Abstract
The study of neurodevelopmental disorders is beset with many issues and pitfalls. If its types are attempted to be explained at the molar developmental, environmental, and behavioral level, there is another explanation at the molecular brain or genetic level. The clinician can stumble into an error at any level while addressing these conditions. The origins and history of the neurodevelopmental model are followed in this chapter by sections on classification, theories, nature, types, and misperceptions. A lifespan approach, use of clinical reasoning, and decision making to sift critical signals from considerable noise during diagnosis are cautioned. The fears of making no diagnosis, patient's perspective, evidence-based practice, and static versus dynamic diagnosis, cultural practices, and other related issues in Indian scene are addressed. Ongoing and unexplored areas like use of animal models, delay versus difference approach, and contemporary parenting practices are explained with a status report on available treatments and engagements to be undertaken in future.
TopEtiology
Given below is a short list of causes attributed to NDD:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Molar-Molecular: They are not different theories or levels of analysis. They are different paradigms of viewing human behavior as inherently extended in time and composed of activities that have integrated parts versus the view that behavior is composed of discrete units occurring at moments of time and strung together to make up a complex phenomenon.
Microbiome: Refers to a community of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses that inhabit a particular environment, especially within the human body.
Neuroscience: Any or all the sciences, such as neurochemistry, experimental psychology and others which deal with the structure or function of the nervous system.
Synaptogenesis: Refers to the formation of synapses between neurons in the nervous system. Although a lifelong process, an explosion of synapse formation occurs especially during early brain development.
Neuroimaging: The process of producing images of the structure or activity of the brain or another part of the nervous system by techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging or computerized tomography.
Latchkey Child: A child who is at home without any supervision for some part of the day, especially after school until a parent returns from work.
Diagnostic Overshadowing: A predilection in a clinician or caregiver to attribute each and every behavior of the child after a brief observation as a reflection of their primary condition.
Epigenetic: Relating to or arising from non-genetic influence on gene expression. It is the study of heritable changes in gene function that does not involve a change in the DNA sequence.
Helicopter Parenting: Also called cosset-parenting, it explains a parent who pays extremely close attention to a child’s or children’s experiences and problems.
Stimming: Or self-stimulatory behavior, this involves the repetition of physical movements or sounds indulged by persons to calm or stimulate themselves.
Zone of Proximal Development: It is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they cannot do.
Hyper-Parenting: A style of child rearing that inadvertently over schedules and overpacks activities for a given day with the sole intention of making them perfect to guarantee a successful adulthood in the contemporary competitive e-world.