• Developmental Disorders:

Developmental disability/Disorders is an
umbrella term for a group of conditions that begin during the
developmental period and usually last throughout a person’s lifetime,
resulting in impairments in physical, learning, language, and/or social-
emotional areas.

- In the context of intellectual disability, a developmental period refers

to a specific stage or phase in an individual's life where significant
changes and milestones occur in their cognitive, physical, emotional,
and social development. These periods are important because they
shape a person's overall growth and abilities.
- It is usually before the age of 22
 Intellectual Disability ( Mental Retardation)
- Intellectual disability (ID) (previously referred to as mental retardation) is a disorder evident
in childhood as significantly below average intellectual and adaptive functioning (Toth & King,
2010).
Or
Intellectual disabilities are characterized by significant limitations both in general
mental capacity (e.g., reasoning, learning, problem solving) and in adaptive
behavior (e.g., everyday social and practical skills). Intellectual disability originates
before the age of 18. This term replaces the term mental retardation.
• Criteria to Diagnose Mental Retardation
• The DSM-IV TR definition has three criteria that must be met for a diagnosis of mental retardation:
• 1.Significantly subnormal intellectual functioning,
• 2. Impairments in adaptive functioning, and
• 3. Onset before 18 years of age
• 1. According to the DSM, subnormal intellectual functioning is an IQ of approximately 70 or less
obtained on a standardised and well recognized instrument that has been developed specifically to assess
intelligence
• 2. Adaptive functioning refers to mastering childhood skills such as toileting and dressing; understanding
the concepts of time and money; being able to use tools, to shop, and to travel by public transportation; and
becoming socially responsive. An adolescent, for example, is expected to be able to apply academic skills,
reasoning, and judgement to daily living and to participate in group activities. An adult is expected to be self-
supporting and to assume social responsibilities.
• Several tests have been constructed to assess adaptive behaviour. Best known are the Adaptive
Behaviour Scale, or ABS and the Vineland Adaptive behaviour Scales (Sparrow, Ballo, & Cicchetti , 1984)
• 3. The final definition criterion is that mental retardation should manifest before age eighteen, so that
any deficits in intelligence and adaptive behaviour from injury and illness occurring later in the life is not
classified as mental retardation. Children with severe impairments are often diagnosed during infancy
• Levels of Mental Retardation:
• - Mild Mental Retardation: Mild mental retardation (IQ range, 50-55 to 70) represents
approximately 85 percent of persons with mental retardation. In general, children with mild mental
retardation are not identified until after first or second grade, when academic demands increase. By
late adolescence, they often acquire academic skills at approximately a sixth grade level. Specific
causes for the mental retardation are often unidentified in this group. As adults they are likely to be
able to maintain themselves in unskilled jobs or in sheltered workshops, although they may need
help with social and financial problems. Many adults with mild mental retardation can live
independently with appropriate support and raise their own families.

• Moderate Mental Retardation: Moderate mental retardation (IQ range, 35-40 to 50-55) represents about
10 percent of persons with mental retardation. Most children with moderate mental retardation acquire
language and can communicate adequately during early childhood. They are challenged academically and
often are not able to achieve academically above a second to third grade level. During adolescence,
socialization difficulties often set these persons apart, and a great deal of social and vocational support is
beneficial. Brain damage and other pathologies are frequent. People with moderate mental retardation
may have physical defect and neurological dysfunctions that hinder fine motor skills, such as grasping
and coloring within lines, and gross motor skills, such as running and climbing. As adults, persons with
moderate mental retardation may be able to perform semiskilled work under appropriate supervision.
• Severe Mental Retardation: Severe mental retardation (IQ range, 20-25 to 35-40) comprises about 4
percent of individuals with mental retardation. They typically demonstrate basic motor and
communication deficits during infancy. Many also show signs of neurological dysfunction and have an
increased risk for brain seizure disorder, or epilepsy. In school, they may be able to string together only
two or three words when speaking. Individuals in this category usually require careful supervision,
profit somewhat from vocational training, and can perform only basic work tasks in structured and
sheltered settings. Their understanding of communication is usually better than their speech. In
adulthood, persons with severe mental retardation may adapt well to supervised living situations, such
as group homes, and may be able to perform work-related tasks under supervision.

