Mental infantilism
Mental infantilism is the mental and physical immaturity of a child, which, with improper upbringing, leads to a delay in age-related socialization (adaptation to life in society). The prerequisites for it are created genetically, endocrine-hormonal factors, hypoxia or infectious-toxic hazards during pregnancy, asphyxia during childbirth, and diseases of the first months of life. Its development is also facilitated by the aggravation of unfavorable preconditions by egocentric or anxious-suspicious upbringing.
First option true- is based on a delay in the development of the frontal lobes of the brain, caused by the above objective factors and improper upbringing.
As a result, the child is delayed in developing an understanding of the norms and rules of behavior and communication, developing the concepts of “not” and “should”, and a sense of distance in relationships with adults; the maturation of the ability to correctly assess situations is delayed, when it is necessary to change behavior and abilities according to their changes. foresee the development of events, and, therefore, possible dangers and threats.
This is the case when a child does first and thinks later. Children with this form of mental infantilism are assessed by their behavior as being one to two years younger than their true age, and upon entering kindergarten there is a need to place such a child in a junior group, and when he reaches school age, leave him “to mature” in kindergarten. Such a child often looks stupid, but this is not mental retardation. With mental infantilism, children begin to speak on time and even ahead of schedule The only thing that confuses us is their naivety, childishness beyond their age and inability to adapt to life. It’s not that they don’t think well, it’s more that they simply don’t think.
The liveliness of the mentally infantile is not disinhibition, but rather a cheerfulness that overwhelms the emotionality of a two or three year old, although in fact the child is already four or five years old. His carelessness, carelessness is not due to mental retardation, but to the naivety of a child who has no idea that someone or something could offend him. A child with this form of mental infantilism knows no evil. His manner of freely treating adults does not come from rudeness and unceremoniousness, but from a puppy's joy of life and the same reckless liveliness, when there is no idea of what is possible and what is not.
Mentally infantile ones invite an adult to run and play with them, to rejoice, not realizing that mother and grandmother have no time for this.
They follow in everything from themselves, from their perception of life. They are cheerful and playful because they are “superchildren.” Their childishness captivates adults and somehow automatically leads to the education of mentally infantile egocentric types, to admiring the spontaneity of a “baby”, “crumb” until reality, the need for their adaptation in kindergarten or first grade at school, sobers up parents , encouraging the child to consult a psychiatrist. Such children were cradled in infancy and did not notice how unforgivably long the cradling lasted. And the infantile ones don’t want to grow up and even talk in baby talk. They know what tomorrow is, but it doesn’t seem to exist for them, they seem to be stuck in today. Infantiles do not perceive “cannot” and “must”
Peers approach them as equals, because they are physically developed and look their age, but communication does not work out, because infantiles think, speak and act like younger people. Naturally, such children are blatantly dependent and do not know how to do anything, because everything that requires skills and effort has been done and is being done for them. Not only do they not want to dress themselves, but they also don’t want to eat on their own, and the kindergarten teacher doesn’t know whether to cry or laugh - it’s just the right time to pick up a four-year-old. And here is the result: the time has come for the infantile to go to school, but he is not ready for it. However, age is age, the requirements for it are strict, and a child with mental infantilism is sent to his age environment, where he is faced with reality and is at first surprised, and then upset - severely, to the point of neurosis, of course, hysterical.
Infantile children are characterized by rich natural emotionality, but it is not enriched by the parallel development of the qualities of the true mind, which ensures full orientation and socialization, and therefore does not reach the level required by age. They are genuinely happy, angry, sad, sympathetic, and afraid, but all this is over the edge, stormy, uncontrollable and superficial. Their facial expressions, like their gestures, are lively and expressive. But they do not know deep love, true sadness, real longing. They do not know anxiety or a sense of danger. They lack emotional depth
to cry like that
I cried, but I was so happy. Their emotionality is like summer rain: it drips and there is sunshine, but the result is neither one nor the other. Most of all, the volitional principle suffers in infantile people. Delayed development of the frontal lobes of the brain with their function of long-term goal formation and planning also predetermines a tendency to delay the formation of will. Not proper upbringing
aggravates the infantilism of the volitional factor in such children. What kind of will is there if a child under five to seven years old does not know any serious efforts to overcome difficulties. The strong-willed component is inherent in temperament, but this side of it, like other useful ones, was not developed. And the volitional principle of the infantile will never develop unless measures are taken for re-education. Second option mental infantilism - general psychophysical immaturity according to the infantile type ( harmonic infantilism However, the immaturity in the second option is total. The child not only behaves like a younger child, but at five years old also looks like a three-year-old. He is born with low weight and height, and is miniature. This is a “boy with a thumb” or a “Thumbelina” girl. Such children are called by diminutive names: gulenka, bunny, baby. A child with this variant of mental infantilism is graceful, mobile, but weak and fragile.
Not lagging behind in psychomotor and psycho-speech development, timely mastering all the skills and abilities, drawing, counting and reading, such a child is also musical, emotionally alive, but, as in the first option, his maturation of higher social functions is delayed. Time passes, but the child is not ready for equal communication with peers and is blatantly dependent. He is one of those who does not mature in time. Similar things occur in the animal world, but there such a baby is doomed. The brood is taken away, but it remains in the den. A child with the second variant of mental infantilism is a child for a long time if this is not overcome in a timely manner. His fragility and miniature size cause concern among parents. He has poor appetite and is often sick. He is naughty, but in moderation, often quiet. He is not demanding and not capricious, affectionate and obedient.
Such a child does not exhaust the parents, but causes aching pity.
