Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of the Hearing, Vision, and Speech Organs - A. G. Shvetsov 2006

Introduction

Humans represent the highest stage of living organisms on Earth, acting as subjects of socio-historical activity and culture. They emerged on Earth through a complex and lengthy evolutionary-historical process, manifesting about 40,000 years ago as "Homo sapiens"—"wise man"—capable of understanding and conceptualizing the objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. Thus, thinking lies at the very core of human mental development.

"External forms of psychological communication, unique to humans, are possible only because humans reflect reality in a generalized way through thinking" (L. S. Vygotsky). This generalized reflection of reality through thought leads to The Emergence of special signs, primarily verbal, which enable effective human communication. Consequently, Thought Disorders give rise to various difficulties in the communicative sphere as well.

Thinking is so organically woven into every sphere of human activity—work, cognition, communication, and play—that it is often directly equated with an integral characteristic: intelligence (from the Latin intellectus—mind, reason, intellect). Its primary distinguishing feature is The ability to apply acquired knowledge for its further deepening and in practical life. The substructures of general intelligence are nonverbal and verbal intelligence.

Verbal intelligence is a cognitive ability that reflects the characteristics of general intelligence, relying primarily on knowledge, which, in turn, depends on the education, life experience, culture, and social environment of each individual. When assessing verbal intelligence, the capacity for logical generalization, the ability to draw inferences, and the independence and social maturity of thought are evaluated. Nonverbal intelligence depends less on knowledge and more on an individual's skills and psychophysiological characteristics, which are reflected in sensorimotor indicators. Here, The Development of other mental processes and properties is assessed—attention, perception, visual-motor coordination, and The rate of skill acquisition.

Overall, intelligence appears as a Structure of abilities, among which cognitive ones play the most important, but not the only, role, since The properties of attention, memory, and perception, which ensure human adaptation to the external environment, are of great importance for general (developed) intelligence.

Four stages of general intelligence development are identified:

§ sensorimotor intelligence stage—from 0 to 2 years;

§ preoperational thought stage—from 2 to 7–8 years;

§ concrete operations period—from 7–8 to 11–12 years;

§ formal operations period—begins at 12 years and develops throughout life.

The stages of intellectual development are tied to a specific age, but learning can accelerate progression through them. In the absence of learning due to various reasons, developmental delay may occur. It is important that the previous stages of intellectual development serve as the foundation for The formation of subsequent stages; therefore, the degree to which potential is realized in each stage determines the Development of the individual's general intelligence.

Verbal intelligence is entirely based on human cognitive ability, where the main tool is the word, or speech. Verbal-logical thinking begins to develop in children around 6–7 years of age, i.e., from THE START OF schooling, and the concept is identified as the basic unit of conceptual thinking, reflecting the general, most essential properties and features of objects and phenomena of reality. The acquisition of a concept depends on the proper functioning of the Sensory systems that determine the properties (features) of the object under consideration. Being a set of essential differential features, a concept is expressed in a verbal sign and is formed in a child through learning and the cognition of reality through practice and experience. Conceptual thinking is always conscious, verbalized thinking. Therefore, speech development disorders are invariably accompanied by a decline in cognitive activity and, consequently, a decline in intelligence. Thinking is closely linked to other mental processes—perception, representation, imagination, memory, and attention—but it extends further due to its generalized nature of reflecting reality. Nevertheless, the raw data for such generalization are also obtained through sensory systems, primarily visual and auditory, and their impairment contributes to the formation of deficient perception → representation → imagination, etc., which ultimately also affects the formation of an impaired intellect.

Despite the similarity between the terms "intellectual developmental lag" and "intellectual disability," they are far from the same. The former may be characteristic of children with damage to or underdevelopment of the peripheral part of a sensory analyzer, particularly visual, auditory, or speech-motor. However, since there is no organic Brain damage in such children, intellectual disability can be ruled out with complete certainty.

Intellectual disability is a persistent impairment of cognitive activity resulting from organic brain damage.

METABOLISM/2.html">THE CONCEPT OF "intellectual disability" is also not identical to the concept of "oligophrenia." Oligophrenias are viewed as a group of non-progressive pathological conditions, differing in Etiology, development, and clinical manifestations, whose common feature is the presence of congenital or early childhood (under 3 years) general mental underdevelopment, with a predominance of intellectual deficiency.

In oligophrenia, intellectual disability acts as the leading symptom of the disease, characterized by its own features compared to a similar symptom following an inflammatory brain disease (encephalitis, meningoencephalitis), brain contusions (birth and domestic injuries), intoxications (endocrine, metabolic), in mental illnesses (Schizophrenia, Epilepsy), and other diseases, as well as inherited genetic abnormalities. Many children with intellectual disabilities may exhibit Pathology of the emotional-volitional sphere and anomalies of physical development, but these features are not a universal characteristic of individuals with intellectual disabilities and cannot serve as sufficient grounds for a Diagnosis of intellectual disability. The decisive factor must be the presence of impairments in higher mental Functions. Thus, sensory perception impairments caused by pathology of the ears, eyes, or vocal apparatus are risk factors for the development of intellectual developmental lag, but not intellectual disability, which is most commonly associated with oligophrenia. On the other hand, oligophrenia, especially of a congenital nature, may be accompanied by impairments of the visual, auditory, and speech analyzers, creating additional difficulties in conducting rehabilitation measures for these patients.