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- Disability Categories
- Autism
- Deaf-Blindness
- Deafness
- Emotional Behavioral Disorder
- Hearing Impairment or Deafness
- Cognitively Disabled
- Multiple Disabilities
- Orthopedic Impairment
- Other Health Impairment
- Specific Learning Disability
- Speech and Language Disability or Impairment
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Visual Impairment and Blindness
Cause
Many causes occur prenatally or from genetics
Genetic Causes
Genetic Causes
- Down Syndrome
- Fragile X
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
- These result from: abnormalities of genes inherited from parents, errors when genes combine, or from other disorders of the genes caused during pregnancy by infections, overexposure to x-rays and other factors. There are many genetic diseases associated with intellectual disability.
- Maternal drug use
- Other risks include malnutrition, certain environmental toxins, and illnesses of the mother during pregnancy, such as toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, rubella and syphillis.
- Prematurity and low birth weight predict serious problems more often than any other conditions. Difficulties in the birth process such as temporary oxygen deprivation or birth injuries may cause intellectual disabilities.
- Childhood diseases such as whooping cough, chicken pox, measles, and Hib disease that may lead to meningitis and encephalitis can damage the brain, as can injuries such as a blow to the head or near drowning. Lead, mercury and other environmental toxins can cause irreparable damage to the brain and nervous system.
- Toxins
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Toxins