And his upbringing, as a rule, takes on alarming tendencies. In kindergarten, the teacher protects him, and this does not cause protest on his part. He takes the patronage of his elders for granted. The teacher leads such a child by the hand, does not let him go, and involuntarily lowers the requirements for him. Everyone accepts his childishness, and even his peers willingly play with him, assigning him the role of a little one, projecting the nascent parental instinct onto him, protecting him, comforting him if he cries. And the child accepts the role assigned to him. She is comfortable and pleasant.
He doesn't want to grow up and school years It is obvious that such a person is not adapted to life and sooner or later he will face collapse, insolvency, and a kind of disability.
Meanwhile, proper upbringing can lead away from infantilism.
In this case, by the age of six to eight years, the child matures in higher mental functions, acquires the qualities of masculinity, and after puberty is completed, he differs from his peers only in his short stature and diminutiveness, compensated by physical dexterity and normal health. According to the second option, the mentally infantile is not rushed to develop. He will follow his peers, lagging behind them by about a year or two, and will mature by school time. And again we see: education decides a lot. Completely unacceptable third option mental infantilism. A child is born harmonious in all respects, but, protecting him from life, they artificially delay his socialization with egocentric or anxious-suspicious upbringing. This most often happens to those who gave birth late, who have waited a long time for a child, who are exhausted in anticipation. Six adults admire and amuse themselves with one baby. The most ineresting childhood - from two to three years.
And parents unconsciously want to keep the child in it, they want and succeed in this. The third variant of mental infantilism in its entirety caused by improper upbringing, when a healthy person was made immature and the development of the frontal functions of the brain was artificially delayed. In this case, infantilism is cultivated through pampering and overprotection, and is fenced off from peers and life. They think for the child and do everything for him, the road in front of him is cleared, obstacles are removed from his path and, no matter what he does, everyone forgives him. And he, not knowing anything, goes towards life, and this meeting does not promise him anything good. The matter is complicated by the fact that mental development
The mother is panicking. A large child, outwardly in no way inferior to his peers, during a lesson takes a toy out of his briefcase and plays with it;
gets up, not paying attention to the teacher’s prohibition, and goes to the door;
speaks openly with his neighbor and asks to see his mother. At home he only wants to play. He is self-centered and does not accept refusal in anything. He simply ignores the condition of his parents. He is capricious, demanding and hysterical. His childishness no longer pleases anyone. "Doctor, help!" And the doctor is sad. Before this family, the doctor had other patients with severe congenital diseases or diseases that arose due to reasons beyond the parents’ control. Everything was clear. We need to treat, help in trouble. And then they turned the healthy into the sick. A child with the third variant of mental infantilism is at risk of hysterical neurosis.
All of the above is a serious warning to those parents and grandparents who encourage the infantile development of their children and grandchildren. The notorious lisp, admiration for the childishness of the “dear little one,” overprotection, deprivation of independence, raising three-year-olds like one and a half years old, and five-year-olds like three-year-olds are fraught with dire consequences. For the sake of egocentric tendencies, enjoying the childhood of the “dear little one,” the future of a person is sacrificed. A person born with mental infantilism or who acquired it due to adverse effects in the first months of life is treated by a psychoneurologist, promoting the maturation of higher neuropsychic functions; he is consulted according to the indications of an endocrinologist. In cases where it is necessary to stimulate ripening, traditional medicine recommends apilak, eleutherococcus and nettle. More It is also important as a disciplined, socializing education for the child. The child is persistently explained the consequences of his mistakes and pranks. They allow him to hurt himself in order to give him the opportunity to feel when and why it hurts. Such a child is constantly encouraged to overcome feasible difficulties, quietly helping and rejoicing with him in his victories. These children love joy; all that remains is to prove to them in practice that it lies in overcoming difficulties and achieving results and goals. The infantile is taught skills and abilities in a timely manner, sparing no effort. And in this case, this is not only necessary for everyday life, but also the path to overcoming mental infantilism. The infantile strives for children younger than himself, and he should be encouraged to communicate with peers, helping to cooperate with them on an equal basis and eliminating conflicts. Excessive expression of emotions is gently moderated; adults cultivate deep emotionality, especially responsiveness, in the infantile.
The influence of parents on the mentally infantile is realized through play. They play with him everything that occurs in the life of a child of his age.
They play, for example, in kindergarten, where he is in the role of a teacher, and the father is in the role of a naughty child. The game develops the skills necessary for successful adaptation to kindergarten. They play school with him, and he acts as a teacher, demanding discipline from the student. They play with him the children's game itself, preparing him for games with peers. In a joint game, carelessness, disorganization, ill-considered consequences of actions and the unreasonable actions themselves, selfishness are ridiculed. In the game, a goal is set, plans are developed to achieve it, and in the game it is realized. If, despite educational efforts, the infant is not ready for school at the age of seven, it is better to detain such a child for a year at
preparatory group kindergarten
and at the age of eight, send him to school with a formed student’s position, which will ruin the beginning of schooling, and perhaps the whole of it.
In the clinical picture of I. p., one can conditionally distinguish symptoms associated with the nosological affiliation and general symptoms. With general infantilism, the traits of childishness are manifested in the physical and mental make-up of the subject (psychophysical infantilism), i.e. mental and physical signs of immaturity are harmoniously combined. Such children have a lag in height and weight (while maintaining body proportions), as well as features of facial expressions and gestures characteristic of more early age. In the mental makeup of the individual, the immaturity of emotional-volitional activity comes to the fore; with relatively intact intellect, thinking is distinguished by concreteness, immature judgments, and the predominance of superficial associations over logic. The ability for intellectual tension and concentration is weakly expressed. Rapid fatigue occurs from activities requiring volitional effort, while at the same time tirelessness in games is noted. There is instability of interests, a constant desire to change impressions, and a special interest in new thrills (“sensory thirst”). Characterized by spontaneity and inconsistency in statements and actions, insufficient independence and increased suggestibility. The mood is unstable; affective outbursts easily occur, which also pass quickly.
