The child's intelligence is below average. Working with a child

How to determine intellectual abilities? What to do if the child’s intelligence is below average? What activities can help your baby? Children examined in the clinic with below average intelligence are called the “gray zone.”

Although these children's cognitive abilities are severely limited, they are not eligible for special education and therefore must perform the same tasks as their more capable peers. Therefore, the role of the clinic in supporting these children, shaping their environment, choosing activities and therapy is very important. Without help, they will not only not use their undervalued intellectual potential, but also their intellectual efficiency, opportunities for development and acquisition of skills and knowledge necessary for life in the world around them will be significantly limited.

How to determine intellectual abilities? IQ test

Is being a parent easy? You may like our selection: The best courses for parents!

An IQ test is designed to determine a child's intellectual abilities. This allows you to predict what he can achieve in life. Students are screened primarily to support their development and enable them to grow to their fullest potential.

According to various sources, more than ten percent of the population has an IQ below average. There are two or three such children in each group.

According to the Wechsler test, their IQ ranges from 84 to 70. Although they all have very limited intellectual capabilities, they are not a homogeneous group; their development is determined by different factors.

1. The first group includes children whose developmental difficulties are a consequence of pedagogical neglect. Growing up in unfavorable economic, emotional or social conditions, they are deprived of stimuli that influence their cognitive development. They do not fully utilize their intellectual potential during development. As a consequence, low overall scores are achieved in intelligence tests. Because their innate potential is quite high, these children have a good pace of learning, and through appropriate didactic and educational interactions they can quickly catch up with developmental delays.
2. The second group are children with a slow but correct course of cognitive processes. These are students who need more time to complete the tasks assigned to them. Consequently, they score low on timed tests compared to their actual IQ.
3. The third group includes children whose overall intelligence test result is reduced due to partial or fragmented deficits in psychomotor development. They are characterized by disharmonious mental development.
4. The next group are children whose actual intellectual level is below normal, but thanks to intense environmental stimulation and good mechanical memory, they can achieve a false result when studying intelligence.
5. The last group is children with an intelligence level significantly below average. These children scored below average on all scales of the Wechsler Intelligence Test.

Blame others for their failures

This habit is expressive, unprofessional, and not typical of a person with a high IQ. Trying to blame other people for your failures does not characterize the smartest person. People with low IQs prefer not to be responsible for wrong decisions; it is better for them to “wallow” in self-pity or simply blame others for everything.

T. Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, says: “Don't blame or shift responsibility to someone else. If you played a role—even a small one—in a particular case and something went wrong, admit it,” says Bradbury. “Once you start blaming others for your failures, others will begin to perceive you as someone who is not responsible for his actions.”

An indicator of high intelligence is the recognition that a mistake is a chance to gain new experience. J. S. Moser from the University of Michigan, in the course of his research, came to the conclusion that the brains of intelligent individuals react to mistakes and failures in different ways.

A child's intelligence is below average: a characteristic feature

Students with below average IQs are characterized by traits that cause and exacerbate school failure. Their problems are very diverse and for each they take on an individual character. They arise, among other things, as a result of partial and fragmented disorders of psychomotor development, which are the result of minimal structural changes in the central nervous system.

1. The deficit manifests itself primarily in conceptual and verbal thinking, and therefore the thinking of these children, even as they age, is characterized by specificity.
2. In addition, they have low categorization and generalization, which slows down the pace of work in the learning process.
3. They also find it difficult to internally organize newly acquired knowledge and integrate it with existing knowledge, as well as generalize and use it in various fields.
4. Because these children are poor at distinguishing important from unimportant features, they memorize large amounts of material without understanding its content. Consequently, they require more repetition and work methods tailored to their individual needs.
5. Low intellectual level also affects educational problems, which give rise to rigid thinking, low independence and lack of criticism.

Immaturity of thinking

It manifests itself in the form of infantilism in a person’s views, reasoning, worldview and behavior. It is often found in adult men and women as an inability for normal communication and social interaction with the outside world.

Experts suggest that current generations of children are growing slower in terms of mental maturity than previous generations. The influence of modern technologies also leads to a deterioration in verbal and non-verbal communication skills, which undoubtedly reduces the intellectual abilities of humanity as a whole.

Child's intelligence is below average: recommendations

Recommendations for working with a child are a very important element

• Slow pace of thinking - adjusting the amount of material processed by reducing it in accordance with the receptive abilities of the child and increasing working time, for example during tests.
• Rapid forgetfulness - Frequent repetition of developed material and return to processed content. Request and check material in small batches.
• Concrete-figurative thinking - Solving problems on specific material.
• Little independence of thought - Constantly ensuring that the student understands the task and his role in completing it. Systematically supporting the child in his thought process, integrating his reasoning and guiding him on the right path. Add additional explanations to the task as needed.
• No critical thinking - Urge to reconsider the terms of the task. Search together with the child for various instructions and arguments necessary to solve it.
• Rigidity of thinking - Searching together with the child for various solutions to the tasks assigned to him. Encouraging the search for arguments that support a point of view.

