According to a 10-year analysis, there has been a significant rise in the number of children in the United States that have mental and developmental disabilities. Studies show that most of these children are from well-off families, but that impoverished children are also getting affected.
Researchers believe that the rise in the number of cases is due mainly to the failure to recognize the symptoms and an overall decreased awareness for these conditions, such as autism, that require specific diagnosis to be able to receive the proper treatment. It was noted that a majority of the affected children were from wealthier families, but researchers have reason to believe that children from less fortunate families are more likely to develop chronic health problems in relation to their existing mental and developmental disabilities because they did not have ready access to quality healthcare.
Within the ten-year period, the study showed that attention disorders, autism, and other mental or developmental disabilities were increasing steadily in over 200,000 children. Researchers were coordinating with parents to identify any existing chronic conditions such as vision or hearing problems, physical ailments, or any apparent behavioral problems that limited the child's abilities or any that required intervention or even special education services.
Overall there was a 16% increase in these cases for disadvantaged children, while children from wealthier families increased to nearly 30%. This trend showed that the affected children suffered mostly from speech problems, inattentiveness, and other conditions that are not easily identifiable. In relation to this, they have also observed that physical disabilities have declined during the same time period, with cases like asthma and other physical ailments dropping by over 12%.
In a related statement, developmental pediatrician, Dr. Kenneth Norwood, said that medical research studies such as this is helping to increase awareness for developmental disabilities such as autism, allowing medical professionals to address the conditions appropriately.