Disharmonic I. p. can be defined as psychopathic, because Infantile traits are organically included in the structure of the psychopathic personality (see. Psychopathy), often hysterical and unstable. At the same time, along with pronounced (sharpened) infantilism, disharmony of mental properties, irritability and imbalance, and behavioral disturbances, which are subordinated primarily to the desires of the present moment, clearly appear. Signs of mental immaturity are often combined with normal or even advanced physical development.
Organic I. p. arises due to organic damage to the central nervous system. (traumatic brain injury, infectious diseases, intoxication, etc.), while mental immaturity is noted against the background of an easily occurring psychoorganic syndrome.
Somatogenously caused I. p. is possible with endocrine disorders, chronic debilitating diseases, as well as with damage to some internal organs (liver, kidneys, heart, etc.). Moreover, along with manifestations of the underlying disease, for example congenital hypogonadism, pituitary subnanism (see. Nanism), light forms hypothyroidism with endocrine disorders, mental immaturity is observed, which is noted against the background of constant asthenia with a predominance of mental exhaustion.
Psychogenically caused IP often occurs as a result of pampering upbringing and overprotection. The behavior of such children is characterized by egocentrism, capriciousness, and a constant desire for recognition and sympathy, resulting from narcissism. Directed claims are combined with helplessness, which sometimes leads to social failure, despite preserved and sometimes high intelligence.
Mental infantilism can develop when schizophrenia especially if it began in early childhood, when secondary mental retardation occurred under the influence of the disease. In these cases, signs of infantilism are combined with personality changes characteristic of schizophrenia, such as autism, mannerisms, negativism, emotional impoverishment, etc.
Treatment and prevention should be aimed at the underlying disease that caused the developmental delay. Symptomatic therapy and therapeutic and recreational measures, as well as measures of therapeutic and pedagogical influence, are indicated. When mental disorders are severe, psychotropic drugs (neuroleptics, tranquilizers, antidepressants, nootropics) are used. Social rehabilitation of patients requires an individual approach, appropriate organization of training, work adaptation and employment.
Bibliography: Kovalev V.V. Childhood Psychiatry, p. 524, M., 1979; Sukhareva G.E. Clinical lectures on childhood psychiatry, vol. 2, p. 224, M., 1959.
Mental infantilism is mental immaturity, manifested by a predominant disruption of the rate of maturation of the psyche with a lag in the development of emotional-volitional properties and forms of personality response. They turn out to be more relevant younger age. Signs of mental infantilism include: lack of independence, increased suggestibility, naivety, predominance in the motivational sphere of gaming interests and hedonism, the desire for pleasure, which often takes on the character of the main motivation, carelessness, difficulties in performing predictive functions (and sometimes the impossibility of performing them), forecasting the results of one’s behavior and actions, an immature sense of duty and responsibility, a significantly reduced ability to subordinate one’s behavior to the requirements of the situation and group, an inability to exert volition and overcome difficulties. All this is often combined with immaturity of motor skills, difficulties in performing fine manual actions (handwriting: “writes like a chicken with its paw”), redundancy of accompanying unnecessary movements and more or less pronounced primitivism as a variant of the intellectual norm.
The first signs of mental infantilism are detected in primary school and adolescence.
There are two types of mental infantilism: simple (uncomplicated), complicated.
A simple version of mental infantilism(this also includes the harmonic infantilism identified by G. E. Sukhareva (1959). Mental infantilism is manifested by signs of mental immaturity, covering all areas of the child’s activity, including intellectual, but with a predominance of manifestations of emotional-volitional delay. Such children are extremely carefree, carefree, and tireless in games. They are characterized by vivid imagination and cheerfulness. With intact intelligence, there is a lack of intellectual interests with a dominance of the desire for play activity and pleasures. When age requirements are presented to them, maladjustment occurs, which more often manifests itself at school age in the form of academic failure. Often mental infantilism combined with signs of somatic immaturity, growth retardation, gracile physique, but without signs of gross dysplasticity, anomalies in the development of individual organs and systems (the so-called “psychophysical infantilism”).
Complications of mental and infantilism characterized by a combination of mental infantilism with other psychopathological manifestations.
Thus, in combination with the psychoorganic syndrome, organic infantilism lacks emotional liveliness and brightness of emotions. They are rather euphoric, complacent, disinhibited, and emotional manifestations are less deep and differentiated. Their intellectual activity is characterized by inertia, stiffness, perseverative thought processes and a violation of the so-called prerequisites of intelligence (attention, memory, mental performance).
When combined with cerebrasthenic syndrome increased excitability, exhaustion, pronounced instability of attention and somatovegetative disorders (sleep disorders, appetite disorders, vasovegetative manifestations) are noted.
When combined with psychoendocrine syndrome the clinical picture is determined by the presence of infantilism traits and mental characteristics typical of a particular type of hormonal disorder.
Mental infantilism occurs as an independent disorder, as well as with delayed brain development, its early mild organic damage, and with social neglect.
