Symptoms of Intellectual Disability in Children
May 24, 2022
Source: Cainiu Health
Dr. Zhang Weiling
Introduction
Specific symptoms of intellectual disability in children include:
- Difficulty feeding, inability to suckle, and frequent spitting up or vomiting—indicating possible neurological impairment that may adversely affect future intellectual development.
- Abnormal facial features: Some infants with congenital intellectual disability exhibit distinctive facial or physical abnormalities.
- Delayed speech development: Children with intellectual disability often show significant language delays—typically 4–5 months behind, or even 1–2 years behind—before these delays become apparent.
High-risk factors for intellectual disability in children include advanced maternal age, consanguineous marriage, a family history of intellectual disability, maternal infection during early pregnancy, abnormal delivery, or severe illness after birth. Specific symptoms are as follows:
① Difficulty feeding
This commonly occurs during infancy. One of the earliest signs observed in infants with intellectual disability is difficulty feeding—such infants often fail to suckle effectively and are prone to frequent spitting up or vomiting, indicating possible neurological impairment that may adversely affect future intellectual development.
② Abnormal facial features
Some infants with congenital intellectual disability exhibit distinctive facial or physical abnormalities. They often appear expressionless and unresponsive, lacking the alertness seen in typically developing infants, who usually begin attending to their surroundings by one month of age. In contrast, infants with intellectual disability show little interest in people or objects around them. For example, children with Down syndrome commonly display widely spaced eyes, upward-slanting palpebral fissures, a flattened nasal bridge, protruding tongue, and excessive drooling.
③ Delayed language development
Typically developing infants begin imitating sounds at 7–8 months, say “Dada” or “Mama” around one year of age, utter approximately ten words by 18 months, comprehend simple instructions, start asking basic questions around age two, and can generally express their thoughts by age three. Children with intellectual disability, however, may lag behind by four to five months—or even one to two years—in achieving these milestones. Additionally, lack of attention to verbal communication from caregivers should also be regarded as an early warning sign of delayed intellectual development.
