. They have communication barriers and require supervision to learn simple tasks such as self-care, daily routines, etc., while profound retardation shows mark delay in all the areas of development. Their IQ is below 20 and can only perform physical tasks under close supervision.According to Daily et al (6) both children and adults with mental retardation may also exhibit some or all of the following characteristics like delay in the development of adaptive behaviors and oral language development; difficulty in learning basic skills; problem solving skills and social rules.People with intellectual disability have same emotional illness as people with normal intellectual abilities. Full range of personality disorders, behavior disorders that are noted in the normal population are also noticeable in people with intellectual disability (7) . According to the diagnostic studies of Webster (8) , it was revealed that mental retardation includes an impairment in emotional as well as intellectual development. Children with mental retardation are less proficient in recognizing emotions, in responding to others' emotions, and in pro-social behaviors. Longitudinal studies on retarded children below 12 years reported a 20% to 35% frequency of emotional disturbances (9-11). In the views of Scheerenberger (12), mild mental retardation is one of the classifications of mental disability. Daily et al (13) defined mild mental retardation are those with intelligence test scores between 70 and 85. They are capable of improving their mathematics and reading skills to the level of a typical child aged 9 to 12 and they can learn basic skills besides performing basic tasks easily.People with intellectual disability have difficulty in communication. …