Mental infantilismMental infantilism is such a psychophysical immaturity of a child, which, due to improper upbringing, leads to a delay in age-related socialization and the child’s behavior in which the child’s behavior does not meet the age requirements for him. The prerequisites for mental infantilism are created by constitutional-genetic, endocrine-hormonal factors, hypoxia or infectious-toxic hazards during pregnancy, asphyxia during childbirth, and severe infectious diseases in the first months of life. Its development is promoted by egocentric or anxious-suspicious education. The first version of mental infantilism - true, or simple (according to V.V. Kovalev) - is based on a delay in the development of the frontal lobes of the brain, caused by the described objective factors and improper upbringing. As a result, the child is delayed in developing an understanding of the norms of behavior and communication, developing the concepts of “not” and “should”, a sense of distance in relationships with adults, the maturation of the ability to correctly assess situations when it is necessary to change behavior according to their changes, as well as the ability to anticipate development events and, therefore, possible dangers and threats. Children with a simple form of mental infantilism are assessed by their behavior as being 1-2 years younger than their true age, and upon entering kindergarten there is a need to place such a child in junior group, and when he reaches school age, leave the baby “to mature” in kindergarten.
Mental infantilism is not a general delay mental development. With it, children master phrasal speech in the usual time frame and even earlier, ask questions and draw in full accordance with age standards, master reading and counting in a timely manner, are mentally active and even lively. They often express original thoughts and perceive nature in a fresh way. Parents and educators preschool institutions They are embarrassed by their naivety, the inconsistency of their behavior with their age and their inability to adapt to reality. It is not that they are unable to think about their actions, but rather that they simply do not think about them. The liveliness of a mentally infantile child is not disinhibition, but rather cheerfulness, overwhelming the emotionality of a 2-3-year-old child, although he is already 4-5 years old. Their imprudence and carelessness are the result not of mental retardation, but of the naivety of a child who does not imagine that he can be offended. They are kind and do not expect harm. Their manner of freely treating adults does not come from rudeness and unceremoniousness, but from a puppy’s joy of life and the same reckless liveliness, when there is no idea of what is possible and what is not. Mentally infantile children naively invite an adult to run and play with them, to rejoice, not realizing that their mother and grandmother have no time for this. They follow in everything from themselves, from their perception of life. Therefore, they are invariably and serenely cheerful, playful, and if they cry, then for a moment, without remembering the evil. Their childishness captivates adults and somehow automatically leads to the education of mentally infantile egocentric types, to admiring the spontaneity of the “baby”, “crumb” until the reality, the need for their adaptation in kindergarten or first grade of school sobers up the parents , encouraging the child to consult a psychiatrist. Such children were coddled in infancy and did not notice how unforgivably long this period lasted. And infantile children do not want to grow up and even talk in baby talk. They know what the future is, but it doesn’t seem to exist for them, they seem to be stuck in the present.
Infantile children do not perceive “shouldn’ts” and “shoulds”, and the bitter crying of such “small” children disarms adults so much that the time for the development of these fundamental concepts is lost. They come to their senses when the requirement to fulfill “impossible” and “must” causes bewilderment, resentment and, naturally, violent protest in the infantile child. And he capriciously demands what is impossible, does not accept what is necessary, and wants everything to be as he wants. Infantile children are kind, but the result of their development is such that they do not understand when they can play pranks and when they cannot, because there is trouble or grief in the family.
Peers approach them as equals, but communication does not work out, because the infantile in behavior, skills and abilities look clearly younger than the normally developing ones. Naturally, such children are extremely dependent and cannot do anything, because everything that requires skill and effort has been and is being done for them. Not only do they not want to dress themselves, but they also don’t want to eat on their own; their kindergarten teacher doesn’t know whether to cry or laugh—it’s just the right time to pick up a 4-year-old child. The tendency toward infantility, congenital or acquired in the first months of life, in this case was not overcome by education, but, on the contrary, developed and consolidated. And here is the result: the time has come for the infantile child to go to school, but he is not ready for it. However, age is age, the requirements for it are certain, and a child with mental infantilism is sent to his age environment, where he is faced with reality and is at first surprised, and then upset - severely, to the point of hysterical neurosis.
Infantile children are characterized by rich natural emotionality, but it is not enriched by the parallel development of the qualities of the true mind, which provide full orientation and socialization, and therefore does not reach the level of mature feelings. They are genuinely happy, angry, sad, sympathetic, fearful - and all this is violent, over the edge. Their facial expressions, like their gestures, are lively and expressive. But they do not know deep love, true sadness, real longing. They do not know anxiety and shyness. Their lack of emotional restraint is depressing. There is no emotional solidity in them, so that they cry, they cry, but they rejoice, they rejoice.
Their emotionality is like summer rain: there is dripping and there is sunshine, but as a result - neither one nor the other. Most of all, the volitional principle suffers in infantile children. Delayed development of the frontal lobes of the brain with their function of long-term goal formation and planning also predetermines a tendency to delay the formation of will. Improper upbringing exacerbates the infantilism of the volitional factor in such children. What kind of will is there if a child under 5-7 years old does not know any serious efforts to overcome difficulties. The strong-willed component is inherent in temperament, but this side of it, like other useful ones, was not developed. And the volitional principle in an infantile child will never develop unless measures are taken for re-education.
Thus, in the emergence of mental infantilism, the interconnection of biological and microsocial causes that give rise to childhood nervousness or difficulty is clearly visible.
