Forrest Gump: The Cause Of Intellectual Disabilities

In the movie Forrest Gump, at a young age him and his mother find out his test scores showed she scored lower than the average range a child needs to be in. Because of that, he was classified as developmentally delayed. A child can only be classified as developmentally delayed until age eight, as they grow up and become adults, their classification changes to developmental disability.
Developmental delay is when a child fails to reach a certain milestone that is expected to happen at their age. This type delay can happen in multiple areas, such as motor skills, language, social, or thinking skills. Parents will typically first notice that their child is not progressing at the same rate as other children around their age, so they would refer …show more content…
A developmental disability is diagnosed before the age of eighteen. It is characterized as someone with below average intelligence and a lacking the basic skills necessary for daily living. Another term that is used is mental retardation, but the use of the term is less desirable and can be taken offensively. There are many causes of intellectual disability, and there are only a few cases where doctors can actually identify the specific reason. The causes can include infections that are present at or occur after birth, chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome, environmental factors, nutritional factors, toxic factors such as drugs or alcohol, or it is simply unknown. The symptoms of the disorder are lack of slow development of motor, language, and self help skills compare to peers, they failed to properly develop intellectually, lack of curiosity, they have problems staying on task in school, they fail to adapt to changing situations, and have a difficult time understand and following social rules (Kaneshiro, 2013). How people treated Forrest Gump growing up, it was as though no one even knew he had a developmental disability. He accomplished so many things that a person with average intelligence could do. He does not see his disability as a problem. Just like his mother reinforced to him, he perceives himself as if he is just like everyone else. He did have problems with trying to keep …show more content…
His developmental delay was in his cognitive processing and it is the same disorder for him as an adult. He had a very strong support system from his mother, and Jenny was a big advocate to him as well, being a good friend and taking care of him from others who intentionally wanted to harm him as well. The movie shows that a person can grow up to be just like anyone else despite the disorder; some people may even overlook that someone is living with a disorder if they can show they can properly function like anyone