Developmental disorders occur at some stage in a child

Child

Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

's development, often retarding the development. These may include,psychological

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 or physical disorders. The disorder is an impairment in the normal development of motor or cognitive skills that are developed before age 18 in which they are expected to continue indefinitely with. Developmental disorders usually have no cure.

They can be grouped into specific developmental disorder

Specific developmental disorder

Specific developmental disorders categorizes specific learning disabilities and developmental disorders affecting coordination.-ICD-10 taxonomy:...

 and pervasive developmental disorder

Pervasive developmental disorder

Pervasive developmental disorders is a diagnostic category refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays or impairments in communication, social behaviors, and cognitive development.Pervasive developmental disorders include Autism, Asperger's syndrome, Rett's syndrome, Childhood...

s.

It is sometimes equated with developmental disability

Developmental disability

Developmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...

.

Emergence of Developmental Disorders

Developmental disorders, specifically psychological disorders, generally emerge during the adolescent years. For anxiety disorders, the average age of showing an anxiety disorder is 11 years. Social phobias, particularly, is 13 years. Depression has a median age of 30, but early signs have been found in younger children, especially young girls. This leads to a greater finding of depression in females when they are adults. Schizophrenia is also typically diagnosed during late teens, early adulthood. Some disorders that have been diagnosed in childhood tend to decrease in severity moving into adulthood, disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome for instance. Only about 10% of children with seizures continue to have those seizures when they reach maturity.

Types of Developmental Disorders

• Mental retardation
  Mental retardation
  Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
  
  
• Learning disabilities
• Communication disorders
• Autism
  Autism
  Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
  
  
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
  Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
  Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
  
  
• Conduct disorder
  Conduct disorder
  Conduct disorder is psychological disorder diagnosed in childhood that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated...
  
  
• Oppositional defiant disorder
  Oppositional defiant disorder
  Oppositional defiant disorder is a diagnosis described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as an ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior toward authority figures which goes beyond the bounds of normal childhood behavior...