What is a cognitive problem ? It is an intellectual disability or cognitive impairment, it is a condition beginning in childhood in which people show significant limitations in their ability to learn and function.
This condition affects skills such as communication (taking much longer to learn to speak), self-help (walk, taking care of their personal needs such as dressing or eating), social skills, trouble learning in school, attention, sleep, aggression, self-harming behaviors, etc. They will learn, but it will take them longer than a normal individual.
The limitations that accompany this situation actually cause a slower rate of growth, learning and development in these children than observed in a typical child. It is diagnosed with the help of some standardized tests of intelligence and adaptive behavior, universally accepted and reliable. It can be caused by some injury, disease, genetic condition, or a brain abnormality. Also this can happen before a child is born or during childhood. For many children, the cause of their intellectual disability is not known.
About 5% of the individuals in the population mild range deficit category, with many others in above and below categories too.
Causes of Cognitive Problems generally divided into these factors:
- Prenatal causes (those that occur before birth) may include genetic abnormalities, infections, exposures to substances that cause birth defects, and central nervous system, malnutrition, down syndrome and fragile X syndrome etc.
- Perinatal causes (those occurring around the time of birth) may include fetal malnutrition, prematurity, and decreased oxygen to the brain.
- Postnatal or acquired causes (those after the newborn period) may include trauma, accidental and non accidental), suffocation, infections, toxic ingestions, brain damage, central nervous system tumors or cancer, degenerative disorders, and environmental influences such as psychosocial deprivation, severe malnutrition, etc.
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