About Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month
Every March, the National Association for Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) celebrates Developmental Disabilities Awareness month. The event raises awareness about the inclusion of individuals with developmental disabilities. Moreover, Developmental Disabilities Awareness month aims to create awareness of barriers that people with developmental disabilities often face when trying to connect to their communities.
Established in 1988, The National Association for Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) is an international organization devoted to fostering meaningful social and economic opportunities through work with people with developmental disabilities. It is one of the largest national membership organizations dedicated to serving people with disabilities. Their efforts have been focused on reducing discrimination and providing quality services to people with disabilities. Their website is a great resource for parents and educators of children and adults with developmental disabilities.
What is a Developmental Disability?
The term ‘developmental disabilities’ refers to a range of conditions. People with developmental disabilities are typically faced with impairments in certain aspects of their physical, sensory, learning, language, or behavior. Developmental disabilities can affect a parson’s day-to-day functioning, and usually continue through life.
Developmental disabilities first occur during early childhood. The majority of developmental disabilities are diagnosed between the ages of 18 and 24 months. A child with a developmental disability may not have any visible symptoms present at birth. As time goes by, the child may start to show signs of delayed development. Some common signs of developmental disabilities that may start to show at a young age are:
- Delayed motor skills
- Delayed language skills
- Difficulty with feeding and swallowing
It is also important for parents to watch for signs that children are having trouble recognizing familiar people, responding to their name, sleeping issues, nightmares and bedwetting. Some of the more well-known developmental disabilities that have been identified include:
- Autism
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
- Angelman Syndrome
- Bipolar Disorder
- Central Auditory Processing Disorder
- Down Syndrome
- Expressive Language Disorder
- Fragile X Syndrome
- IsoDicentric 15
- Landau-Kleᰀner Syndrome
- Learning Disabilities
- Neural Tube Defects
- Phenylketonuria
- Prader-Willi Syndrome
- Spina bifida
- Tourette Syndrome
- Williams Syndrome
- Velocardiofacial syndrome
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Autism
The most well-known developmental delay is autism spectrum disorder in which the person has no visible symptoms in the first year of life and may show symptoms later on. Some people, however, are never diagnosed.
Autism is a condition that affects the way people communicate with others. There is a wide range of different symptoms that accompany Autism, and that’s based on a case by case basis. People with autism can have trouble recognizing non-verbal communication and understanding social cues, such as facial expressions, body language or tone of voice. They may also experience difficulty in making friends or forming relationships based on their own interests. This is one of the many reasons that Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is so important.
ADHD
Autism is often comorbid ADHD. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects a person’s ability to pay attention. This can come in the form of hyperactive physical characteristics such as fidgeting and jumping up and down, or it may not have any identifiable physical characteristics. The main thing about ADHD is the inability to concentrate for long periods of time. People diagnosed with ADHD may also experience anxiety disorders and mood dysregulation.
Angelman Syndrome
Angelman syndrome is a disorder primarily affecting the nervous system. This condition can be characterized by the following characteristics: delay in development, nonverbal or severe speech impairment, intellectual disabilities, seizures, difficulties with balance as well as movement in general, and epilepsy.
One of the most recognisable traits of Angelman Syndrome is happiness. People with Angelman Syndrome tend to smile more, laugh more, and fidget more. It is the loss of a gene called UBE3A results in many of the hallmarks of angelman disease.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental illness that brings severe high (hyperactive) and low (depressed) moods and changes in behavior, sleep, energy, and thinking. People who have bipolar disorder tend to swing between feeling super energetic and abundantly happy to feelings of heaviness and sadness. Without treatment, depressive episodes can last hours, days, weeks, months, or even years.
It's also thought bipolar disorder is linked to genetics, as it seems to run in families. Chemical imbalances in the brain are thought to be at the root of bipolar disorders. A neurotransmitter are chemicals that control brain functions. These neurotransmitters/brain chemicals are called noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. An abundance of one can lead to a lack of another.
Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) can make it hard for some children to comprehend what they hear. This is because their ears and brain don’t coordinate in a traditional way. Instead of not being able to hear what a person is saying, someone with CAPD will have difficulties processing the information.
There are four main auditory skills that may be a challenge for a person with APD:
- Auditory discrimination: the ability to notice, compare, and distinguish between certain sounds.
- Auditory figure-ground discrimination: the ability to focus on which sounds are the most important when in loud environments
- Auditory memory: recalling what has been said, both immediately and later
- Auditory sequencing: understanding and remembering the order of sounds and words
Conversing are rarely an easy task for people with CAPD. A person with CAPD may take a long time to respond to what others say. Their responses can sometimes be confusing if they are having difficulty processing what was said to them.
Down Syndrome
Down syndrome is a condition where a person is born with an extra chromosome. Each chromosome in our bodies is a collection of genetic information. In fetal development, chromosomes determine how a baby's body develops during its growth in the womb.
