By Rev. James F. Scherer

(The following is the first of four articles by Father James Scherer on the subject of mental retardation. Father Scherer was ordained in 1964. He is presently studying at the University of Georgia for a master degree in social work. He has been elected the student president of the graduate school of social work. His previous assignment was as assistant pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish.)

The mentally retarded are children and adults who, as result of inadequately developed intelligence, are significantly impaired in their ability to learn and to adapt to the demands of society. According to the Report to the President on Mental Retardation, an estimated three percent of the population, or 5.4 million children and adults in the United States, are afflicted, some severely, most mildly. Assuming this rate of prevalence, an estimated 126,000 babies born each year will be regarded as mentally retarded at some time in their lives.

Mental retardation ranks as a major national health, social, and economic problem. It affects twice as many individuals as polio, cerebral palsy, and rheumatic fever, combined. According to the latest reports, there are only four significant disabling conditions - mental illness, cardiac disease, arthritis, and cancer - having a higher prevalence; they tend to come late in life while mental retardation comes early. It is estimated that about 400,000 of the persons affected are so retarded that they require constant care or supervision, or are so severely limited in their ability to care for themselves that assistance will be necessary for their entire life span. The remaining five million are individuals with minor or mild disabilities. The untold human anguish and loss of happiness and well being which result from mental retardation blight the future of millions of families in the United States. An estimated 15 to 20 million people live in families in which there is a mentally retarded individual. Costs cannot compare with the misery and frustration and realization that one’s child will be incapable of living a normal life or fully contributing to the well being of himself and to society in later life. The key to prevention and correction of mental retardation is an adequate understanding of its causes. Medical and social science have made a substantial beginning in this direction. Rapidly growing interest and awareness in the problem of mental retardation are producing a growing accumulation of data on the general conditions with which mental retardation is associated. Much of the long road to full understanding of the complex phenomena involved lies ahead and indeed is not clearly defined as to the directions it may take. Research from many directions is casting light into deep shadows.

Whatever the cause, the failure of mentally retarded individuals to adjust successfully to social and economic conditions of our society constitutes a severe growing problem. This is a handicap for the individuals, their families, and for society. This is a handicap for both you and me.

As our competitive society becomes more complex and fast moving, the demands for intellectual capacity and for adaptability increases. Thus in an age of automation, individuals with minimal skills and abilities become doubly handicapped. Not only do they face an increasingly competitive society, but, hampered as they are, they must keep pace with people of increasingly higher capacities. Thus they become more easily submerged by the vicissitudes which others can surmount.

Until comparatively recent, it was generally assumed that 60 percent to 80 percent of all mentally retarded persons had inherited this condition. More recent studies have brought to light ample evidence to prove that more than half of all cases of mental retardation come from causes which have nothing to do with inheritance. Many of these causes involve children of normal or superior parents, children whose reduced mental capacities are the results of brain tissue injuries, or from atrophy of such tissue or from other damage.

Most mentally retarded children do not look or act very differently from other children. But a small percentage do have different characteristics. These include a number of types of mental deficiency which are known to be not inherited. “Brain damaged” children is a term at present loosely used, to cover a number of types of retardation. Many children whose mental deficiency is not inherited fall into this category. The term usually refers to damage to brain tissue which affects intellectual functioning.

Diagnosing mental retardation is a highly technical matter. In more difficult cases the diagnosis must come from the coordinated studies of pediatrician, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, and educator. A small proportion of the retarded are sufficiently stigmatized physically at birth. But most others lack physical signs. It remains then to discover the degree and the cause of the retardation so that the best estimate for future potentials may be established. Many studies have been made of the growth of normal children physically and socially. Physical signs of growth are easiest to see. Scales have been developed to measure such growth by noting the time when the child balances his head, grasps objects within reach, rolls over, sits unsupported, and so on. Social growth involves such things as the ability of the infant to occupy himself, to play while unattended, to demand personal attention, and so on. Studies have been made of child growth in other technical fields but as yet no scales exists which satisfies the professional worker or which he is content to place in the hands of parents for self-investigation. In light of the difficulty of early recognition it is unwise for a parent to try to make a diagnosis of his child’s condition.

One may ask how the broad objectives for the retarded differ in kind or degree from desirable goals of others. They do not differ fundamentally, but the retarded do not presently receive either the attention or the services accorded to other groups with special needs.