...Is it possible to demand all this from a parent in such a situation? No. The parent himself is in a state of stress. And the child continues to live in all this variety of feelings... Another common reason for turning to a psychologist is the delay and retardation of the child in development. Of course, you can’t do this without a child psychologist. There are three key groups of factors that provoke a slow rate of formation of individual mental processes: 1) features of the course of pregnancy, 2) features of the childbirth process, 3) features of the socio-emotional climate of family relationships. Let’s not exclude genetic factor. Biological aspects are the competence of doctors, so we will focus only on the socio-emotional ones (item 3). These are the features of the interaction of mother and father with the child, the features of the relationship between the spouses, which the child reads even in the intrauterine state. On what manifestations of adults did the child grow up, be brought up, and continue to be brought up? Which of these manifestations could have made and/or continue to make a significant contribution to the child’s condition? Analysis of these points is vital in such a situation. And not in order to find out the reason for the sake of the reason or to understand who is to blame, but with one single goal: to work on mistakes and eliminate the irritant. What happens in reality? A baby diagnosed with mental retardation. He is actively taken to specialists (neurologists, psychologists, psychotherapists, speech therapists, PMPC), prescribe medication to reduce anxiety, improve brain activity, and pay close attention to individual developmental activities. Great. Is the psychologist working with the personality of each parent? Is work being carried out to find and eliminate those moments that could have an impact on the appearance of mental retardation? From the practice of personal observation, I can confidently say - no, it is not. And if anyone has other information, please share. This question remains entirely at the discretion of the parents. And here everything depends solely on their objectivity, self-criticism, composure and willingness to look at themselves at this moment. Is it possible to demand all this from a parent in such a situation? Of course not. The parent himself is in a stressful state, which further affects the worsening of the family situation. As a result, all forces are thrown at the child until the parent(s) are completely exhausted. Exhausted parents simply have no time to stop and think about themselves. And the child continues to live in all this variety of “family feelings”... What is all this for? Yes, all in addition to the treatment of fever, which can be treated for a long time and intensively, but the efficiency will be appropriate , if you do not pay attention to one of the significant reasons for this very temperature. Here, of course, the financial side of the issue also comes into play, since good pediatric neurologists, psychologists, speech therapists and teachers are not a cheap pleasure. But (fortunately or unfortunately, everyone will decide for themselves) this does not cancel cause-and-effect relationships. My deep conviction: children and the difficulties of their development are a consequence. Parents, their behavior, their reactions are the reason. That is why my specialization is child-parent relationships exclusively with adults. As Kozma Prutkov said - Look at the root! When do we turn to psychologists? (Part 1)