[ANSWERED 2023] The paper involves presenting the issue, identifying the relevant psychological theories and concepts, summarizing the current research, and stating why the issue is important

Last Updated on March 1, 2024 by Admin

Expert Answer and Explanation

Developmental Disabilities

Developmental disabilities comprise a group of medical conditions that occur as a result of impairment within the physical, language, learning, and behavioral area. These conditions occur in children during their developmental stages and can negatively affect the day-to-day functionality with possibilities of lasting throughout the life of the patient (Benzing et al., 2018).

The development of children can be evidenced by various developmental milestones that depict how the progress of the child’s development model. Different children develop at different paces which makes it difficult to tell how the child will respond to external stimuli. Dealing with a child with developmental disabilities is a major challenge especially for a homosexual married couple.

Presenting the Issue

The issue at hand entails the diagnosis of a 3-year-old patient with developmental disabilities. The child was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Benzing et al., 2018). As a gay couple, it was difficult to provide sufficient information at first concerning the characteristics and behavior of the mother during her pregnancy. As a responsible parent, the responsibility to conduct a well-child visit to follow up with the developmental monitoring and screening of the child as they grow (Benzing et al., 2018).

During one of the visits. The doctor noticed some characteristics from the child and suggested performing a developmental screening to ascertain the suspicion. The screening entailed a series of tests including observing the attention span of the child and how they respond to a series of questions without straying out of topic. The screening also focused on the other tests to demonstrate whether the child was learning basic skills on time or the possibilities of delays. Following the diagnosis, the doctor identified that the child was experiencing mild symptoms of ADHD as a form of developmental disability.

Causes and Risk Factors

The onset of developmental disabilities manifests amidst the developmental period and can persist throughout the life of the individual. The majority of the developmental disabilities begin event before the child is born while others can develop after delivery as a result of infections, or injuries. Various causal effects are associated with the disabilities that occur during pregnancies.

Some of these factors include but are not limited to parental health, genetics, and lifestyle choices such as alcohol and indulgence in smoking during the pregnancy period (Danielson et al., 2018). Other potential causes include complications during birth, exposure to environmental toxins, and other infections that a mother might have during pregnancy.

With the case of the child battling ADHD, the cause is still unclear. However, the nature of the disease shifts towards heredity and genetics the primary cause and determinant of ADHD. The condition is evidence by several symptoms including the lack of focus in the child, exaggerated emotions, poor time management, inattention, and hyperactivity among others. However, the child did not demonstrate all these symptoms apart from the lack of focus and small attention span (Danielson et al., 2018).

Depending on the characteristics of the disease, ADHD can be categorized into three different segmentations. The primarily hyperactive or otherwise called impulsive ADHD is characterized by the inability to control impulses and the outcome includes squirming, moving, and talking even at the most inappropriate times. The primarily inattentive type of ADHD is characterized by difficulty in finishing tasks, focusing, and following instructions (Danielson et al., 2018).

Children with this type of ADHD are often forgetful and easily distracted and can lose track of time, conversations, and roles assigned to them. The third form of ADHD is the Primarily combined ADHD which demonstrated the characteristics of the hyperactive and inattentive ADHD (Franke et al., 2018). A patient that meets the guidelines for diagnosing primarily hyperactive and inattentive ADHD can then be perceived to have a combined type of ADHD.

The case of the 3-year-old was in line with inattentive ADHD which explains the difficulty in identifying its symptom. The child was reserved, very quiet in that one could mistake for shyness. Upon the screening, the doctor was able to identify the condition and suggested the use of the different interventions.

Relevant Psychological Theories

ADHD is one of the highly heritable and most common neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders. Various theories can be used to evaluate and critically understand the condition and the reason it manifests differently (Reale et al., 2017). The major psychological theories related to ADHD include Executive Dysfunction, Delay Aversion, State Regulation, and Dynamic Developmental theories. These theories are essential as they offer an in-depth understanding of the symptom of ADHD, testability of the condition, and potential for falsification.

Executive Dysfunction Theory

The theory focuses on explain potential deficits in cognitive processes of the higher-order such as sequencing, planning, attention, and reasoning. The theory addresses the capacity of the body to retain memory and how it communicates with the lower-level cognitive processes such as learning, language, and explicit memory (Roberts et al., 2017).

The Executive Dysfunction theory suggests that the symptoms associated with ADHD can arise fully due to a reduction in the overall executive control. The theory focuses on the concept of impulsivity and inattention but fails to address the contest of hyperactivity (Roberts et al., 2017). The theory can be able to offer testable hypotheses but is difficult to falsify.

The State Regulated Theory

According to this theory, the performance deficit tendencies in a person with ADHD can be a result of a non-optimal energetic state. The theory is based on the study conducted using the Cognitive Energetic model of Sanders. The overall theory depicts that the efficiency of action of behavior or response to stimuli is dependent on the elementary cognitive stages together with the resultant energy distribution (Stephens & Byrd, 2017).

Children with ADHD have a challenge with the regulation or m maintaining an optimal activation state. The theory can be used to explain the primarily combined ADHD as it argues that the symptoms of ADHD can increase and decrease based on the active state of the child. For instance, the theory contends that the symptoms associated with inattention can be manifested when a child is bored or alone.

