Most parents of children with developmental and neurobehavioral disorders do not truly understand the nature of the etiology of their children’s dysfunction. They do not understand what is “wrong” with their children and often blame themselves, feel inadequate, and think of themselves as “bad” parents. We will seek to address that lack of understanding by defining these conditions, providing neurobehavioral disorders examples, and looking into brain hemisphericity.
What Are These Conditions?
The prominence of different symptoms and non-typical behavioral patterns vary from one person to another. That’s because some are mildly affected by it, while others are more challenged.
However, some symptoms are almost always present in every case, but in varying degrees. They range from observably severe to barely observable non-typical behavior.
Neurobehavioral Disorders Examples Within the Continuum
Recent thought places these conditions as a constellation of symptoms on a continuum: the Attention Behavioral Continuum (ABC), which comprises the following:
- Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Learning Disability (LD)
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Tourette’s Syndrome
- Pervasive Developmental Delay (PDD)
- Asperger’s Syndrome
- Sensory Integration Disorder (SID)
- Apraxia and Apraxia of Speech
- Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)
- Autism and Subtypes of Autism
All these are similar in their underlying neurological mechanism, involving the brain’s prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum. Much of this confusion has come about by the way these conditions are diagnosed.
We would like to believe that there is a lab test or an objective test somewhere that confirms the diagnosis of ADHD, OCD, or Tourettes’s Syndrome, but in fact, the diagnosis is purely subjective. There are no consistent anatomical or physical markers for these conditions.
These disorders are often diagnosed by a professional sitting down with a parent or teacher and reading to them a list of symptoms and checking off if the parent or teacher believes that the child manifests the relevant symptoms. However, even this process is not as clear-cut as it sounds.
The list of symptoms is extremely vague, and many of these conditions are hard, if not impossible, to distinguish. What is happening is that a group of symptoms is being called a disorder, and if we add or subtract a few symptoms or make a few more severe, then it is called a different condition or syndrome.
That said, when we look at the brain areas involved in all these conditions and the neurotransmitter symptoms involved, they are all basically the same. Therefore, these are all possibly the same problem along a spectrum of severity. Hence the term Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a condition that affects several areas of a child’s development from the day he or she is born. In some cases, this can happen later within the first two to three years after birth.
It affects around 1.6% of all childbirth, which means that for every 59 children, one is expected to have this condition. Additionally, this disorder is more commonly found in males, and the symptoms are also more evident in this gender.
While this condition usually lasts a lifetime, meaning there isn’t yet a cure, Autism Spectrum Disorder is manageable. Various therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists, and other medical professionals aim to teach various life skills to people with autism and autism subtypes.
Nonetheless, as modern brain research and technology reveal more about the brain and its relationship to ASD, the condition is increasingly found to be correctable to various levels of success and, in certain cases, reversible.
Typical Early Histories
ABC kids are predominantly born to mothers with histories of allergies and/or immune difficulties, often with prenatal exposure to toxins or pesticides. They tend to be breech births, with neonatal or prenatal oxygen deprivation, cerebral swelling, or other birth injuries, but no obvious brain disorder or damage.
The First Year
Children with these conditions typically manifest with colic or other digestive disorders. It will usually alternate between diarrhea and chronic constipation and reflux or projectile vomiting and pyloric stenosis. They will also tend to present with asthma, allergies, yeast infections, and progressive eczema.
Most have had some immunization reactions and tend to regress or show significant slowing or stoppage of development at roughly 18 months. They also often show sleep disturbances and regularly have some degree of decreased muscle tone (hypotonia) and sensory processing difficulty.
Years Two to Three
At this stage, the diet becomes increasingly limited to wheat and dairy in every combination, as it tends towards hypersensitivity to food and food textures. The condition also manifests with allergic symptoms, both dietary and environmental. It also often shows abnormal eye movements, strabismus, and nystagmus.
Children affected will also have abnormal or delayed crawling, often skipping stages of crawling before walking. They also tend to be clumsy, with floppy or hypotonic movements, and often show toe-in or knock-kneed gait patterns.
The Common Thread
All have some history of motor, digestive, sensory, and immunological dysfunction. They appear to be similar problems of varying degrees of severity.
