Disability - What Disables Our Children?

The leading type of disability among the young, those 17 years old or younger, is learning disability. This one category — it covers a range of cognitive disabilities — accounts for almost one third of all child disabilities. The data in this graph are from the same 1991-92 report from which we took disability causes for adults in the last panel. In 1991 and 1992 a total of 3.8 million children had some disability. Of these, 1,435,000 were afflicted with a learning disability, not including mental retardation or autism.

Other leading causes include (1) speech problems (634,000 children in 1991-92; (2) mental retardation (331,000); (3) asthma (311,000); and (4) mental and emotional problems (305,000 children). Of the top five causes of childhood disability, all but one originate with a malfunction in the brain.

The subject of childhood disability is one that merits a much closer look. The dramatic increase in the number of children being served in programs designed for the disabled is alarming. Is the increase due to growing incidence of disability? Or are we just serving the disabled more effectively?

Source: U.S. Department of Health, Centers for Disease Control, "Disability Among Children Aged Less than or Equal to 17 Years, United States, 1991-1992," Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, 1995, Volume 44, Number 33, available online at http//www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00038522.htm.