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What is a Developmental Disability ?

A developmental disability is a chronic disability of a person that:

1.  Is attributable to mental or physical impairment or a combination of impairments.
2.  Is manifested before the person attains age twenty-two (22).
3.  Is likely to continue indefinitely.
4.  Results in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following areas of major life activity:  self care, receptive and expressive language, learning, mobility, self-direction, capacity for independent living and economic self-sufficiency.
5.  Reflects the person's need for a combination and sequence of special interdisciplinary or generic care, treatment, or other services that are of lifelong or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated.

(Borrowed from the ARC, Association of Retarded Citizens, site)

Some examples of named developmental disabilities under State and Federal law are Prader-Willi Syndrome (usually results from deletion of paternal chromosome material at conception) and F.A.S. or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which results from the mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy.  Both syndromes are life-long, with NO cure at this time, require intervention, management and care/supervision and have a wide range of symptoms as well as the "mildness" or severity of those symptoms.

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