For instance, attention deficit exists for two reasons: the inability to pay attention or fixate, which are right-brain functions, or lack of intention, motivation, and interest, which are functions of the left brain. Meaning, all ABC disorders can be categorized similarly, with a greater degree of specificity than this.
The Gender Issue: Why More Boys Than Girls?
As noted, distinct differences exist between male and female brains, which are accentuated in early development. Let’s learn more about them in detail.
Male vs. Female Brain
Males are usually right-brain dominant, with a larger right frontal lobe. As a result, adult men typically have better right-brain skills than women. The mother’s hormonal level, especially estrogen, during pregnancy is vital in this process for proper fetal male brain development.
On the contrary, females tend to be better with left-brain skills, such as language and calculation. They also usually have a greater brain symmetry degree than men, with the main asymmetry being a quite larger posterior left temporal lobe for language access and speech. That’s why, when they experience some form of insult early in the development stage, they’ll more likely be capable of compensating for it than males.
The male brain tends to have a higher susceptibility to maternal stress than the female brain. Chemical, emotional, and physical stressors can alter the maternal hormone level, primarily affecting male brain development.
Besides hormonal influences, early brain development after birth is intimately tied to the motor system, especially the cerebellum. Boys are more affected by a lack of motor development than girls.
The majority of the neurobehavioral disorders examples we listed or ABC disorders involve the right brain, and males are less able to recover from early right-brain issues than females. Language disorders, which are generally more of left-brain issues, are more evenly distributed between females and males. Males predominate here, as well, since the female brain in early development tends to heal more quickly.
Brain Hemisphericity
Let us now look at the normal functional distribution between the left and right brain hemispheres. It will help us understand what happens if one hemisphere is under-stimulated, or, as we like to say, left or right brain hemisphericity.
The Brain Hemispheres’ Normal Functions
| Left Hemisphere (Female Brain) | Right Hemisphere (Male Brain) |
| Social Motivation | Social Behavior |
| Verbal Communication | Non-Verbal Communication |
| Content | Context |
| Approach Behavior | Withdrawal Behavior |
| Immune Response | Immune Suppression |
| Detail | Overall Picture |
| Intention | Focused Attention |
| Reading | Reading Comprehension |
| Linear | Spatial |
| Math Calculation | Math Reasoning |
| Familiar | Novelty or Newness |
| Auditory | Visual |
| Sequential | Global Processing |
| Fine Motor Skills | Gross Motor Activity |
| Smaller Muscles | Large Muscles |
So, what does this mean? Modern advances in brain research and technologies have given us new ways to think about autism, autism subtypes, and other neurobehavioral disorders and diagnose or interpret them. It gives us a new understanding as to what is causing the problems in the first place. It also gives us crucial insights into what type of therapeutic interventions might be most successful.
The main problem is an imbalance in stimulation between the brain hemispheres, resulting in a difference in processing speed. All human functions are distributed either in the right or the left hemisphere. For a human brain to operate properly, we need both hemispheres to come together.
Ultimately, the brain will ignore the under-stimulated and “slower” hemisphere. You end up losing function of the “depressed” hemisphere, and sometimes with increased function of the “good” hemisphere.
To lead a “normal” and rewarding life, we need both brain hemispheres to do their respective jobs at the right time. We clearly require the capacity to understand the literal meaning of words and language. However, without understanding non–verbal cues, facial expressions, and body language, we would be stuck in a world of just literal meaning and robot-like language without intonation and coloring.
Autistic kids typically show right brain hemisphericity. They often have little or no eye contact and crave the familiar, routine, and “sameness”. If they speak at all, they tend to do so without intonation and focus on minute details.
At the same time, some show extraordinary capacities in mathematical calculation and sequential memory for numbers or dates. This indicates highly increased faculties in the “good” brain hemisphere.
A Better Insight on Autism, Autism Subtypes, and Other Neurobehavioral Disorders
Whether or not your family and your partner’s family have a neurobehavioral or autism spectrum disorder history, there is no guarantee that your child won’t have any of these conditions. That’s because there’s a multitude of factors involved, including brain hemisphericity, birthing conditions, and medical history.
Hence, it’s crucial to have a professional check your kid as soon as they manifest any symptoms or their pediatrician suggests that you do so. More importantly, approach it positively as it doesn’t define you as a parent or caregiver, more so, it doesn’t define your child.