The second variant of mental infantilism is general psychophysical immaturity of the infantile type (harmonic infantilism, according to G. E. Sukhareva). The prerequisites and reasons are the same as for the first option. However, immaturity in the second option concerns not only the mental, but also physical development . The child not only behaves like a younger child, but at 5 years old also looks like a 3-year-old. He is born with a small body weight and height, and is miniature. This is a “boy-thumb” or “inch-girl”. Such children are called by diminutive names: “gulenka”, “bunny”, “fish”. A child with this variant of mental infantilism is graceful, mobile, but weak and fragile. Not lagging behind in psychomotor and psycho-speech development, he promptly masters all the skills and abilities, drawing, counting and reading; he is often musical and emotionally alive, but in him, as in the first variant, the maturation of higher orientation functions is delayed. Time passes, but the child is not ready to communicate with peers and is unbearably dependent. His fragility and miniature size cause concern among parents. He has a poor appetite and is often sick, unlike children with the first variant of mental infantilism. He is naughty, but in moderation, often quiet. He is not demanding and not capricious, affectionate and obedient. Such a child does not exhaust the parents, but causes aching pity. And his upbringing, as a rule, takes on an alarming direction. In kindergarten, the teacher protects him. This does not cause him any protest, since he is afraid of his peers. The teacher leads such a child by the hand, does not let him go, and involuntarily lowers the requirements for him. Everyone accepts his childishness, and even his peers willingly play with him, assigning him the role of a little one, projecting the nascent parental instinct onto him, protecting him, comforting him if he cries, and the child accepts the role assigned to him. She is comfortable and pleasant. He doesn't want to grow up even during his school years. If events develop in the same direction, he continues to play the same role as an adult. And then we are talking about a man-son, a woman-daughter already in a marital relationship, when his wife takes care of him, and her husband takes care of her. According to the second option, a mentally infantile person does not have a feeling of inadequacy. He accepts himself as he is. Accordingly, he rarely develops neurosis. Anxious upbringing perpetuates his infantility, and, protected by a special attitude towards himself, he is not anxious. Meanwhile, proper upbringing can lead away from infantilism. In this case, a little later, by the age of 6-8, the child’s higher mental functions mature, he acquires the qualities of masculinity, and after puberty is completed, he differs from his peers only in his short stature and diminutiveness with physical strength and normal health. According to the second option, a child who is mentally infantile is not rushed to develop. He will follow his peers, about a year behind them, and will catch up with them by the time he starts school. Physical weakness and short stature are compensated by the development of dexterity. And again we see that education decides everything. All that is needed is the patience, love and wisdom of parents.
The third option of mental infantilism is completely unacceptable. A child is born mentally and physically healthy, but while protecting him from life, his socialization is artificially delayed by the egocentric or anxious-suspicious nature of upbringing. This most often happens to parents who passionately dreamed of a child and were pining in anticipation of him. And now six adults admire and amuse themselves with one baby. The most interesting children's age is from 2 to 3 years. And parents unconsciously want to keep the child in it, they want and succeed in this. The third variant of mental infantilism is entirely due to improper upbringing, when a healthy person was made immature and the development of the frontal functions of the brain was artificially delayed. In this case, infantilism is cultivated through pampering and overprotection, and the child is fenced off from peers and the life of the child. Parents think for the child and do everything for him; they remove obstacles from his life path and, no matter what he does, forgive him everything. And he, not knowing anything, goes towards life, and this meeting does not promise him anything good. The matter is complicated by the fact that, as already emphasized in previous chapters, mental development follows a rigid program and what is lost due to age in many ways turns out to be lost forever. The child did not have objective data to overcome infantilism; he was artificially induced. As a result, after 5.5 years the child is already objectively infantile, as if his brain had been damaged. In the first two options it began with damage, in the third it ends with it. The third option is worse than the first two, the prognosis is worse, and it is more difficult to overcome.
Eventually the parents panic. A large child, outwardly in no way inferior to his peers, during a lesson takes a toy out of his briefcase and plays with it; gets up, not paying attention to the teacher’s prohibition, and goes to the door; talks to a neighbor and asks to see his mother. At home he only wants to play. He is selfish and does not accept refusal of anything. He simply ignores the condition of his parents. He is capricious, demanding and hysterical. His childishness no longer pleases anyone, and his parents beg: “Doctor, help!” And the doctor is sad. Before this family there were other patients with severe congenital diseases or diseases that arose due to reasons beyond the parents' control. In these cases, the trouble should be treated and helped, but here the parents themselves healthy child turned into a patient. With the third variant of mental infantilism, a path to hysterical neurosis is possible.
All of the above is a serious warning to those parents and grandparents who encourage the infantile development of their children and grandchildren. The notorious baby talk, admiration for the childishness of the “sweet little one,” overprotection, raising three-year-olds like one-and-a-half-year-olds and five-year-olds like three-year-olds are fraught with dire consequences. For the sake of selfish tendencies, the enjoyment of the childhood of the “dear baby,” the future of a person is sacrificed.
A child who was born with mental infantilism or acquired it due to adverse effects in the first months of life is treated by a neuropsychiatrist. Treatment should promote the maturation of higher neuropsychic functions. According to indications, he is consulted with an endocrinologist.
The main thing in overcoming mental infantilism is proper education. Efforts are directed primarily at the socialization of the child. The concepts of “necessary”, “possible” and “impossible”, “good” and “bad” are emphasized and persistently emphasized. Compliance with the sleep, wakefulness, and feeding routine from the first months of life in this case is also important as a disciplinary, socializing education for the child. The child is persistently explained the consequences of his mistakes and pranks. He is given independence and allowed to hurt himself in order to give him the opportunity to feel when and why it hurts. Such a child is constantly encouraged to overcome feasible difficulties, quietly helping and rejoicing with him in his victories. These children love joy, all that remains is to prove to them in practice that it lies in overcoming and achieving a result, a goal. An infantile child is taught skills and abilities in a timely manner, sparing no effort. And in this case, this is not only necessary for everyday life, but is also a path to overcoming mental infantilism. An infantile child strives for children younger than himself, and he should be encouraged to communicate with peers, helping to cooperate with them on an equal basis and resolve conflicts. Excessive expression of emotions is gently extinguished; adults cultivate in him deep emotionality, especially responsiveness.
