R Mak

The variety of definitions for Developmental Disabilities shows that it is difficult to define what exactly is a 'Developmental Disability'. These are usually persistent, severe, frequently multiple disabilities originating in early childhood and requiring life long special services. Included are neurologically handicapping conditions (e.g. mental retardation, cerebral palsy), sensory deficits (e.g. deafness, blindness), speech and language disorders, autism and mental illness.

At the child assessment centres of the Department of Health, a broad definition is adopted to include all children with anomalies in one or more domains of development that cause concern to family and physician. This is because the young age of the children seen, the plasticity of development, and the changing societal perception of disability make it difficult to predict future problems or outcome.

The management of developmental disabilities in Hong Kong is fragmentary. Reasons include a deficiency of agreed best practices for managing long term disabilities and inadequate inter-agency communication, cooperation and collaboration.

Since developmental disabilities cannot be cured, there is need to help child and family to accept the limitations of a persistent handicap and to function as effectively as possible. Hence the need for interventions not only to help the child realise his physical and cognitive potentials, but also to empower parents, improve parent-child relationship, and enhance the child's emotional wellbeing and social competence.