Does looking at your hands mean your baby is mentally retarded?

If a baby often looks at his hands, it is not a sign of low intelligence. To say this is simply nonsense. Generally speaking, a baby looks at his hands because he is interested in his hands. This is also a normal development process for children. Looking at hands is also a state of play. There are many causes and symptoms of intellectual disability in babies. Let us now learn about some of the manifestations of intellectual disability in babies.

Symptoms of intellectual disability

1. Abnormal facial and body shape:

Symptoms include wide-set eyes, slanted eyes, collapsed nose, tongue hanging out of the mouth, drooling, etc. It is what people often call "face". Children with hydrocephalus have particularly large head circumference, while children with microcephaly have particularly small heads. People with hypothyroidism are particularly short, people with phenylketonuria have abnormally white skin and very light hair, etc.

2. Motor development retardation

He learns to lie down, raise his head, sit, stand and walk later than children of the same age. In particular, it will manifest as late walking, often after the age of 4, the child will be able to walk independently, and his or her walking is unstable.

3. Language development is delayed:

Generally speaking, children will be able to imitate sounds at 7-8 months old, begin to consciously call mom and dad at around one year old, and after one and a half years old, they will be able to say commonly heard words and understand simple conversations. They can answer simple questions at around 2 years old and express their own thoughts at 2 and a half years old. If a child lags behind normal children by 5 months or even 1 or 2 years, parents should take it seriously and consider whether the child has intellectual disability.

4. Hyperactivity:

In contrast to children who are too quiet, hyperactivity is also a characteristic of some intellectually retarded children. Many mentally retarded children cannot stay still for a while and are active all the time. This is especially evident in children aged 4 to 5 years old.

5. Lack of concentration:

Intellectually retarded children have difficulty concentrating. Their attention span is significantly shorter than that of normal children. Even when they are 5-6 years old, they can only concentrate on one thing for no more than 5-6 minutes. They also pay little attention to the outside world.

6. Visual and hearing impairment:

Severe visual and auditory defects, such as severe myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, total deafness, and hearing loss, also have a great impact on intelligence. Because vision and hearing are the means of communication between people and the outside world, they will lead to intellectual development delay.