National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month: Promoting Inclusion & Support
What are Developmental Disabilities?
Developmental disabilities are a group of conditions that emerge during a person's developmental stages, typically before the age of 18, and usually last throughout their lifetime. These disabilities can affect physical, learning, language, or behavioral areas, as well as reasoning, problem-solving, and adaptive behavior, which includes everyday social and life skills.
Developmental disabilities occur across all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. Recent estimates in the United States indicate that about 1 in 6 children aged 3 through 17 years have one or more developmental disabilities due to impairments in physical, learning, language, or behavioral areas.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated 1 in 36 children and 1 in 45 adults in the United States today.
We know that there is not one type of autism, but many. Autism looks different for everyone, and each person with autism has a distinct set of strengths and challenges. Some autistic people can speak, while others are nonverbal or minimally verbal and communicate in other ways. Some have intellectual disabilities, while some do not. Some require significant support in their daily lives, while others need less support and, in some cases, live entirely independently.
On average, autism is diagnosed around age 5 in the U.S., with signs appearing by age 2 or 3. Current diagnostic guidelines in the DSM-5-TR break down the ASD diagnosis into three levels based on the amount of support a person might need: level 1, level 2, and level 3. Learn more about each level.
Intellectual Disability
Intellectual disability (or ID) is a term used when a person has certain limitations in cognitive functioning and skills, including conceptual, social and practical skills, such as language, social and self-care skills. These limitations can cause a person to develop and learn more slowly or differently than a typically developing person. Intellectual disability can happen any time before a person turns 22 years old, even before birth.
Intellectual disability is the most common developmental disability. Intellectual disability—formerly known as mental retardation—can be caused by injury, disease, or a problem in the brain.
For many children, the cause of their intellectual disability is unknown. Some causes of intellectual disability—such as Down syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, birth defects, and infections—can happen before birth. Some happen while a baby is being born or soon after birth.
Other causes of intellectual disability do not occur until a child is older; these might include severe head injury, infections or stroke. Learn More
Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder
Everybody can have difficulty sitting still, paying attention or controlling impulsive behavior once in a while. For some people, however, the problems are so pervasive and persistent that they interfere with every aspect of their life: home, academic, social and work.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 11 percent of school-age children. Symptoms continue into adulthood in more than three-quarters of cases. ADHD is characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Learn More
Down Syndrome
Down syndrome occurs when an individual has a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21. This additional genetic material alters the course of development and causes the characteristics associated with Down syndrome.
A few of the common physical traits of Down syndrome are low muscle tone, small stature, an upward slant to the eyes, and a single deep crease across the center of the palm – although each person with Down syndrome is a unique individual and may possess these characteristics to different degrees, or not at all. Learn More
Learning Disabilities
Learning Disabilities refer to a number of disorders which may affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal information.
These disorders affect learning in individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning. As such, learning disabilities are distinct from global intellectual deficiency.
Learning disabilities result from impairments in one or more processes related to perceiving, thinking, remembering or learning. These include but are not limited to language processing; phonological processing; visual spatial processing; processing speed; memory and attention; and executive functions (e.g., planning and decision-making). Learn More
Sensory Processing Disorder
Kids with sensory processing issues behave in ways that their parents often find confusing. They might react strongly to loud noises or bright lights or complain that their clothes are uncomfortable. They may be clumsy or have trouble with fine motor skills like fastening buttons. Some kids show extreme behaviors like screaming when their face gets wet.
These behaviors happen because the child is having trouble processing the information they receive from their senses. In addition to the traditional five senses, there are also two internal senses that give us information about movement and where our body is in space. Hyposensitive kids need more sensory stimulation. They often love to move around and crash into things. Hypersensitive kids avoid strong sensory stimulation and get overwhelmed easily. Learn More
Tourette Syndrome
Tourette Syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children, adolescents and adults. The condition is characterized by sudden, involuntary movements and/or sounds called tics. Tics can range from mild/inconsequential to moderate and severe and are disabling in some cases.
Tourette Syndrome is one type of Tic Disorder. Tics are the primary symptoms of a group of childhood-onset neurological conditions known collectively as Tic Disorders and individually as Tourette Syndrome (TS), Persistent (Chronic) Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder, and Provisional Tic Disorder. These three Tic Disorders are named based on the types of tics present (motor, vocal/phonic, or both) and by the length of time that the tics have been present. Learn More
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a physical disability that’s an umbrella term referring to a group of disorders affecting a person’s ability to move.
ce•re•bral / of the brain pal•sy / lack of muscle control
Cerebral palsy is due to damage to the developing brain during pregnancy, birth, or shortly after birth. Cerebral palsy affects people in different ways and can affect body movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture, and balance. This disability is a lifelong condition, and it’s different for everybody. People who have cerebral palsy may also have visual, learning, hearing, speech, epilepsy, and/or intellectual impairments. Learn More
Language Guide
- People with developmental disabilities should always be referred to as people first.
- Instead of “a Down syndrome child,” it should be “a child with Down syndrome.”
- Developmental disabilities are conditions or syndromes, not a disease.
- People “have” developmental disabilities, they do not “suffer from” it and are not “afflicted by” it.
- “Typically developing” or “typical” is preferred over “normal.”
- “Developmental and Intellectual disability” or “cognitive disability” has replaced “mental retardation” as the appropriate term.
- Do not use the word “retarded” in any derogatory context. Using this word is hurtful and suggests that people with disabilities are not competent.
Services and Supports
Today, support services are provided by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private sector providers. These services address most aspects of life for people with developmental disabilities. Numerous non-profit agencies are dedicated to enriching the lives of people living with developmental disabilities and removing the barriers they face to be included in their community.
At BHN, we’re proud to support individuals in living fulfilling, independent lives through our wide range of programs:
- 24-hour group residential programs
- Individual & community living supports
- Shared Living
- Advocacy Clubs
- Outpatient services
- Kamp for Kids
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Behavioral Health Network, Inc.
417 Liberty Street | Springfield, MA 01104
(413) 301-9355