Alternativity, the child might develop a symptom of hyperactivity or impulsivity when there is increased stimulation (Stephens & Byrd, 2017). The state regulation theory can be tested as it offers a comparative analysis between a child with ADHD and the one without in terms of character and development. Additionally, the theory facilitates the falsifiability of the hypothesis regardless of the uncertainty of the nature or septicity of the hypothesis.

The Delay Aversion Theory

The delay aversion theory has experienced tremendous development to incorporate some of the elements of the Executive Dysfunction Theory. The theory asserts that a child with ADHD can wait, but they usually “don’t want to.” The delay reluctance in behavior and character explains the delay or dual-path model (De Meyer et al., 2019).

The original definition of delay aversion asserted that a child with ADHD opted not to be impulsive unless the action was able to lead to shorter overall delays.  Be that as it may, both hyperactivity and inattentiveness in a child’s behavior can be considered as a reflection of attempts to minimize or delay subjective experiences in situations where delay cannot be avoided.

The theory addresses the symptoms of impulsivity while associates hyperactivity and inattentiveness as a means to reduce or delay subjective experiences (De Meyer et al., 2019). The theory is testable and includes a falsifiable hypothesis.

The Dynamic Developmental Theory (DDT)

The DDT of ADHD analyses the characteristics and behaviors of patients with ADHD from a neurotransmitter point of view. The majority of the data that is in support of the theory is retrieved from animal tests. The theory suggests the occurrence of symptoms of ADHD is based on either deficient extinction of inadequate behavior or altered reinforcement of novel behavior (Luo et al., 2019).

According to the theory, the nature of one’s behavior or response to specific stimuli is contingent upon the delay-of-reinforcement difference between the captured stimuli and the reinforcement of the expected action or response. The greater the reinforcer, the more pronounced the response. Inattention can be manifested when an extension of stimuli occurs characterized by the inability of the reinforcer to function normally (Luo et al., 2019).

The DDT explains all the symptoms associated with ADHD as it holds a position with impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity. The difference in gradient and balance between the shorter delay-of-reinforcement and the extinction effect can be used to elaborate on the differences in behavior and why they occur. The theory is easily testable and provides a theoretical framework for a falsifiable hypothesis.

Summarizing the Current Research

The current research on ADHD addresses the various changes that have been experienced with the diagnosis of the disorder in children. As part of the developmental disabilities, ADHD does not have a verifiable cause and its symptoms cannot be easily identifiable. Current research is also focused on coming up with a standard means to conduct diagnose and screen patients with the disorder and classify them based on the three primary segments of ADHD.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) makes use of data sets retrieved from the national surveys to offer a detailed understanding of the prevalence of ADHD among children and other key concerns (CDC, 2020). The information is used to facilitate efficient decision-making strategies on how to address the issue in the community and whether the available intervention can mitigate the condition.

As a gay couple with a 3-year-old child with ADHD, information on the best treatment and other mitigation measures can be essential towards caring for the child until they normalize. According to the current research by the CDC, there has been an exponential increase in the number of patients under active prescription. The response might have been due to the authorization policies for the use of pediatric ADHD medication.

Conclusion

Dealing with a child with developmental disabilities is a major challenge especially for a homosexual married couple. Developmental disabilities affect children in different ways which require direct interaction between the patient and the physician to ascertain the nature of the illness. Dealing with developmental disabilities can also be a challenge as some of the issues do not have a definitive cure neither is the course known. The theories provide hypotheses on the symptoms and manifestation of the disorder and how it can be mitigated.

References

Benzing, V., Chang, Y. K., & Schmidt, M. (2018). Acute physical activity enhances executive functions in children with ADHD. Scientific reports, 8(1), 1-10.

CDC. (2020). Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Research on ADHD. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/research.html#current

Danielson, M. L., Bitsko, R. H., Ghandour, R. M., Holbrook, J. R., Kogan, M. D., & Blumberg, S. J. (2018). Prevalence of parent-reported ADHD diagnosis and associated treatment among US children and adolescents, 2016. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(2), 199-212.

De Meyer, H., Beckers, T., Tripp, G., & Van der Oord, S. (2019). Deficits in Conditional Discrimination Learning in Children with ADHD Are Independent of Delay Aversion and Working Memory. Journal of clinical medicine, 8(9), 1381.

Franke, B., Michelini, G., Asherson, P., Banaschewski, T., Bilbow, A., Buitelaar, J. K., … & Reif, A. (2018). Live fast, die young? A review on the developmental trajectories of ADHD across the lifespan. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 28(10), 1059-1088.

Luo, Y., Weibman, D., Halperin, J. M., & Li, X. (2019). A review of heterogeneity in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Frontiers in human neuroscience, 13, 42.

Reale, L., Bartoli, B., Cartabia, M., Zanetti, M., Costantino, M. A., Canevini, M. P., … & Bonati, M. (2017). Comorbidity prevalence and treatment outcome in children and adolescents with ADHD. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 26(12), 1443-1457.

Roberts, B. A., Martel, M. M., & Nigg, J. T. (2017). Are there executive dysfunction subtypes within ADHD?. Journal of attention disorders, 21(4), 284-293..

Stephens, J. J., & Byrd, D. L. (2017). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Reviewing the Neurocognitive Characteristics of an American Epidemic. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 103(1), 37-56.