In a typical situation, an individual has 46 chromosomes. One of these chromosomes, chromosome 21, has an extra copy in babies with Down syndrome. Down syndrome is also sometimes referred to as ‘trisomy 21.’ The reason for this is that ‘trisomy’ is the medical term for an extra copy of a chromosome.
Down syndrome has some physical markers that are used in diagnosis. Although people with Down syndrome may appear to look alike, no one person is the same as the next. Each diagnosis is different as well. Many people with Down syndrome are able to hold down a job and live pretty independently as well.
Expressive Language Disorder
An expressive language disorder is a communication issue that manifests in a person's ability to express information. Expressive Language Disorder presents in speech, writing, sign language or gestures.
Children and adults with expressive language disorder may also have receptive language disorder. This leads to problems with understanding what others are saying in words or body language. Expressive language disorder can be present from birth and/or it can progress during early development. Trauma to the brain can also cause expressive language disorder.
Fragile X Syndrome
Fragile X syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by an alteration to a gene on the X chromosome. People with Fragile X syndrome often struggle with a wide range of physical, developmental, behavioural and emotional difficulties. Severity of symptoms vary greatly between one person and the next.
More specifically, Fragile X is also associated with intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sensory sensitivities and difficulty with social interactions. Fragile X sometimes has physical and verbal attributes that are also present in some types of Autism. These tend to be hand flapping and repeating words or sentences.
IsoDicentric 15
IsoDicentric 15 is a syndrome caused by having at least one extra copy of chromosome 15. Specifically, the condition only emerges on the copy of the chromosome inherited from the mother.
IsoDicentric 15, also known as dup15q syndrome, presents as impairment of gross and fine motor skills. Most people who have IsoDicentric 15 will learn to walk after the age of 2 or 3, and will most likely have a less typical walking gait.
IsoDicentric 15 also causes intellectual disabilities that range in severity. A significant number of people with IsoDicentric 15 are either nonverbal or have difficulty forming words.
The IsoDicentric 15 syndrome is almost always comorbid with Autism and anxiety. As with some people who are on the autism spectrum, individuals with IsoDicentric 15 may find themselves repeating words or phrases. There are also behavioral difficulties linked to dup15q syndrome, including other features of ASD such as difficulty with routine change and difficulties with socializing.
Landau-Kleᰀner Syndrome
Landau Kleffner syndrome (LKS) is a childhood disorder marked by the loss of verbal expression and language comprehension. Most children who have Landau Kleffner syndrome are diagnosed between 5 and 7 years old. It is sometimes possible to bring back some language use with early intervention and medication.
Landau Kleffner syndrome can come on either slowly or all at once. The major symptoms include loss of the ability to use or understand language, hyperactivity, anxiety, aggression as well as seizures that tend to resolve with age.
Although the cause of LKS is widely unknown, studies are beginning to show a potential tie to changes in the GRIN2A gene. The gene tells the body how to manufacture a specific protein that transmits signals to the brain's neurons. GRIN2A gene mutations have so far been found in a small subgroup of children.
Prader-Willi Syndrome
Prader-Willi syndrome is a genetic condition that affects numerous parts of the body. It causes slow growth, difficulty feeding, low muscle tone, and delayed developmental patterns at a young age. Children with Prader-Willi syndrome will usually suffer from obesity due to an insatiable appetite and chronic overeating. This can lead to Type 2 Diabetes.
A person with Prader-Willi syndrome typically has intellectual impairment or learning disabilities of mild to moderate degrees. Prader-Willi can cause some issues such as changes in temper, stubbornness, and compulsive behavior as well as sleep issues.
Tourette Syndrome
Tourette's syndrome is a condition that causes people to make involuntary movements and sounds. These involuntary movements and sounds are called ‘tics.’
Tourette's syndrome usually begins when a child is young, but the tics and other symptoms slowly improve over time, sometimes disappearing entirely. While there is no cure for Tourette’s Syndrome, support, medication and treatment can help minimize symptoms.
People with Tourette's syndrome may also have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety or learning difficulties.
Williams Syndrome
Williams syndrome, also known as Williams-Beuren syndrome, occurs in about one per 7,500 births. It is caused by the deletion of genetic material from a specific region of chromosome 7.
From birth, children with Williams syndrome present with a variety of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Children with Williams Syndrome tend to experience physical and intellectual difficulties. Some of the main intellectual symptoms are language, reading, attention and memory processing. Another symptom that people with Williams syndrome have is a very happy demeanor.
Velocardiofacial syndrome
Velocardiofacial syndrome, also known as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and DiGeorge syndrome, is a disorder caused by a missing part of chromosome 22. This ‘deletion’ results in the developmental delays.
Symptoms associated with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome vary from person to person. Common symptoms of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome include heart defects, impaired immune system function, cleft palate, calcium deficiency-related complications, and developmental delays as well as behavioral and emotional difficulties. Most people who have this condition need the care of specialists in a variety of medical fields.
Conclusion
March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness month and it’s one of the most important events of the year. It raises awareness about the inclusion of individuals with developmental disabilities and with it aims to create a better world.