Mental retardation is defined as incomplete or insufficient general development of mental capacities; Stein and Susser, 1992. The estimated prevalence of mental retardation at any one time is about 1% of the population, American Psychiatric Association, 1994. The estimated prevalence of mental retardation in Egyptian regular primary schools was 8.7% , El-hamady, 1989. This study aims at identifying socio-demographic and familial features of mentally retarded children. In addition to study, some physical characters and abilities of them. This study was able to cover 120 children aged from 6 up to 17 years at special schools of Benha City. The studied mentally retarded children were classified into three grades according to their I.Q (Intelligence Quotient) level using modified Stanford-Binet test. The study revealed that the male/female ratio was 2.9:1, the widest range was found among mild group (4:1). Regarding residence rural/urban ratio was 2.3:1. the majority of studied group (94.2%) belonged to low educated mothers while eighty percent of mild grade mentally retarded children had positive history of their parent’s consanguinity. The study showed that there are statistically significant difference between mother’s age at delivery and I.Q grades of their mentally retarded children P<0.05, short attention span and distractibility are often signs of brain damage and was detected in about 74% of the total sample mostly among severely retarded children who showed the highest percentage of abnormal faces while no abnormal faces were detected among mild group. Growth retardation was a constant feature in children with mental retardation. Tone abnormalities were observed mainly among severe cases, in addition 71.4% of them had muscle weakness and 84.6% had gait abnormalities with statistical significant difference.
Thus, it is a must to plan a comprehensive program to minimize this problem to stress on preventable factors, community development, family welfare and public awareness and education are important preventable means.
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