• Profound Mental Retardation: Profound mental retardation (IQ range below 20-25) constitutes
approximately 1 to 2 percent of persons with mental retardation. Most individuals with profound mental
retardation have identifiable causes for their condition. This level of retardation is very noticeable at
birth or early infancy. With training, people with profound mental retardation may learn or improve
basic skills such as walking, some talking, and feeding themselves. They need a very structured
environment, with close supervision and considerable help, including a one-to-one relationship with a
caregiver, in order to develop to the fullest.
• AUTISM: Autistic disorder was identified in 1943 by a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, Leo Kanner,
who, in the course of his clinical work, noted 11 disturbed children who behaved in ways that were not
common in children with mental retardation or schizophrenia. He named the syndrome early infantile autism
because he observed that “there is from the start an extreme autistic aloneness that, whenever possible,
disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside” (Kanner, 1943).
• Autism is a developmental disorder that is characterised by impaired development in communication, social
interaction, and behaviour. Autism afflicts one out of every 100 to 166 children and it affects the lives of
many children and their families (DiCicco-Bloom et al, 2006).

• Symptoms of autism
• The current revision of Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSMIV-
TR identifies three features that are associated with autism:
• Impairment in social interaction
• Communication and
• Behaviours
• Impairment in social interaction:
• - Individuals with autism fail to develop normal personal interactions in virtually every setting.
This impairment may be so severe that it even affects the bonding between a mother and an
infant
persons with this disorder are capable of showing affection, demonstrating affection bonding
with their mothers or other caregivers.
Affected behaviours can include eye contact, facial expressions, and body postures..
There is usually an inability to develop normal peer and sibling relationships and the child
often seems isolated.
• There may be little or no joy or interest in normal age-appropriate activities.
• In severe cases, they may not even be aware of the presence of other individuals.
• Communication: Communication is usually severely impaired in persons with autism.
• What the individual understands (receptive language) as well as what is actually spoken by the individual
(expressive language) are significantly delayed or nonexistent.
• Deficits in language comprehension include the inability to understand simple directions, questions, or
commands.
• There may be an absence of dramatic or pretend play and these children may not be able to engage in simple
age-appropriate childhood games. Teens and adults with autism may continue to engage in playing with
games that are for young children.
• Individuals with autism who do speak may be unable to initiate or participate in a two-way conversation
(reciprocal).
• Their speech may seem to lack the normal emotion and sound flat or monotonous. The sentences are often
very immature: “want water” instead of “I want some water please.” Those with autism often repeat words or
phrases that are spoken to them.
• This repetition is known as echolalia
• Memorisation and recitation of songs, stories, commercials, or even entire scripts is not uncommon. While
many feel this is a sign of intelligence, the autistic person usually does not appear to understand any of the
content in his or her speech.
• Behaviours: Persons with autism often exhibit a variety of repetitive, abnormal behaviours.
• There may also be a hypersensitivity to sensory input through vision, hearing, or touch (tactile).
• There may be extreme intolerance to loud noises or crowd, visual stimulation or things that are felt.
• Wearing socks or tags on clothing may be perceived as painful.
• Sticky fingers, playing with modelling clay, eating birthday cake or other foods, or walking barefoot across
the grass can be unbearable.
• On the other hand, there may be an underdeveloped (hyposensitivity) response to the same type of
stimulation. This individual may use abnormal means to experience visual, auditory, or tactile (touch) input
• This person may head bang, scratch until blood is drawn, scream instead of speaking in a normal tone, or
bring everything into close visual range.
• Children and adults who have autism are often tied to routine and many everyday tasks may be ritualistic.
Something as simple as a bath might only be accomplished after the precise amount of water is in the tub, the
temperature is exact, the same soap is in its assigned spot and even the same towel is in the same place.
• Any break in the routine can provoke a severe reaction in the individual and place a tremendousstrain on the
adult trying to work with him or her.
• There may also be non-purposeful repetition of actions or behaviours. Persistent rocking, teeth grinding, hair
or finger twirling, hand flapping and walking on tiptoe are not uncommon.
• Asperger’s disorder: is often regarded as a mild form of autism. The disorder is named after Hans Asperger, who in 1944
described the syndrome as being less severe and with fewer communication deficits than autism.
• Asperger disorder is characterized as one of the autism spectrum disorders, although Asperger syndrome is considered to
be at the milder, or higher-functioning, range of this spectrum.
• Asperger syndrome is 5 times more common in boys than in girls. Asperger syndrome has been estimated to affect 2.5 out
of every 1000 children, based upon the total number of children with autistic disorders.
• Social-behavioural symptoms of Asperger syndrome can begin as early as infancy. Some of the symptoms that may be
present are:
• 1) Lack of social awareness
• 2) Lack of interest in socialising/making friends
• 3) Difficulty making and sustaining friendships
• 4) Inability to infer the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of others
• 5) Either gazing too intently or avoiding eye contact
• 6) Lack of changing facial expression, or use of exaggerated facial expressions
• 7) Lack of use or comprehension of gestures
• 8) Failure to respect interpersonal boundaries
• 9) Unusually sensitive to noises, touch, smell, tastes, or visual stimuli
• 10) Inflexibility and over-adherence to or dependence on routines
• 11) Stereotypes and repetitive motor patterns such as hand flapping or arm waving.
• Positive characteristics of people with Asperger syndrome have been described as beneficial in many
professions that include:
• The increased ability to focus on details
• The capacity to persevere in specific interests without being swayed by others’ opinions
• The ability to work independently
• The recognition of patterns that may be missed by others
• Intensity
• An original way of thinking.

