Disorders of Development Flashcards
What are developmental disorders?
developmental disorders are differences from typical development that is identified in childhood
How long do developmental disorders last for?
develop in children but frequently continue on into adulthood
What do developmental disorders involve?
- atypical cognitive development
- atypical social development
- atypical behavioural development
- atypical language development
- atypical motor development
What causes developmental disorders?
- genetic basis
- putative genetic basis
- environmental factors
What causes developmental disorders?: genetic basis
- inherited a developmental disorder
- a random genetic mutation
Example of developmental disorder: Genetic Basis
Down’s Syndrome
An extra chromosome
Example of developmental disorder: Genetic Basis
Fragile X
abnormality in X chromosome
Example of developmental disorder: Genetic Basis
Rett’s Syndrome
- rare genetic disorder in females
- spontaneous mutation of X chromosome
Example of developmental disorder: Genetic Basis
Turner Syndrome
only one X chromosome instead of two
Example of developmental disorder: Genetic Basis
Williams Syndrome
caused by loss of specific genetic material on chromosome 7
What causes developmental disorders?: putative genetic basis
Putative genetic basis means a genetic cause is thought to cause disorder but only due to circumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence includes:
- evidence that disorder runs in family
- risk of developing disorder is dependent on how closely related to family member you are
Examples of developmental disorder: Putative genetic basis
Autism Spectrum Disorder
features of autism:
- core impairments in communication, social ability and imagination
- lack common sense
- prefer routine
- dislike to unpredictable events
- many have learning disability such as language delay
- restricted interests
- repetitive behaviours
This is a lifelong disorder that is maintained into adulthood
Examples of developmental disorder: Putative genetic basis
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- difficulty focusing attention on particular task
- attention shifts rapidly from one thing to another
- preventing concentration
- impulsivity - unwilling to wait turns
- hyperactive behaviour - fidgeting, impossible to sit still
- there are high heritability rates
- also affected by environmental factors such as diet
Examples of developmental disorder: Putative genetic basis
Language Disorders
- disorder associated with aspects of communication and literacy
- apparent in children’s delay mastering basic features of grammar
What causes developmental disorders?: environmental factors
These are disorders that are either caused by the environment or influenced through environmental factors
Examples of environmental factors:
- access to therapy
- features of home environment
- nutrition
What causes developmental disorders?: environmental factors
Cerebral Palsy
- purely environmental cause
- key feature is poor movement control due to damage to cortex of the brain, particularly motor cortex
- not progressive
How are developmental disorders diagnosed?
- child taken to GP
- GP refers child to specialist assessment services
- assessments completed by pediatricians and clinical psychologists
What is involved in specialist assessment?
- history of difficulty
- standardized assessments
- observations
- questionnaires completed by parents and teachers
- once full picture collected of child, DR will look at diagnostic classification and see where child fits
What is the Theory of Mind hypothesis with regards to the cause of Autism?
- ToM is the appreciation that others have different thoughts and feelings from us
- Idea is that children with autism do not have this ability to see from others point of view
- This was shown in study by Baron-Cohen et al (1985)
- Children completed unexpected transfer test
- Performance of autistic children compared to children with down syndrome who had equivalent mental age and also typically developing children
- Found that children with autism performed significantly worse in ToM task
- Illustrating disjointed social connection and understanding
- Could account for broad range of social difficulties that are typical in autism
What is the Theory of Weak Central Coherence with regards to the cause of Autism?
- Autism characterised as restricted, repetitive behaviours
- This theory originated to account for the non-social differences that comes with autism
- found that individuals with autism are faster and more accurate at identifying hidden figured and completing tasks
- theory suggests that autistics are more likely. to focus on parts of a problem rather than the whole picture
- this comes at a cost of holistic understanding
What are the 2 key theories of ADHD?
- Barkley (1997)
- Sonuga-Barke (2005)
What is Barkley (1997) theory of ADHD?
- idea that people with autism have primary differences in executive functions
- executive functions are skills that rely on flexible thinking, organization, emotional control
- the primary differences in the executive functioning spill out into everyday life
- essentially a lack of self-control
What is Sonuga-Barke (2005) theory of ADHD?
- idea of how people with ADHD have difficulty with processing reward and motivation
- have difficulty with delayed gratification
- would rather have immediate reward rather than delayed
What areas of the brain are affected by language disorders?
- broca’s area
- wernicke’s area
What is developmental dyslexia?
- genetic basis
- also influenced by environmental factors
- marked by difficulty in reading and spelling that is not explained by generally poor ability
What are some markers that indicate developmental dyslexia?
- Struggle to identify how many syllables a word has.
- Struggle to identify rhyming words.
- Difficulty discriminating between sounds of different letters.
Outline the difference between the medical model and the social model of disability
medical model places emphasis on the individual with disability by saying that the individual is the problem and disability is caused by something internal
social model of disability looks at the barriers of the environment and attitudes of people as the problem
What is neurodiversity?
- this is where differences in brain function are regarded as human variation
- view that celebrates differences in forms of communication and self-expression
