What is a Developmental Disabilities (DD)?
Limitations in function that manifest during childhood or adolescents (prior to age 18) as delays in reaching developmental milestones or as delays in function in one or multiple domains, including cognition, motor performance, vision, hearing, speech, learning, and behavior (Institute of Medicine, 2001)
In the 1st year of life, the brain grows at the pace of 700-1,000 new neural connections per second, a pace that is never achieved again. By age 3 years, a child’s brain is twice as active as an adult brain. It is early life experiences that determine the capacity of the brain – it’s structure and function.