• Childhood Disorders: Childhood disorders, often labeled as developmental disorders or learning disorders,
most often occur and are diagnosed when the child is of school-age.
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder: DSM IV defines oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) as a recurrent pattern
of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behaviour toward authority figures that persists for at least 6
months.
• Behaviours included in the definition include the following: losing one’s temper; arguing with adults; actively
defying requests; refusing to follow rules; deliberately annoying other people; blaming others for one’s own
mistakes or misbehaviour; and being touchy, easily annoyed or angered, resentful, spiteful, or vindictive.

• ODD is usually diagnosed when a child has a persistent or consistent pattern of disobedience and hostility
toward parents, teachers, or other adults. The primary behavioural difficulty is the consistent pattern of
refusing to follow commands or requests by adults.

• Conduct disorder is a more severe behavioral disorder in which an individual displays a

disregard, not only for rules and authority, but also the rights and conditions of humans and/or
animals.
• Behaviors that may be exhibited are stealing, fighting, cruelty to people or animals, fire-setting,
running away from home, bullying or threatening others, using a weapon that can cause harm,
committing a mugging or armed robbery, forcing someone into sexual activity, deliberately
destroying another person’s property, lying to obtain goods or favors, stealing items of nontrivial
value without confronting the victim, staying out at night in clear violation of parental rules, and
being truant from school.
• There are three subtypes of conduct disorder focused on the age of onset. The childhood-onset
type occurs prior to age 10 while the adolescence-onset type occurs after age 10. The unspecified
onset subtype is used when age of onset is unknown.

• The onset of conduct disorder occurs as early as the preschool years, but it is during middle
childhood through middle adolescence that the first significant symptoms usually emerge. The
DSM states, “Physically aggressive symptoms are more common than nonaggressive symptoms
during childhood, but nonaggressive symptoms become more common than aggressive symptoms
during adolescence” (APA, 2022, pg. 534).

• Oppositional defiant disorder should be distinguished from conduct disorder. Both disorders bring
the individual in conflict with adults and authority figures, but the behaviors of oppositional
defiant disorder are usually less severe than conduct disorder and do not include aggression toward
people or animals, destruction of property, or a pattern of theft or deceit. However, the impairment
associated with oppositional defiant disorder may be equivalent or greater than that of conduct
disorder