Published Paper Details:

The mentally challenged child is sensitive of its surroundings and is able to sense the attitude of his/her family members. Keeping this in mind the focus of the present study is to identify mentally challenged children and to investigate the role of home environment in their cognitive growth. To achieve this purpose 100 mild/moderate mentally challenged (MMC) children and 100 normal intelligent children were selected as the sample. The age group of children was from 9 to 11 years. For identifying mentally challenged children the Raven�s Coloured Progressive Matrices, teacher�s rating and school records were used. To assess the home environment of children the Home Environment Inventory by Mishra (1989) was used. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between experimental and control group on 7 out of 10 dimensions of home environment. The study clearly indicates that a spontaneous cognitive development of children with mental retardation not only requires a supportive, favorable and warm home environment but also controlled and disciplined upbringing.