Severe and Multiple Disabilities

Severe and Multiple Disabilities

Definition

Severe and Multiple Disabilities are a combination of disorders, impairments, or physical/mental disabilities. The disabilities are of such a nature as to require medical, therapeutic and educational accommodations.

 Disabilities included are but not limited to:

• autistic
• psychotic
• physical disabilities
• multiple disabilities
• moderately, sever or profoundly mental retardation
• dependent multiple handicaps (severe mental disabilities as well as sensory and/or other physical handicaps)
• multi-sensory impairments

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKqN21OdsLQ&list=FLKDc5Q693Zmqbs4CBGyvWFA

 

Prevalence

 

It is a difficult task to estimate the true prevalence of severe and multiple disabilities because most children are counted in terms of their dominant disability. Prevalence rates in this field are extremely low. Children with severe and multiple disabilities form less than 2% of the population of any given chronological age.

 

Categories

Children cannot be appropriately classified under the category of a single impairment, because the combination of conditions creates an entirely new disability that requires access to special services for all the child's impairments. These impairments can include but are not limited to sensory, physical, mental or behavioural.

 

Primary - the major condition that causes the child to differ in learning or behaviour

 

Secondary - other conditions that arise or are present

 

Many children have more than one set of distinguishable characteristics, making the primary disability often impossible to identify.

 

Example: Children who are both visually impaired and intellectually disabled may have the primary condition of visual disability

and the secondary condition being identified as intellectual.

 

Etiology

(the process of finding causes to explain how a particular problem came into existence)

Rubella - A virus that at one time caused many devastating disabilities, such as deaf/blindness and sever multiple disabilities. However, today is well controlled.  When it does appear children more often have complex disorders affecting every different body systems
 

Injuries to the central nervous system- Is the cause for a significant number of multiple disabilities.  Damage and dysfunction of the brain and /or spinal cord incurred before, during or after birth are often caused by neurological impairments. Trauma, accidents or child abuse also affect the nervous system resulting in multiple disabilities.
 

Meningitis - Contracted after birth, 50% of children who survive have significant multiple impairments, including cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, convulsive disorders and hearing/visual handicaps.
 

Usher's Syndrome - A syndrome that associates with nerve deafness and pigment degeneration of the retina. More than half of deaf blindness in adults is accounted for by Usher's syndrome. General population incidences are 1 in 15,000 to 30,000 births.
 

    Type 1: Most severe, affects 90% of Usher's population, profound hearing loss with a
                 gradual onset of Retinitis Pigmentosa.

    Type 2: Mild to severe hearing impairments.
 

    Type 3: Mild hearing impairment and a slow onset of visual disability.