The influence of parents on a mentally infantile child is realized through play. They play with him everything that occurs in the life of a child of his age. They play, for example, “kindergarten”, where he is in the role of a teacher, and the father is in the role of a naughty child. The game develops the skills necessary for successful adaptation to kindergarten. They play with him the children's game itself, preparing him for games with peers. In a joint game, carelessness, disorganization, ill-considered consequences of actions and the unreasonable actions themselves, selfishness are ridiculed. In the game, a goal is set, plans are developed to achieve it, and in the game it is implemented.
If, despite all the efforts made, an infantile child turns out to be unprepared for school by the age of 7, it is better to detain such a child for a year in the preparatory group of a kindergarten and send him to school at the age of 8 with an established position as a student, rather than miss the start of schooling, and possibly and all training in general.
Hyperdynamic and hypodynamic syndromes
Hyperdynamic and hypodynamic syndromes are based on microorganic brain lesions that arise as a result of intrauterine oxygen starvation of the brain, microbirth trauma and lead to minimal brain dysfunction (MCD). There are no gross organic, focal damages, but there are many microdamages of the cortex and subcortical structures of the brain. Already in the first days, while still in the maternity hospital, it is noted that the child is restless or lethargic, and his first feeding is usually postponed for 2-3 days. This often happens with a large newborn and a child born during a prolonged or rapid labor. Since there are no gross focal disorders in the brain in such cases, the discharge certificate most often assesses the birth and the condition of the newborn as quite favorable, and the consequences of MMD appear somewhat later. Every 5-6th child has MMD.
Let us first describe the manifestations of the more common hyperdynamic syndrome. Its main signs are distractibility of attention and motor disinhibition, which manifests itself from the first months of life, when a hyperdynamic child cannot be held in one’s hands, just like a neuropathic one. To say that a hyperdynamic person is restless is to say nothing. He is as mobile as mercury. They didn’t keep track - and it’s somewhere upstairs, from where it can only be removed with the help of a fire ladder. Penetrating into all the cracks, falling into all the holes, climbing all the nooks and crannies, exploring all the attics and basements, touching everything and knocking over everything, getting bruises and bumps, he rushes around the apartment, around the yard, day after day, and without proper supervision - and along the streets. It is the hyperdynamic child who most often escapes from kindergarten, but not intentionally, but because he accidentally discovers an open gate or a gap in the fence. Naturally, the lion's share of accidents happens to him. His hands are in constant motion: they crumple something, tear something off, twirl buttons, pick out paint on the wall. He can't sit still. He even stands, shifting from foot to foot, and it seems that in just a moment he will take off and rush to the ends of the world. He eats standing up and cannot sit on a chair. He will get all creative, even while playing, listening to a fairy tale, looking at the TV screen. Sometimes I think that he will never learn to sit, just as I can’t believe that he will walk calmly and not run.
Some of the hyperdynamic children behave especially unbearably in the morning, others - in the evening, and then they cannot be put to sleep. They indulge and play in bed, fall asleep standing on their knees and elbows, and when they fall asleep, they knock the sheets into a ball because they are restless even in their sleep. Those who are restless in the morning fall asleep instantly and sleep like the dead. But they say about both the first and the second: “He is good when he sleeps!” And the parents take a breath and feel calm only after putting such a child to bed and making sure that he has finally calmed down.
Clothes and shoes literally burn on a hyperdynamic child. A hat, scarf, mittens, and then school bag he constantly loses, and you can’t save anything for him.
A hyperdynamic child is impulsive, and no one dares to predict what he will do next. And he himself doesn’t know it. Everything is short-circuited for him: he saw, grabbed, and ran. He acts without thinking about the consequences, although he does not plan anything bad and is sincerely upset by the incident for which he is to blame. However, more often he believes that he did not do anything wrong, because he did not want to do it. And if a hyperdynamic child broke a vase, then, in his opinion, it fell on its own because it didn’t stand well. He endures punishment easily, since traditional spankings, reproaches, and refusals of requests do not upset him. A hyperdynamic child does not remember the insult, does not hold a grudge, and although he constantly quarrels with his peers, he immediately puts up with them. True, sometimes he is overly hot-tempered, pugnacious, and then - not like a child, but embittered, aggressive, cruel. In such cases, the child may have more severe brain damage and increased convulsive readiness, which is revealed by an electroencephalographic study.
From an excess of feelings, a hyperdynamic child does not speak, but screams, proving, justifying, arguing. This is the noisiest child in the children's group. He chooses only lively and active games, in which everything comes down to running around. He is always at the center of any brawl. Not a single “heap is small” is complete without a hyperdynamic child. Extracted from the very middle of it, a rumpled but happy naughty man - that’s him, the hyperdynamic one. His clothes don’t dry out from sweat, his hair stands on end from constant overexcitement, his eyes sparkle and just don’t pop out of their sockets. He has many friends because he is sociable, ready to recklessly commit any mischief, does not whine when he hurts himself, and is never discouraged.
And yet, the biggest problem of a hyperdynamic child is distractibility. His head is like a weather vane in the wind: it turns in one direction, where something briefly attracted attention, then in the other. Having become interested in something, he forgets about the previous one and does not complete a single task. New impressions lead him from one hobby to another. If he ended up at the other end of the city, then, without knowing how, without remembering the path, because he walked first to an unusual car near the parapet, then to a bright shop window, then to the crowd that had gathered for the occasion, and as a result he found himself at the station police picket, from where every minute the radio sounds: “Attention, who’s missing boy?”
