Kinds of Developmental Disabilities
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Nervous system disabilities
These are birth defects that affect the functioning of the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system, which can impact intelligence and learning. These conditions can also cause problems such as behavioral disorders, speech or language difficulties, convulsions, and movement disorders. Some of the common nervous system disabilities include:
Sensory-related problems are often a key part of complex birth defect patterns. For instance:
Children with congenital rubella are likely to be deaf, and to develop cataracts of the eyes.
Children with Williams syndrome have trouble seeing spatial relationships between objects around them.
Those with Fragile X syndrome are often very sensitive to loud noises; they may overreact or have outbursts in reaction to such sounds.
Metabolic Disorders
This group of functional birth defects affects a person's metabolism, which is the way the body builds up, breaks down, and otherwise processes the materials it needs to function. For example, how your body breaks down sugar to create energy is a metabolic process. Two commonly known metabolic disorders include:
Degenerative Disorders
Some infants born with degenerative disorders appear normal at birth, but then lose abilities or functions due to the in condition. In these cases, the defect is usually not detected until an older age, when the child or person starts to show signs of loss of function. Some degenerative disorders are the result of metabolic disorders.
Degenerative disorders can cause physical, mental, and sensory problems, depending on the specific defect.Rett syndrome is an example of a degenerative birth defect. This disorder, which usually affects girls, is most often caused by a specific genetic abnormality.
