developmental disability

developmental disability, any of multiple conditions that emerge from anomalies in human development. The essential feature of a developmental disability is onset prior to adulthood and the need for lifelong support. Examples of conditions commonly encompassed under the term developmental disability include intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and hearing and visual impairments.

The concept of developmental disability

The concept of developmental disability was formalized in the United States in the 1960s, but it was not widely recognized internationally until the 1970s. In its original incarnation in the United States, in a proposed revision to the 1963 Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act (later known generally as the Developmental Disabilities Act), the term developmental disability was used in place of mental retardation. When the act was reauthorized in 1970, the two terms appeared together, where developmental disability was defined as a “disability attributable to mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or another neurological condition” that originates prior to age 18.

The federal definition in the United States has undergone a number of revisions since the original act. In the 1975 amendment, for example, autism and dyslexia were added to the roster of developmental disabilities, and in the 1978 amendment a non-categorical approach to developmental disabilities marked a significant conceptual change. Rather than using diagnoses of specific conditions (e.g., cerebral palsy or autism), developmental disabilities were defined in terms of functional limitations in major life activity areas. The criteria of severity, chronicity, and origination prior to adulthood remained in the definition. Thus, if substantial care and support were unnecessary, one could have cerebral palsy or autism but not be considered developmentally disabled.

In practice, the U.S. federal definition of developmental disability serves more as a conceptual statement than as a diagnostic standard. In its various incarnations, the term is used interchangeably with diagnostic disability categories and commonly as an alternative for the term intellectual disability (a term that superseded mental retardation). U.S. state governments employ their own eligibility standards using the framework of the federal guidelines but anchored primarily on the older diagnostic groupings of the original definition of developmental disability.

International use of the developmental disability concept is less-formalized and equally variable in application. The term is used interchangeably to represent congenital disorders, conditions arising from trauma or other damage to the brain or nervous system, and other chronic disabling conditions emerging during infancy or childhood.

Underlying causes and prevalence of developmental disabilities

For the majority of persons who have a developmental disability, the underlying cause is unknown. In many instances, developmental disabilities are associated with a broad array of developmental risks that can impair neurological function, including hereditary disorders, perinatal and neonatal complications, malnutrition, disease, and trauma.

The rate of occurrence of developmental disabilities is also highly variable, because of differences in definitions and in reporting. For example, developmental disabilities were estimated to affect as many as one in six children in the United States over the period from 2006 to 2008. About 7.3 percent of children in the United Kingdom were reported to be disabled, based on survey data from 2004–05. In 2009 an estimated 7.2 percent of children under age 14 were reported to be disabled in Australia.

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Of the limited epidemiological data available from less-developed countries, reported rates range from 5 to 25 per thousand in the general population. Such variations are not unexpected given the differences in sampling and screening methods used across studies as well as the dissimilar circumstances of risk in different countries. Nonetheless, important risk factors for developmental disabilities, such as trauma, infectious diseases, and malnutrition, tend to be more pronounced in the developing world than in the developed world. Thus, the elevated risk of developmental disability could translate into increased prevalence in less-developed countries.

Services, research, and policy

The study of developmental disability spans the breadth of human endeavours; those who work in fields ranging from molecular genetics to civil rights have investigated the concept. A useful organizing template is the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), which describes disability across multiple dimensions, including body function and structure, activities and participation, and environmental factors. In general, the dimension of body function and structure refers to body parts involved in mental performance, sensory perception, and speech, in addition to the function and structure of organ systems. The concept of activities in the ICF refers to the performance of specific tasks, and participation reflects involvement in life situations. The expansion of publicly and privately supported services in education, employment training, family support, health care, income support, and residential care have helped to improve activity and participation for many persons affected by developmental disabilities.

Early in the legislative development of the developmental disability concept, the focus of policy was shaped by the idea that the environment in large measure determines the extent of disability. Thus, emphasis was placed on “rights” in the authorizing legislation. The U.S. federal effort developed in parallel with the emerging human rights-based themes of disability advocacy through the United Nations in the 1970s, and both developments were indirectly influenced by the emerging Scandinavian concepts of integration and normalization.

Policy was and remains anchored on the ideal of inclusion: abandonment of segregated institutional care in favour of community-based housing, education in community schools, and emphasis on civil and human rights through legal and other legislative means. Although implementation lagged behind the ideal, the efforts dramatically transformed the options available to persons with developmental disabilities. Within resource-poor countries, service models are anchored on similar themes of social integration, opportunity, and the reduction of stigma. The rise of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) models in less-developed countries in the 1980s, in which local resources and family networks were employed in providing support, enabled increasing numbers of persons with developmental disabilities to live as members of their communities.

Advances in the field of developmental disability

The ethos of human rights and rapid advances in understanding of the basic sciences of human development have been viewed as both productive and challenging for the field of developmental disability. Advances in biology and medicine, for example, could lead to new therapies while also creating difficult ethical challenges. The emergence of human and civil rights as a relevant agenda item for persons with severe disabilities in the post-World War II era dramatically altered the character of the developmental disability dialogue. Humane care was replaced by human rights as a guiding force for shaping services and policy. Yet the logical extension of advances in the biological sciences is the elimination of impairments and prevention of defects, perceived or real. The ability of persons with significant developmental disability to fit into society remains an issue in countries throughout the world, and in many cases that issue is anchored to the discussion of how humanity is defined. The juxtaposition of these questions of disability, inclusion, and humanity represents a major challenge in the evolving conceptualization of developmental disability.