COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN OF EQUAL DEGREE IN FAMILIES AND IN RESIDENTIAL CARE HOMES

127 children aged 7-11 years were examined, 42 of them with diagnosed mental retardation of moderate severity level (F 71 in accordance with ICD-10), including 15 children that were brought up by their families and 27 were kept in a specialized residential care home for mentally retarded children (without parental care).The control group consisted of 85 schoolchildren of the same age. Anthropometric parameters were measured to determine somatotype and harmony of physical development. It was found that mentally retarded children brought up in families didn’t differ from healthy children by the main anthropometric parameters. Children of this group had a slight tendency to be overweight and belong to macro- and micro- somatotypes. Children kept in specialized care homes were smaller than their age mates in other experimental groups, belonged mostly to microsomatotype and tended to have body mass deficit. The results prove that while examining physical health of mentally retarded children, it is necessary to take into account social factors such as presence or absence of parental care.

children, mental retardation, somatotypes, physical development