Global Developmental Delay and Unspecified Intellectual Developmental Disorder
This post will comprise of two specific disorders due to the lack of diagnostic criteria needed to explain them. As the previous post discussing Intellectual Developmental Disorder, I will first put the DSM-5 writing in italics and then put my explanation for what it says directly under it. Any further information needed, please don’t hesitate to reach out to get a better understanding of what it is written.
Global Developmental Delay
This diagnosis is reserved for individuals under the age of 5 years when the clinical severity level cannot be reliably assessed during early childhood. This category is diagnosed when an individual fails to meet expected developmental milestones in several areas of intellectual functioning, and applies to individuals who are unable to undergo systematic assessments of intellectual functioning, including children who are too young to participate in standardized testing. This category requires reassessment after a period of time.
Like the writing states this diagnosis is specifically for young children under the age of 5. Normally it is frowned upon to diagnose children as it is difficult to get an accurate reading on their symptoms due to limited ability for them to describe their symptoms and is solely relied upon their caregiver to provide their observation of their behavior. For this specific diagnosis the child has to have not met certain milestones specific that are generally met by their age mats AND they are unable to undergo the proper testing to determine a more accurate diagnosis. Like it states at the end, the individual will have to be reassessed at a later time for a better diagnosis.
Unspecified Intellectual Developmental Disorder
This category is reserved for individuals over the age of 5 years when assessment of the degree of intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) by means of locally available procedures is rendered difficult or impossible because of associated sensory or physical impairments, as in blindness or prelingual deafness; locomotor disability; or presence of severe problem behaviors or co-occurring mental disorder. This category should only be used in exceptional circumstances and requires reassessment after a period of time.
This specific diagnosis is more related to the diagnosis of Intellectual Developmental Disorder. It is used in specific cases where the clinician is unable to provide an accurate diagnosis due to co-occurring issues. Co-occurring means either another illness or mental disorder that may interact with this diagnosis. The examples of co-occurring disorders that may interact with this disorder making it difficult for the clinician to gain a more accurate diagnosis would be blindness, deafness or locomotor disability. These other issues would make it difficult to gain to accurately give an individual the full diagnosis of Intellecual Developmental Disorder because some of the affects of the initial issue may falsely create symptoms of Intellectual Developmental Disorder. As the previous discussed disorder, reassessment would be needed at a later time.
Pic from Yale Medicine