Disorders_of_Childhood_and_Cognitive_Disorders

Mental retardation is characterized as those that have significantly subaverage intellectual function. Those that fit in this category have an IQ of approximately 70 or below on individually administered IQ test. Also, concurrent deficits or impairments in present adaptive functioning in at least two areas to include communication, self-care, home living, social/interpersonal skills use of community resources, self-direction, functional academic skills, work leisure, health, and or safety.. An example of this would be the person’s effectiveness in meeting the standards expected for his or her age by his or her cultural group. Another characteristic of mental retardation is the onset is before the age of 18 years. (Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence, 2013) Learning disorders can be characterized by an individual’s achievement on individually administered, standardized tests in reading, mathematics, or written expression is substantially below that of the expected age, schooling, and level of intelligence. The learning problems are best observed when the individual attempts to do daily living activities that require reading, mathematical, or writing skills. People with learning disorders can be characterized by low self-esteem, and deficits in social skills. These deficits lead to a nearly 40% drop-out rate in school which is approximately 1.5 times the average. (Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence, 2013) Motor skills disorders can be observed in people whose performances in daily activities that require motor coordination that is substantially below that which can be expected given the person’s chronological age and measured intelligence. This can be witnessed when the patient is marked by delayed in achieving motor milestones, for example walking, crawling, or sitting. These deficiencies also interfere with academic achievement or activities of daily living. These disturbances are not due to general medical conditions, for example, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. Also the disturbances do not meet the criteria for pervasive developmental disorder. If mental retardation is already present, the motor difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with it. Communication disorders include problems related to speech, language, and auditory processing. (Communication Disorders, n.d.) These types of disorders range from simple sound repetitions such as stuttering to occasional misarticulation of words to complete inability to use speech and language for communications. (Communication Disorders, n.d.) Some of the causes of communication include hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, mental retardation, drug abuse, physical impairments such as cleft lip or palate, emotional or psychiatric disorders, and developmental disorders. (Communication Disorders, n.d.) The term “pervasive” in pervasive developmental disorders was chosen was chosen for this group of disorders because people demonstrate difficulties in multiple, as opposed to specific, areas of development, for example the communication disorder. All of the disorders are referred to as syndromes. This means that a diagnosis is based on a group of behaviors, which combine to a result in a disrupted pattern of development. (Pervasive Development Disorders, 2000) In DSM-IV-TR, the feeding disorder of infancy or early childhood, pica, and rumination disorder are the three “Feeding and Eating Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood” within the larger category of disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. They are classified separtely from eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, which have somewhat different presentations in childhood compared to adults, that have been detailed elsewhere. (Rachel Bryant-Waugh, 2010) This disorder is characterized by avoidance or restriction of eating that are usually present in childhood and considers problems related to the use of existing diagnostic criteria in clinical settings to support proposed options for DSM-V. (Rachel Bryant-Waugh, 2010) A tic is a sudden, rapid, recurrent, nonrhythmic, stereotyped motor movement or vocalization. Tic disorders can be characterized by motor and vocal tics that might be simple (invloving only a few muscles or simple sounds) or complex (involving multiple groups of muscles recruited in orchestrated bouts or words and sentences). (Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence, 2013) Simple motor tics are tics like eye blinking, nose wrinkling, neck jerking, shoulder shrugging, facial grimacing, and abdominal tensing. (Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence, 2013) Elimination disorders occur in children who have problems going to the bathroom-both defecating and urinating. Although it is not uncommon for young children to have occatsional “accidents,” there may be a problem if this problem occurs repeatedly for longer than three months, particularly in children older than 5 years of age. The two types of elimination disorders are encopresis which is repeated passing of feces into places other than the toilet, into places like the underwear or the floor. The other type of elimination disorder is enuresis, which is the repeated passing of urine in places other than the toilet. The most common enuresis occurs at night. (Elimination Disorders and Encopresis in Children, n.d.) The last big category of other disorders of infancy, childhood, or adolescence includes disorders like separation anxiety, selective mutism, reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood, and stereotypic movement disorder. (Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence, 2013) This category contains disorders that wouldn’t fit anywhere else in the childhood and infancy disorders. Bibliography Pervasive Development Disorders. (2000). Retrieved from Aspergersyndrom.org: http://aspergersyndrome.org/Articles/Pervasive-Developmental-Disorders.aspx Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence. (2013, February 12). Retrieved from DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: http://dsm.psychiatryonline.org.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/content.aspx'bookid=22§ionid=1888402#7207 Communication Disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/communication-disorders Elimination Disorders and Encopresis in Children. (n.d.). Retrieved from Medicinenet.com: http://www.medicinenet.com/encopresis/article.htm#what_are_elimination_disorders Rachel Bryant-Waugh, D. (2010). Feeding and Eating Disorders in Childhood. DSM5.org, p. http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Eating%20Disorders%20Reviews/RBW_child_IJED%202010.pdf.