Article

PURPOSE: To identify and describe selected key characteristics of children with
neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities (NDD/D) in a national disability
survey database. METHOD: Secondary analysis of data on children aged 5-14 years
in the Canadian Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS). Children
with NDD/D were ascertained from ICD-10 diagnoses "fine-tuned" with functional
limitation information, and classified into six predetermined NDD/D subtypes by
independent expert evaluators. RESULTS: Children with NDD/D accounted for 73.5%
of children with disabilities. Amongst children with a single NDD/D type, 28.8%
were in the Cognition-Learning subgroup, 22.2% Psychological, 19.9% Social
interactive, 13.3% Sensory, 10.6% Motor and 5.2% Speech-Language
disorders/disabilities. Complexity, both diagnostic (more than one ICD-10
diagnosis) and functional (more than one parent-identified functional
limitation), was encountered frequently though variably across NDD/D subtypes. In
aligning parent-identified functional limitation information with
researcher-ascertained assignment of children to NDD/D subgroups, matching with
additional limitations (61.3% of children) occurred far more commonly than simple
1:1 matches (14.0%) or non-matching (24.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Conceptual,
definitional and terminology issues affect population-based research on children
with NDD/D. Ascertainment methods can use diagnostic as well as functional
information. Diagnostic information alone is likely to under-represent the
complexity and needs of children with NDD/D and their families.

Langue : ANGLAIS