Events

Partial and fragmented disorders of psychomotor development require therapeutic and compensatory measures. Depending on their needs and capabilities, children should attend classes with a teacher and speech therapist. Because students with intellectual disabilities often have sensory integration problems, they should participate in these activities whenever possible.

An innovative therapy developed for children with speech delays, attention deficits and auditory perception disorders is individual hearing stimulation. Biofeedback is another method that has been used successfully for slow-paced children. To avoid learning lag, aggravated by school deficits, students with reduced intellectual potential should be included in remedial classes.

The above-mentioned activities are important for the group of children under discussion not only because they compensate for their educational deficiencies, correct developmental deficiencies and support the learning process, but also improve their self-esteem and motivate them to continue working.

Because children with low intelligence have problems not only acquiring knowledge, but also processing and integrating it, they need more time for this process. Too many stimuli due to the accumulation of activity causes disruption of the process. Therefore, although these students require stimulation, the choice of therapy should be deliberate and limited. Time outside of compulsory classes should allow for intellectual development, but there should also be time for play, interaction with peers, and the acquisition of social skills that are also important for mature functioning.

Illiterate life planning

There is a fairly popular myth in society that keeping diaries or diaries is the lot of children, teenagers and narrow-minded adults. However, in reality, the basis of learning to plan life usually begins with the skill of organizing and allocating one’s own resources and time.

At the beginning of their journey, most successful businessmen learned to competently plan their affairs and daily routine, and keep records of income and expenses. Skillful ordering of life, in turn, is considered a sign of a person’s high level of intelligence.

Countering Dysfunctional Behavior

Children with below average intelligence due to deficits in their thinking process as well as low intrinsic motivation and low self-esteem often exhibit dysfunctional behavior.

Unable to meet the demands of more intellectually developed children, they easily slide into disadvantaged peer groups. They take destructive, reprehensible and often illegal actions, thereby increasing their low self-esteem. Therefore, during the learning process, these children should never be compared with their more talented classmates. It is reasonable for them to develop at their own pace, acquiring knowledge and skills that enable them to function properly in society. It is extremely important to value their contribution to the learning process and not rely solely on its results. This motivates them to make further efforts.

In children with low intelligence, external motivation predominates. Therefore, in the educational process you need to use as many positive reinforcements as possible. The assigned rewards can be in the form of praise, a handshake, an encouraging smile from the teacher, or something more tangible, such as a sticker. Parents can reward their child for completing a task by, for example, giving them more attention and time, playing together, organizing a bike ride, or baking a cake together.

If a child's intelligence is below average, he should be integrated into a constructive peer group. To do this, you can use his individual talents, for example, motor skills, which are often present in boys, and include them in sports club activities.

Another solution could be a youth movement, such as belonging to a scout group. Therapy should be prescribed for a child who is already exhibiting aggressive behavior. Good results can be achieved due to his character, for example, with the help of Anti-Aggression Training (ART).

Doesn't care about others' feelings

A reasonable person can put himself in the shoes of others, which allows him to understand their position. R. James of the University of Texas, in a study of 1,000 Americans, found that highly intelligent people often offer help without expecting anything in return. Therefore, scientists believe that the ability to take into account the needs of others makes smart people more likely to help.

“Individuals with advanced thinking abilities can understand other people’s feelings,” the study says. People with low IQ find it difficult to imagine that someone could have a different opinion, so they do not agree with him. In their minds, the idea of ​​doing something for someone else without expecting kindness is, to say the least, strange.

Child's intelligence is below average: external exams

Children with below average intelligence, despite the many deficiencies they present, are not entitled to change the forms and conditions of work during external examinations. This is very harmful for them, since their work is assessed on the same basis as children who do not have problems affecting their educational process. It is therefore wise to discuss with the parent whether, in addition to low intelligence, there are other factors that may influence the use of a personalized approach during exams. One of them may be a disease, in which case the conditions are adjusted based on a medical certificate. The conclusion of the pedagogical council can help create individual conditions for the child if in a given school year the child was provided with psychological and pedagogical assistance at school due to a violation of language communication.

Interesting facts about low IQ

There are certain facts that indicate that a person has low intelligence. An individual with low mental abilities may be identified by one of the following signs:

1. Does not understand the feelings and emotions of other people.
2. Believes that others are too sensitive.
3. Never accepts a point of view different from his own.
4. Blames others for all his problems and mistakes.
5. The character is characterized by sharp and sudden emotional outbursts.
6. Cannot cope with tense situations.
7. Empathy is almost completely or completely absent.
8. Doesn't know how to maintain friendly relationships with people.

It is important to remember that determining the level of intelligence by just a few indicators is biased and cannot be an argument proving the lack of developed mental abilities in a person.