Neurodevelopmental Disorders Flashcards
Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Problems that emerge in early childhood, affecting intellectual, social & motor development
- Life-long conditions, present from birth but only manifest when person fails to emit an expected behavior
- While there’s no cure, adequate support can mediate negative outcome
2 broad categories in DSM V
- specific learning disorder = difficulty acquiring and using academic skill
- Communication disorders = deficits in language, speech and communication
DSM 5 definition for specific learning disorder
- difficulties in learning & using academic skills in 1 or more areas
- Problems in learning & using academic skills marked by at least one of ff over a 6 month period:
1. Inaccurate or slow and struggling to read
2. Diff understanding meaning of words
3. Spelling difficulties
4. Difficulties in expressing self through writing
5. Difficulty understanding numbers
6. Difficulties working with numbers - Affected skills below what’s expected for age and intellectual capacity
- Not better accounted for by ID, visual/hearing problems or other neuro or mental disorder
Comorbitity of specific learning disorder
71% of kids with bipolar
67% of ASD kids
71% of ADHD
Anxiety & depression;
Language disorder
problems with acquiring & using language, both written and spoken, including:
- Reduced vocabulary, comprehension & production
- Limited sentence structure ability
- Difficulties in dialogue
Speech sound disorder
problems with speech sound production that interfere with speech intelligibility & impact on social, academic and occupational achievement
- Sound substitution, e.g. wabbit
- May be associated with physical problems (cleft palate, hearing problems, cerebral palsy) but problems must exceed what’s expected even with these problems for additional diagnosis
Childhood-onset fluency disorder
problems with fluency & speech patterning, involving:
- Frequent repetitions or prolongation of words
- Pauses within words
- Filled or unfilled pauses in speech
- Word substitutions to avoid pronouncing problematic words
- Word pronunciation with excessive physical tension
- Monosyllabic word repetitions
- May be accompanied by tics, eye blinks, jerking of head
- Causes anxiety about speaking
Genetic factors for dyslexia
80% or more kids with dyslexia have a relative with the disorder; research implicates genes on many chromosomes that cause abnormalities in brain development
cognitive factors for dyslexia
reading difficulties due to problems differentiating phonemes & associating these sounds to letters in written word, which is independent of other abilities
neurological factors for dyslexia
Brain abnormalities: in various regions of brain
aetiology for dyscalculia
- Genetic links
- Brain anomalies in left parieto-temporal & inferior prefrontal cortex
aetiology for communication disorders
familial links & genetic component
Brain anomalies in circuits that mess with basal ganglia
treatment for communication disorders and dyscalculia/dyslexia
Remedial & compensatory support
Speech & OT
Intellectual Disability
- Characterized by below average cognitive/intellectual functioning (less than 2 standard deviations below average) on standardized IQ measures
- focus on current rather than predicted performance
- IQ = ratio of mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA);
- Deficits that limit at least 2 areas of adaptive functioning /independent living
- Deficits creates vulnerability
mild disability
- IQ: 50-55 to approx 70
- 85% of ID population
- More likely to be hereditary than the other levels, thus family history NB in assessment;
- Association with the combination of heredity (low intelligence), some organic problems and a markedly below average environment (poverty, nutrition, low stimulation etc.). Some evidence that most in this category come from low SES backgrounds
- Environmental factors, e.g. trauma, prenatal insults.
- Interplay between behavioral & scholastic problems
Adaptive functioning in Mild range
- Can develop social & communication skills; have minimal sensorimotor deficits and only distinguishable from typically developing kids in school;
- Can learn skills of up to Gr 6 by late teens but generally need special educational provision to enable learning in relatively “non-academic” way;
- Capable of living/performing adequately in social and work situations as adults but may need more guidance, esp. when under serious social stress
- Current educational provisioning in SA = mainstream school with support
Moderate ID
- 35-40 to 50-55
- 10% of ID population
- More likely to have an organic basis
Adaptive functioning in moderate range
- Can talk or learn to communicate, fair motor development, poor social awareness in early childhood but can be managed with moderate supervision
- School years: functional academic skills up to Gr 4 level by late teens if they get special education
- As adults can self-maintain in semi- or unskilled work & need support for mild stress
- SA: placement in Special School where skills taught
Severe ID
- IQ: 20-25 to 35-40
- 3-4% of ID population
- Poor motor development, minimal speech, unable to profit from training in self-help as kids
Adaptive functioning in severe range
- Learn to talk or communicate by school age, can be trained in basic hygiene & health habits; unable to learn functional academic skills during school age
- As adults can contribute a bit to self-support but under high levels of supervision & can develop some self-protection skills (limited)
- SA = often placed in school of skills or sheltered employment
Profound ID
IQ below 20-25
- 1-2% of ID population
- Gross disability in almost all areas, with tendency to have severe physical deficits as well; little sensorimotor functioning
- Higher incidence of seizures & high pain thresholds, pica, self-biting, feacal smearing; lack of social skills