What Causes Developmental Disorders?

Childhood Developmental Disorders such as ADHD, Dyslexia, Asperger’s, and Autism Spectrum Disorders including, OCD, Tourette’s, and PDD, share many common learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. However, we keep in mind that each disorder is complex in nature, involving every system of the body.

Interestingly, while childhood developmental disorders may manifest with a variety of symptoms, the root cause of these dysfunctions is common: a brain imbalance. When the left and right hemispheres of the brain are not electrically balanced or synchronized, a diagnosis of functional disconnection syndrome is used. When a child has a functional disconnection between the right and left hemisphere of the brain, a child will exhibit normal to high functioning skills associated with one hemisphere and dampened to severely limited skills associated with the other hemisphere. Worsening signs and symptoms as the child continues to age appears to be a result of one side of the brain maturing faster than the other does.

Children with developmental disorders display a combination of different symptoms that include sensory, motor, cognitive, academic, emotional, immune challenges, and digestive challenges. Unfortunately, most professionals are still approaching and treating the child as though they have a single condition. Additionally, many times these children are being labeled subjectively (mainly through parental assessments) and are not being neurologically and objectively evaluated.

A thorough neurological evaluation will reveal which hemisphere is underdeveloped and will evaluate neurological pathways for over activity and under activity. Specific tests include, but are not limited to, testing for primitive reflexes, testing of cranial nerve function, cerebellar function, and frontal eye fields, and even routine blood work. Once the objective data is collected, a treatment plan can be tailored to stimulate and promote hemispheric integration or synchronization thus enabling the brain to work as a whole. With no treatment, the weak side gets weaker and the strong side becomes dominant which can result in neglect syndromes. However, with specific hemispheric treatment, the weak side can be encouraged to catch up to the dominant side.