How Prevalent is Mental Retardation?
One out of every 10 Americans has a person with mental retardation in the family. About 3 percent of the population of the U.S. – or more than 7.5 million people – will be identified as mentally retarded at some point in their lives (See Table I). And more than 100,000 babies will join this group every year unless far-reaching preventive measures can be discovered and put to use. There are people with mental retardation of every race, religion and nationality; of every educational, social and economic background. Mental retardation is four times more common than rheumatic fever, nine times more prevalent than cerebral palsy and affects 15 times more people than blindness. How are People with Mental Retardation Different? Most of them are not very different at all. By definition, a person with mental retardation is one who, from childhood, develops at a below average rate and experiences difficulty in learning, social adjustment and often economic productivity. But the vast majority are
