Disability Certification - 2

 The Essential Components for Certification of Mental Retardation are:

·        Significantly sub average general intellectual functioning (Criterion A) – an I.Q of about 70 or below.

                   I.Q Level                                Degree of Disability

                  Between 50-69                      50 %                -- Mild MR

                  Between 35-49                      75 %   -- Moderate MR

                  Between 20-34                      90%     -- Severe MR

                  Below 20                                100%              -- Profound MR

Assessment of intelligence is a complex art. Intelligence consist about 200 different cognitive faculties like comprehension, abstract thinking, logical thinking, reasoning, arithmetic skills, memory, language, speed and accuracy, visual-motor skills, social intelligence, etc.

·         Significant limitation of adaptive functioning (Criterion B) refers to how effectively individuals cope with common day-to-day life demands, appropriate for their age group, socio-cultural background, and community setting. It includes the following skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self direction, academic skills, work, leisure, health and safety.

At least two of the above eleven areas to be affected to substantiate significant limitation of adaptive behaviour for certification purpose (DSM IV TR)

·   Onset before the age of 18 years (Criterion C) can be obtained from the history of the client.

·      Clinical findings [DSM IV TR & ICD 10] (Criterion D)

To be concluded, to certify mental retardation I.Q report alone should not be taken into consideration. Adaptive functioning, age of onset, clinical examination findings are to be considered along with I.Q report. Thus it is possible to diagnose Mental Retardation in individuals with I.Q of 75 if the certifying doctor feels that there is significant deficit (at least two skill areas) in adaptive behaviour. Conversely mental retardation need not be diagnosed in an individual with I.Q lower than 70 (65-70) if adaptive functioning is adequate. I.Q denotes cognitive functions which cannot change. While adaptive behaviour can improve with training. Individually administrated I.Q is a major tool to detect mental retardation but not the only tool.

(to be continued...)