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 Developmental Dysphasia

A delay in attaining speech and language functions in children who are otherwise normal – no deafness, no mental retardation or other congenital defects of the lips, palate, and tongue or throat.  The defect may be in understanding or in expressing, or both.
Suspicion arises – if there is




Inability to say a single word by 2 years.
Failure to speak 2 word phrases by 3 years.
Persisting articulation problem beyond 7 years.
Failure to respond to familiar names by first – birthday
Failure to identify common objects by name by 18 months.
Failure to follow common instructions by 2 years.
 

Learning Disability

A varied group of conditions manifesting as an educationally significant discrepancy between intellectual performance and actual level of academic achievements.
These children are not:

Mentally retarded
Deaf / blind
Educationally, culturally or socially deprived
Emotional disturbed / psychiatric patients
They may have problems in discrete areas of language processing and learning.
Reading                        - dyslexics
Writing                         - dysgraphic
Calculation                   -dyscalculia
Spelling                        - primary spelling disorders
Mixed disorders            - problems in all spheres (i.e. reading writing, calculations)
 

Developmental Gerstman Syndrome (DGS)

Is a type of learning disability where characteristically a group of symptoms coexist to form a distinct syndrome. The children characteristically have severe difficulty in writing and calculation.
The features of the syndrome include:


Dyscalculia
Dysgraphic
Right – left confusion
Finger agnosia

Autism

Is a pervasive developmental disorder, with abnormal behaviour manifestation occurring between 2.5 to 3 years
Which include:

Impairment of social reciprocal behaviour
Abnormal or impaired speech and language development
Demand for sameness
Often associated with mental retardation
Restricted repertoire of interests and activities

Rett Syndrome

Is yet another type of pervasive development disorders with unknown cause

Found only in girls
Normal development up to 5 months to 1 year of age
Gradual decrease in head size
Loss or regression of acquired motor skills and speech skills
Episodes of hyper ventilation
Abnormal EEG

Asperger’s Syndrome

A type of pervasive development disorder characterized by

Poor social reciprocal interaction
Restricted and stereotypic repertoire of interest and activities
Normal general intelligence
Onset between 7 and 24 months
Social play and development affected in the first 3 years
Loss / Partial loss of development of language
Abnormal stereotypic or repetitive hand movements
Predominantly in boys

Landau Kleffner Syndrome

A child having previously normal language development losses both expressive and receptive language skills without accompanying cognitive decline, with or without clinical seizures but with abnormal EEG. The cause of epilepsy may be heterogeneous.

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a non – progressive central nervous system disorder as a result of brain damage occurring during birth. New born suffer some degree of prenatal asphxia (i.e. reduced oxygenation of the brain, before, during or after delivery).  This often accompanied by epilepsy, mental retardation and stiffness and weakness in both legs with delayed motor and language skills.

Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a group of conditions due to various causes resulting in
Significant sub average general mental functions
Deficits in adaptive behaviour
Manifested during the development period.

Hearing loss

Impairment of the hearing function, which can be congenital or acquired in later life. 50% of the hearing losses are genetically determined.

Structural abnormalities of the lips palate or tongue

Cleft palate
Hare lip
Tongue tie

Aphasia

Aphasia is a loss of normal level of language function following damage to the specific regions of the brain – the commonest cause is a stroke.
Others include:

Tumors
Infections
Injury

Dementia
Dementia means deterioration in more than one intellectual or cognitive function with little or no disturbance of consciousness.  The impairment involves in memory, language and motor executive functions.

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