Friday, August 6, 2010

Self Injurious Behavior in Children with Developmental Disabilities

The Journal of Pediatrics completed a retrospective chart review on 196 children less than 6 years of age with various developmental disabilities. Sixty three of the children (32%) were reported to exhibit self injurious behaviors. When comparing the children with self injurious behaviors and those without no differences were seen between the two groups regarding "developmental level, expressive or receptive language level, mobility status or sensory functioning, or in rates of identification with cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, or autism". Differences were seen in the self injurious group regarding higher parental report of "destructive behaviors, hurting others or unusual habits".

Reference: William E. MacLean, Raymond C. Tervo, John Hoch, Mark Tervo, Frank J. Symons Self-Injury among a Community Cohort of Young Children at Risk for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities The Journal of Pediatrics
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.05.052

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This report is instructive in that there are no 'predictor' characteristics for self-injurious behavior.

Your Therapy Source Inc said...

True no predictor signs. That is what I found so interesting. Considering self injurious behavior is frequently "treated" with a sensory integration approach, I would have hypothesized that research may indicate differences in sensory functioning. May not have been explored very deeply though - not sure.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...