Developmental Disabilities include disabilities such as Mental Handicap, Down Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Prada-Willi Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Speech and Language Disorders, Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Rett Syndrome, PDD-NOS, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Learning Disabilities, Spina Bifida, and Sensory Impairments (Visual and Hearing) to name a few.

Mental Handicap
What is a mental handicap?

A child who develops more slowly than her peers is often thought to have a mental handicap. Children with mental handicap frequently do everything slowly: they sit up late, crawl late, walk and talk late.
A family may begin to wonder about a mental handicap if motor skills, language skills and self-help skills do not seem to be developing in a child or are developing at a far slower rate than the child's peers.

Approximately 1 to 3% of children have a mental handicap. It is often caused by chromosomal differences such as Down Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome and Prader-Willli Syndrome.
(signs of Mental Handicap)

Down Syndrome
Definition: Down Syndrome, commonly referred to as `Trisomy 21' is a chromosomal condition in which there is generally an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. This syndrome usually, though not always, results in a friendly, sociable disposition, a mental handicap and other conditions.

What is Down syndrome?

Down syndrome is a genetic condition that creates slower physical and intellectual development. It is one of the most common genetic conditions, affecting approximately 1 out of every 660 births, occurring irrespective of race, religion and socio-economic status. People with Down syndrome have 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. Chromosomes are thread like structures composed of DNA and other proteins. They are present in every cell of the body and carry the genetic information needed for a cell to develop.

People with Down syndrome look remarkably similar, regardless of race or color. Their heads are often small and shaped slightly differently from people with 46 chromosomes. Their special facial features include almond-shaped eyes, a protruding tongue and a flattened nose. Their hands are usually small and broad with broad fingers and they are often short and stocky in build.

Parents who have already had a baby with Down syndrome, mothers or fathers who have a re-arrangement involving chromosome 21, and mothers over 35 years of age are most likely to have a baby with Down syndrome. The chance of having a baby with Downs increases with age, from about 1 to 1250 for a woman at age 25, to 1 - 1000 at the age 30, to 1-400 at the age 35 and 1-100 at the age 40.
(signs of Down Syndrome)

Fragile X Syndrome
What is Fragile X Syndrome?

Commonly referred to as the Martin-Bell syndrome or the Marker X syndrome, Fragile X is the most common form of inherited mental handicap in males and a significant cause in females. The inheritance is different from common dominant or recessive inheritance patterns. A fragile area on the X chromosome tends to repeat bits of the genetic code. The more repeats, the more likely there is to be a problem. Boys and girls can both be affected, but because boys have only one X chromosome, a single fragile X is more likely to affect them.
(signs of Fragile X Syndrome)

Prader-Willi Syndrome
Definition: Prader-Willi syndrome is a congenital (present from birth) disease characterized by obesity, low muscle tone, limited mental capacity and hypogonadism.

What is Prader-Willi Syndrome?

Prader-Willi is caused by the deletion of a gene on chromosome 15. For unknown reasons, only the copy of this gene on chromosome 15 that is received from the father is active. The maternal copy of this gene is turned off in all people. When there is a deletion of this gene on the only copy received from the father, the disease occurs. This is because the patient is left with only the maternal copy, which is inactive in all people.

Signs of Prader-Willi can be seen at birth. New infants with the condition are often small and very floppy (hypotonic). Baby boys may have undescended testicles. The growing child often exhibits slow mental and delayed motor development, increasing obesity and small hands and feet.

During the first few years of life, a child with Prader-WIlli feels ravenously hungry. This leads to uncontrollable eating and subsequent obesity. Respiratory failure with hypoxia (low blood oxygen levels) and corpulmonale (right-sided heart failure) are also common. The child has slow mental development, and the IQ seldom exceeds 80.
(signs of Prader-Willi Syndrome)

Cerebral Palsy
Definition: Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions characterized by particular types of movement and posture, caused by injuries to the brain that occur during fetal development or during the first few years of life when there is rapid brain development. Motor problems in CP are non-progressive – meaning that the original condition does not get worse. However, since contractures may develop as the child matures, functionally, this is of little comfort to the person or her family.

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral palsy is caused by injury to the cerebrum (the largest portion of the brain, which is involved with higher mental faculties, sensations, and voluntary muscle activities). People with CP had lower levels of oxygen (hypoxia) to their brains at some point, but it is not known why this occurs.

It is thought that some babies may be more susceptible to any hypoxia that occurs during pregnancy, and this may be why some infants are affected while others can suffer similarly low oxygen levels but not lasting brain damage. Premature babies are slightly more likely to have cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy may also occur during infancy as a result of illnesses or head injuries.

Injury to the cerebrum can result in the loss of nerve functions in widely different areas. The most common feature in cerebral palsy is spasticity (increased muscle tone), which may affect a single limb, one side of the body (spastic hemiplegia), both legs (spastic diplegia) or both arms and legs (spastic quadriplegia). In addition to this, there may be sensory abnormalities such as defects of hearing and vision. Speech difficulties are common and seizures may occur.

People with cerebral palsy may be extremely bright intellectually, or normal, or have a mental handicap as part of the condition.
It is usually possible to tell if a child has CP by the age of two, and sometimes as early as a few months of age.

The words for CP are onomatopaoeic: they sound like what they are describing – with lots of k’s and x’s and hard “c’s”: “dyskinetic: “spastic”, “ataxic”. Most of these terms describe movement peculiarities: the sudden twists and sharp gestures which people with cerebral palsy so often display.
(signs of Cerebral Palsy)

Speech And Language Disorders/Communication Disorders
Definition: Language involves thought processes, grammar, meaning, memory and words. Speech is the language we can hear. Communication involves listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some people use sign language, communication aids or other methods to communicate.

What are Speech and Language/Communication Disorders?

Developmental speech and language disorders refer to any disorders in children who do not acquire spoken and/or written language skills in accordance with an age appropriate developmental pattern. This includes children with difficulties in the development of communication interaction, comprehension and production of language, including the pragmatic/functional aspects of language, articulation, phonology (sound system of a language), fluency, voice and disorders of swallowing.

There may or may not be an identifiable reason for the difficulty. Some of the common identifiable causes for speech and language disorders may be: - mental handicap, autism, a learning disability, hearing loss, cerebral palsy, head injury.

14% to 20% of pre-school children have delayed or disordered speech and language.
(signs of Speech and Language/Communication disorders)