Everything attracts his attention, but it doesn’t linger on anything, it slides from one thing to another: one minute he’s watching a television program, then immediately turns his gaze to a fly on the ceiling, only to be distracted a second later by the conversation between his mother and grandmother. He can't concentrate in class at school. He looks at the board in fits and starts, and the teacher fails to attract his attention. He doesn’t hear her explanations, he never knows what the homework assignment is. When writing, a hyperdynamic child misses letters and does not complete words and sentences. In the simplest examples, he makes absurd mistakes, but not due to lack of ability, but most often due to extreme inattention and haste.
A hyperdynamic child is curious, but not inquisitive. He looks at everything, but as a result he sees nothing. If you don’t educate him, he will remain that way: not stupid, but not truly smart either. His knowledge, reasoning, and conclusions will be superficial, because even in his thoughts he is in a hurry, not dwelling on anything. The chaos in the head of a hyperdynamic child is akin to the chaos in his pockets and briefcase, where random and scattered objects are mixed in disarray. Without proper education, he will limit himself to simple questions “who is this?” and “what is this?”, “where?”, “where to?” and where?". The fundamental “why?” will sound, but a hyperdynamic child will be satisfied with the simplest answers, and the questions “why?” and that will be?" may never arise. As a result, his orientation will be reduced to superficial ideas about objects and people, to a simplified and concretely grounded knowledge of life, limited to nearby space and a narrowed microsocial environment.
The peak of manifestations of hyperdynamic syndrome is 6-7 years with reverse development in favorable cases by 14-15 years. However, the manifestations of the syndrome, obvious in a child already in the first year of life, with improper upbringing begin to have a devastating effect just from the age of 13 and older, in this case determining the fate of an adult.
In no other case does a child's difficulty, expressed in such blatant disinhibition and distractibility, cause so many complaints and complaints from parents, kindergarten teachers and teachers as in this case. A hyperdynamic child is most at risk of rejection. He is able to bring the calmest and most accustomed adults out of patience. No one is reproached, shamed, pulled back, or punished as much as he is. In the end, he is convinced that there is no more difficult and stupid child in the whole wide world. As a result, he becomes bitter and protests destructively. After all, in such children, even if only slightly, the nervous system is damaged - it is hyperexcitable. And such children are prone to an aggressive reaction to the constant tugging and suppression of their activity. If containment and suppression are constant and the child is “the worst,” the hyperdynamic child becomes the leader in a group of difficult teenagers with demonstrably deviant behavior who ignore their studies. In this variant, the leading symptom is disinhibition. If neglected, left to his own devices, he can become unstable, carried like a chip in a river, from trouble to trouble. The hyperdynamic child in this case blindly follows any teenage group. In this variant, the superficiality of personal orientations resulting from distractibility comes to the fore. Some of the hyperdynamic children, if they are still pestered with reproaches and punishments, are endlessly haunted by failures, and develop hysterical neurosis.
So, in hyperdynamic syndrome the leading factors are distractibility and disinhibition. They fight distractibility in the same way as with mental retardation, persistently and consistently. They begin to fight against disinhibition even before the child starts walking, and they fight stubbornly, emphatically instilling “don’ts” and “musts.” Parents clearly differentiate between purposeful activity and aimless mobility. A hyperdynamic child cannot stand still - let him not, because these are his innate characteristics nervous system. But from the time he begins to walk, and especially to run, his motor activity should be directed and organized. Organization motor activity– the key to curbing disinhibition. A grandmother cannot cope with raising such a child, since when guiding a hyperdynamic child, in order to lead him, she should run in front of him or next to him, run while playing. The game should be meaningful, and then running will not be aimless and turns into a purposeful activity.
A hyperdynamic child needs to play with his peers, but he unwittingly gets them running around too. Then they all switch to fast role-playing game with meaning. Let him play football and hockey until he is exhausted, since these games require organization and are subordinated to the goal - to hit the goal. Setting a goal and acting according to a plan is literally his salvation - aimless mobility is transformed into purposeful activity. And this will continue until purposeful activity becomes a habit.
A hyperdynamic child is usually physically strong, he often has a round head, short neck, broad shoulders. That is why he is more often susceptible to birth trauma, which means he is more likely to suffer from MMD.
He should be introduced to sports as early as possible. In sports, he realizes excessive energy, strength, and overexcitability. But sport also organizes; in sport, the fundamental principle is a goal, and a tempting one at that. A coach for a hyperdynamic child is not only a teacher, but also a doctor.
Having matured, a hyperdynamic child himself will learn to stand still, but he should be taught perseverance as early as possible. He should be seated at the table next to him when he is tired from running around, keeping busy with activities appropriate to his age. He builds, assembles, sculpts, draws. Let him make sure that these activities are as interesting as outdoor play. Yes, he has fast legs, but he also has a fast mind. And parents continue to introduce the hyperdynamic child into the direction of purposefulness, but at the desk. He tries, having remembered something, to jump up and run away, but his parents are adamant: “Sit down, finish it to the end.” At first it will be difficult for him, he will have to literally be restrained. However, perseverance will eventually become habitual for him. The time will come when he will be able to sit at his desk for the entire lesson, and the school break will be enough for him to run around to his heart's content.
