Neurodevelopmental disorder

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (July 2021) This article needs more reliable medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources. Please review the contents of the article and add the appropriate references if you can. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Neurodevelopmental disorder" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of conditions that begin to emerge during childhood (or the development of the nervous system). According to the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, (DSM-5) published in 2013, these conditions generally appear in early childhood, usually before children start school, and can persist into adulthood.^[1] The key characteristic of all these disorders is that they negatively impact a person's functioning in one or more domains of life (personal, social, academic, occupational) depending on the disorder and deficits it has caused. All of these disorders and their levels of impairment exist on a spectrum, and affected individuals can experience varying degrees of symptoms and deficits, despite having the same diagnosis.^[1][2]

The DSM-5 classifies neurodevelopmental disorders into six overarching groups.

1. Intellectual disability (intellectual development disorder)
2. Communication disorders
3. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
4. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
5. Neurodevelopmental motor disorders
6. Specific learning disorders

These disorders are commonly comorbid conditions, meaning that a person affected by one of these disorders will usually meet criteria for a second disorder.^[1][2]