Autism And Dyslexia: What Are Developmental Disability And Developmental Delay?
by Rodger Bailey on 2007-09-23
Developmental Disability includes Autism, Asperger's, PDD-NOS and other diagnoses. Developmental Delay includes ADD, Learning Disability, Dyslexia, and more. Then there is GDD and Central Auditory Processing Disorder, and I don't know where they fit in the official structure of diagnostic labels, but I know they are a developmental problem.
I have been working with children with developmental difficulties for a few years. I use the terms developmental difficulties to encompass everything from Developmental Disability to Developmental Delay, and even more. In our consulting program we consider them all fundamentally the same. They differ only by level of intensity. We have created protocols which work with all of the developmental difficulties. Our program unlocks your child's suspended tendency for growing up.
How big is the problem?
All of these developmental difficulties add up to an estimated 28 million children in America. The Census Bureau tells us there a total of 85 million children in America. The APA (American Pediatric Association) tells us that one in every six children have a diagnosis for some developmental problem (16.7%). The different associations for all of the individual diagnostic labels of developmental difficulties all agree when they estimate that about half of the children with these problems obtain a diagnosis for their problem (that makes it one third). And, 33% of 85 million is 28 million children.
That means that one third of all the children in every classroom have some level of developmental problem. Maybe it shows up as a lack of capacity to attend or sit still. Maybe it shows up as a lack of capacity to learn writing. Maybe it shows up as a lack of coordination. Maybe it is so severe, the children never learn to connect to the context. Maybe it is mild and only an inconvenience to the children and the parents.
In whatever form, developmental difficulties seem to be growing in percentages. We are certainly getting more precise with our diagnoses. And, we are certainly advanced as a culture so that we offer those diagnostic services to more families who otherwise could not afford it. But, I am not sure this is the reason we have 1/3 of our children with developmental difficulties.
When I was a child in school, half a century ago, I do not remember 1/3 of the children having these types of difficulties in my classrooms. I remember that maybe 5% to 10% might have had these kinds of difficulties, but I do not think it amounted to 1/3.
What is a developmental problem?
Quite simply, it is some blockage in the developmental process. All living things move through a life cycle. Much of the early phases of that life cycle are spent in maturing. From inception to maturity, all living things move through a series of milestones. For us humans, we refer to these as our developmental milestones.
For children with developmental difficulties, they do not move through their milestones appropriately. They get stuck at some of the milestones. They miss some milestones. So, many of the elementary learning processes needed for appropriate maturity, are skipped. And, in some cases a child is unable to move forward in a milestone and does not move forward on to the next developmental milestone.
In my opinion, all of the unique diagnostic labels are related to some elementary elements. In which developmental milestones did the child get stuck or which milestones did the child lose? How intense is the ‘stuckness?’ And, how many milestones did the child lose?
What can be done about it?
All of the different diagnostic category associations in the field of developmental difficulties are clearly speaking on one voice when they say that the 1) developmental process is blocked and that 2) there is no cure.
Clinicians in this field do not know what to do to cure developmental difficulties. Nothing that they try affects the developmental process. For decades clinicians have tried everything they can think of to do and nothing works.
After all these frustrating years, they have finally agreed with each other that there is no cure. And, now it is officially agreed. All of the diagnostic associations and all of the committees creating the diagnostic specifications have agreed that there is no cure. Now, they spend all of their research dollars on finding causes instead of developing solutions for 28 million children with these developmental difficulties.
They have tried many things, but they have not tried everything.
With our program children plug the empty places in their developmental process. Our program unlocks your child's suspended tendency for growing up.
I have been working with children with developmental difficulties for a few years. I use the terms developmental difficulties to encompass everything from Developmental Disability to Developmental Delay, and even more. In our consulting program we consider them all fundamentally the same. They differ only by level of intensity. We have created protocols which work with all of the developmental difficulties. Our program unlocks your child's suspended tendency for growing up.
How big is the problem?
All of these developmental difficulties add up to an estimated 28 million children in America. The Census Bureau tells us there a total of 85 million children in America. The APA (American Pediatric Association) tells us that one in every six children have a diagnosis for some developmental problem (16.7%). The different associations for all of the individual diagnostic labels of developmental difficulties all agree when they estimate that about half of the children with these problems obtain a diagnosis for their problem (that makes it one third). And, 33% of 85 million is 28 million children.
That means that one third of all the children in every classroom have some level of developmental problem. Maybe it shows up as a lack of capacity to attend or sit still. Maybe it shows up as a lack of capacity to learn writing. Maybe it shows up as a lack of coordination. Maybe it is so severe, the children never learn to connect to the context. Maybe it is mild and only an inconvenience to the children and the parents.
In whatever form, developmental difficulties seem to be growing in percentages. We are certainly getting more precise with our diagnoses. And, we are certainly advanced as a culture so that we offer those diagnostic services to more families who otherwise could not afford it. But, I am not sure this is the reason we have 1/3 of our children with developmental difficulties.
When I was a child in school, half a century ago, I do not remember 1/3 of the children having these types of difficulties in my classrooms. I remember that maybe 5% to 10% might have had these kinds of difficulties, but I do not think it amounted to 1/3.
What is a developmental problem?
Quite simply, it is some blockage in the developmental process. All living things move through a life cycle. Much of the early phases of that life cycle are spent in maturing. From inception to maturity, all living things move through a series of milestones. For us humans, we refer to these as our developmental milestones.
For children with developmental difficulties, they do not move through their milestones appropriately. They get stuck at some of the milestones. They miss some milestones. So, many of the elementary learning processes needed for appropriate maturity, are skipped. And, in some cases a child is unable to move forward in a milestone and does not move forward on to the next developmental milestone.
In my opinion, all of the unique diagnostic labels are related to some elementary elements. In which developmental milestones did the child get stuck or which milestones did the child lose? How intense is the ‘stuckness?’ And, how many milestones did the child lose?
What can be done about it?
All of the different diagnostic category associations in the field of developmental difficulties are clearly speaking on one voice when they say that the 1) developmental process is blocked and that 2) there is no cure.
Clinicians in this field do not know what to do to cure developmental difficulties. Nothing that they try affects the developmental process. For decades clinicians have tried everything they can think of to do and nothing works.
After all these frustrating years, they have finally agreed with each other that there is no cure. And, now it is officially agreed. All of the diagnostic associations and all of the committees creating the diagnostic specifications have agreed that there is no cure. Now, they spend all of their research dollars on finding causes instead of developing solutions for 28 million children with these developmental difficulties.
They have tried many things, but they have not tried everything.
With our program children plug the empty places in their developmental process. Our program unlocks your child's suspended tendency for growing up.
About The Author: Rodger C Bailey, MS has degrees in Anthropology and Educational Counseling. His international consulting program (English & Spanish), is unique because it targets developmental progress and predictably gets it operating again. Checkout his Blog and his free Developmental Checklist.