Autism Spectrum Disorder And Global Developmental Disorder: What Is Developmental Delay?

Developmental Disability includes Autism, Asperger's, Pervasive Developmental Disorder and other diagnoses. Developmental Delay includes ADHD, Learning Disability, Dyslexia, and more. Then there is Global Developmental Disorder and APD, 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 problems for a few years. I use the terms developmental problems 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 degrees. We have developed protocols which work with all of the developmental problems. Our method develops the client’s concealed resourcefulness for becoming mature.

How big is the problem?

All of these developmental problems add up to about 28 million children in America. The Census Bureau calculates there about 85 million children in America. The APA (American Pediatric Association) reports 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 problems all agree when they calculate that about half of the children with these problems obtain a diagnosis for their problem (that makes it one third). And, one third of 85 million is 28 million children.

That means that 1/3 of all the children in every classroom have some level of developmental problem. Maybe it shows up as a lack of ability to attend or control impulses. Maybe it shows up as a lack of ability to learn reading. Maybe it shows up as an inability to hit a ball. Maybe it is so intensive, 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 problems seem to be growing in sheer volume. We are certainly getting more precise with our diagnoses. And, we are certainly advanced as a society 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 33% of our children with developmental problems.

When I was a child in school, fifty years ago, I do not remember 33% of the children having these types of problems in my classrooms. I remember that maybe 5% to 10% could have had these kinds of problems, but I do not think it amounted to 33%.

What is a developmental problem?

Quite simply, it is some interruption in the developmental process. All living things have a life cycle. Much of the early phases of that life cycle are spent in maturing. From inception to maturity, all living entities move through a series of milestones. For us humans, we call them our developmental milestones.

For those with developmental problems, they do not move through their tasks appropriately. They get stuck at some of the tasks. They miss some tasks. So, many of the elementary learning processes needed for appropriate maturity, are blocked. And, in some cases a child is held in a task and does not pass out of it on to the next developmental task.

I think that all of the different diagnostic labels are related to some basic elements. In which developmental tasks did the child get stuck or which tasks did the child skip? How intense is the ‘stuckness?’ And, how many tasks did the child skip?

What can be done about it?

All of the different diagnostic category associations in the field of developmental problems are clearly speaking on one voice when they say that the 1) developmental process is blocked and that 2) there is no cure.

Professionals in this field are at a loss to solve developmental problems. Nothing that they attempt affects the developmental process. For decades academics have tried everything they can think of to do and nothing works.

So, they have finally reached an accord that there is no cure. And, now it is official. All of the diagnostic associations and all of the groups creating the diagnostic specifications agree that there is no cure. Now, they invest all of their research dollars on finding causes instead of searching for cures for 28 million children with these developmental problems.

They have attempted many things, but they have not attempted everything.

With our approach your children address the discontinuities in their movement through the developmental milestones. Our method develops the client’s concealed resourcefulness for becoming mature.

RC Bailey has degrees in Social Science and Counseling. His world-wide consulting program (in English and Spanish), is the only program which concentrates on movement through the developmental stages and predictably gets it jump-started. Checkout his Blog and his free Developmental Checklist.

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Article Title: Autism Spectrum Disorder And Global Developmental Disorder: What Is Developmental Delay?

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