Disinhibition in a hyperdynamic child also manifests itself in emotions. He, like any child, is taught restraint, but only more strictly and persistently. A hyperdynamic child is not constantly pulled, but acted upon by example, kind words, suggestion and persuasion. Let his emotions manifest themselves violently, but not rudely, within the limits of what is permitted.
A hyperdynamic child is punished for his misdeeds. Punishment for him is only dull immobility. To punish a hyperdynamic person with immobility means to sit him on the sofa with nothing to do, without a book, without a TV, far from the window. He will get exhausted and wriggle, but he will have to sit on the sofa in inactivity until the specified period, and he will remember this punishment.
If a hyperdynamic child first did something and then thought, they talk to him seriously, talk excitedly, so that this conversation is retained in his memory for a long time. Adults know cases of dramatic meetings and conversations that lead a person to rethink his life and leave an indelible mark on his memory.
Well, what if the child is already 5-6 years old, and the hyperdynamic syndrome persists? In this case, efforts to cultivate attention are doubled or tripled. There is no other way. The regime in which a hyperdynamic child is not allowed to wander around idle is being tightened. Aimless pastime is resolutely suppressed. The influence of forgiving adults is eliminated. The father is closely involved with his son, the mother with her daughter. The system of rewards and punishments is being strengthened. He is seated on the sofa and does not turn on the TV to watch the long-awaited program until he collects the scattered toys or washes the cup. He will be in a hurry and will do it somehow - they will force him to redo it as it should, even if it is repeated several times. In this case, disagreements in upbringing are especially unacceptable in the family. The family acts as one person, the requirements of all its members are the same. Naturally, parents seek advice from a neuropsychiatrist, especially since the causes of hyperdynamism should be understood for each individual child. By the 1st grade of school, manifestations of hyperdynamic syndrome should be overcome.
Among children suffering from MMD, each fourth child hypodynamic syndrome. In a child with hypodynamic syndrome, as a result of microbirth trauma, the subcortical structures of the brain are damaged, so he has weak stimulation of brain activity from these structures, and he seems to be asleep, he is inhibited. A hypodynamic child is inactive and lethargic. After sucking the breast, he immediately falls asleep. He cries somehow sluggishly, as if not hoping to achieve anything by crying. Later, the hypodynamic child gives the impression of not yet waking up, sleeping on the move. It is difficult to interest him in anything and you have to constantly bother him to encourage him to do something.
In a hypodynamic child, the muscles are hypotonic, flaccid, and weakened. He often suffers from excess body weight. A hypodynamic child is awkward, his movements are poorly coordinated. His arms move as if on their own and when walking they hang motionless along his body. One gets the impression that they are only bothering him. Such a child avoids playing with children, partly out of reluctance, partly out of necessity - due to awkwardness, sluggishness, and clumsiness. A sad, awkward figure somewhere in the corner of a kindergarten playroom or in a school corridor is the figure of a hypodynamic child.
Since the brain of a hypodynamic child seems to be asleep, he appears mentally retarded, and only the mother knows that he is not stupid. However, they do not believe her, because they see the child’s indifferent face and he either does not participate in the conversation, or answers questions sluggishly, in monosyllables, without thinking, just to get rid of the annoying interlocutor. Poor performance upsets him only because his mother is upset. At school they call him a mattress. His biggest dream is to sit at the back desk, not be noticed by anyone, to be left alone, not to be called to the blackboard. He avoids physical education lessons in every possible way, because his awkwardness is especially obvious in them, and it is in these lessons that he becomes the object of ridicule from his peers. He was not only sluggish physically, but also emotionally and mentally.
A hypodynamic child secretly experiences constant ridicule, he is pulled back because he is constantly bothered, and in this case he develops neurosis (neurasthenia).
In such a child, the reticular formation of the brain has an insufficient stimulating effect on the cerebral cortex, and parents make up for this deficiency with stimulation from the outside. You shouldn’t shout at him, you shouldn’t bother him uselessly, but you need to interest him in something. Interest in this case is everything. If this is done kindly, unobtrusively, taking into account his current state, the hypodynamic child gradually comes to life. He pedals a bicycle if his father is next to him, and lies near the bicycle if he is left to his own devices. They walk with him a lot to both activate him and develop him physically. After all, in sports section, where he will certainly become an object of ridicule, he has nothing to do. The adult next to him encourages him to react more quickly by personal example, acting in such a way that the hypodynamic child is forced to keep up. They play ball with him at the maximum pace possible for him. The pace is imposed by the nature of the game itself (football, hockey - for a boy; jump rope, playing tag - for a girl) or the goal: “Let's finish the job, let's go to the zoo.” They play a word matching game with him, where he has to quickly find a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. He is imperceptibly involved in the competitive game and, trying to keep up with others, will have an incentive to act faster. Parents develop his dexterity, force him to move more, follow a diet, fight against excess body weight so that he does not become a target for ridicule, so that he does not have a feeling of inadequacy as the basis of neurosis.
Children with MMD sometimes have dysarthria - severe disturbances in the pronunciation of sounds ("porridge in the mouth"), and they do not pronounce many of them. Dysgraphia is discovered at school - bad handwriting, omission of vowels or consonants in a letter, replacement of some letters with others, their mirror spelling. Unsatisfactory grades in writing are truly a “symptom” of MMD. In grades 4-5, children with MMD do not achieve enough in mathematics. However, persistent training helps to overcome these consequences of MMD. The help of a neurologist and psychiatrist in such cases is extremely necessary.
The fight against the consequences of MMD, hyper- and hypodynamic syndromes is a convincing example of how a very unfavorable biological factor of childhood difficulty can be stopped and overcome by persistent educational influences, if they are timely, thoughtful and kind.;
