Developmental Disorders
Common developmental problems include:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
- Physical Disability
- Language Delay
- Global Developmental Delay
- Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading and Writing
- Emotional & Behavioural Problems
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder generally have deficits in two major aspects: (1) social communication and social interaction; and (2) restricted interests, repetitive patterns of behaviour or activities.
Children with Classic Autism (onset before age 3) generally have the following problems:
- Difficulty in social interaction: failure to notice the presence of other, understand others’ needs and feelings, and develop peer relationships; lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with others; lack of social reciprocity
- Difficulty in communication: lack of body language, weak in verbal comprehension and expression, with echolalic speech
- Highly restricted, fixated interest, inflexible adherence to routines or resistance to changes; rigid or ritualized patterns of behaviours
- Weak in identifying essential details, seeing relationships and generalizing the skills
- Weak concentration and self-control, easy to lose temper, self-stimulating or self-harming behaviours
- Weak self-care and social adaptation ability
Children with High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder generally have the following problems:
-
Difficulty in social interaction; insensitivity in interpersonal relationship; weak in understanding the perspective of others and their feelings; pursuing a conversational topic regardless of others’ reactions; preferring solitary activities or lacking of adequate social skills
-
Rigid behaviours, resistance to change and reluctance to accept new things; inflexible adherence to rules
-
Stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest,
-
Difficulty in communication, failure to express themselves effectively
-
Weak motor-coordination
-
Weak attention
-
Weak organisation skill, inflexibility in thinking; difficulty to predict consequence
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder generally have the following problems:
-
Inattentiveness, easily distracted and hard to follow through on instructions; often forget and lose belongings
-
Impulsivity: have difficulty in taking turns; often interrupt others’ speech
-
Hyperactivity: fail to seat quietly, often fidget and talk excessively
-
Weak planning and organisation ability
-
Easily to have social or behavioural problems
-
Low self-image and self-esteem
Physical Disability
Children with physical disability generally have the following problems:
-
If caused by damages to muscular and nervous systems, may have primitive reflexes arising from hyper-tonic muscles and hypo-tonic muscles; abnormal motor pattern associated with the delay in gross motor and fine motor development; sensory disturbance and developmental coordination disorders.
-
If caused by congenital abnormities, may have physical deformities or paralysis of limb
-
If caused by genetic diseases, may have muscular dystrophy and more severe functional disorders
-
Self-care and social adaptation problems
-
Lack of self-confidence and tend to be passive
Language Delay
Children with language delay generally have the following problems:
-
Speech is not clear or comprehensible
-
Have limited vocabulary and fail to express themselves clearly
-
Failure to understand abstract expressions, complex sentence structures, unfamiliar concepts, etc.
-
Speech content is out of the context and improper use of words
-
Simple or uncommon sentence structures: mix, omit or distort phrases in sentences
Global Developmental Delay
Children with global developmental delay generally have the following problems:
-
Lag behind peers of the same age in terms of development or quality in many areas, e.g. slower development in gross and fine motor, hypo-tonic muscles, language delay, weaker sensory reception and recognition ability.
-
Weaker ability to learn and understand abstract concepts or reason logically
-
Weaker concentration and memory
-
Weaker self-care skills, e.g. feeding, dressing and washing themselves
-
Weaker self-care ability and easily lose control of their temper
Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading and Writing
Children with specific learning difficulties in reading and writing generally have the following problems:
- Difficulty in word decoding: word recognition, spelling, pronunciation and article comprehension
-
Weakness in organisation of spoken sentences, and comprehension of complex sentences and instructions
-
Difficulty in gross and fine motor coordination, weaker ability in the control of strength, slow in writing and illegible hand-writing
-
Weakness in visual space recognition, frequent errors in writing or missing strokes, components of characters are out of proportion, uneven distance between words
- Weaker concentration and memory
-
Lack of self-confidence and exhibition of behavioural problems
Emotional & Behavioural Problems
Below are the emotional and behavioural problems children may encounter:
-
Often lose control of their temper and in tears; exhibition of damaging or offensive behaviours
-
Excessive anxiety or fear
-
Have nightmares or sleeping disturbance
-
Social difficulty, fear of and resistance to interacting with strangers
-
Recurring somatic complaints, such as headaches, stomach aches, vomiting, which are not fully explained by a known general medical condition
-
Regressive behaviours, e.g. enuresis
-
Repetitive and persistent oppositional or hostile behaviours, e.g. often arguing with adults, refusing to follow instructions, blaming others for his mistakes
For further information, please go to http://childrehab.heephong.org/