Factors responsible for the mental retardation
a) It was observed that in most of the cases early marriage
of women resulted in child with mental retardation.
It was found that while mother’s Mean age
at the time of marriage was 18.5 years, 23.5 years
was father’s age.
b) 70% parents gave birth within one years of their
marriage while it was after two years for another 30
percent of the parents.
c) The study revealed that the mentally-retarded children
in the study area were born after an average of
one years of their parental marriage and the mother’s
mean age at birth of child with mental retardation
was 19.5. Large majority 82.5 % of the mentally-
retarded children were born at hospital of which
80 percent were normal.
d) The study showed that low birth weight caused
mental retardation in children. Their average weight
at birth was 2.0 kg. More than three fourth (78.5%)
of the parents noticed their child’s disability while
they were at an average age of 2.1 year.
e) It is important to note that a large majority (80%) of
the mentally-retarded children was not affected by
any diseases after birth; three-fourth (72.5%) of their
ancestors were not affected by any disability; and
almost all (95%) their family members were also
free from mental retardation, according to the parents.
It indicated that even though the parents were
free from disease or disability they gave birth to
mentally-retarded children which proves that the
mental retardation was not determined during pregnancy