You can call this Statistics Week at DifferentDream.com if you like. Wednesday’s post featured the top-ranked children’s hospitals for 2011. Today’s post is about the study published in the online journal Pediatrics last month. The title was quite a mouthful: Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children, 1997 – 2008.

The Reality of 1 in 6 Developmental Disabilities in Children

The study’s findings have had the health care and special needs professional communities in a buzz for weeks. You can read the abstract here and a longer article interpreting it here. (Thanks to Steve Grcevich at Key Ministry for unearthing the links.) But the findings confirm what parents have known for a long time. More kids have more special needs than have been acknowledged by the health care, educational, and church communities.

The Implications of 1 in 6 Developmental Disabilities in Children

The implications the results of this study could and should have on these three communities are huge. Just figuring out where to start addressing them is so difficult, I won’t tackle the project today. Instead, I’ll refer you to a post by Shannon Dingle who blogs at www.theworksofgoddisplayed.com. (FYI – Her blog is one of my new favorites.)

What Implications Can You See?

Shannon’s post may open your eyes to other implications for health care, eduction, and the church. If so, leave a comment about what you’re thinking. The more implications the merrier, I always say.

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