Biomedical

Research & Development

The NACD Foundation Philosophy

The more specific and individualized the intervention, the greater the potential for assisting a child to achieve his or her innate potential.

Our Mission

To advance the treatment of children with developmental issues through research, training, parent education and the development of individual treatment protocols.

Our Priorities

  • Keep abreast of the research being done in the field of child development (biomedical, therapeutic and educational); analyze the data and educate the public on the relevant findings.
  • Develop a system by which we can individually assess and provide biomedical treatment plans to complement the individualized therapeutic and educational programs already provided by NACD.
  • Develop a database of children with specific developmental issues, using NACD’s caseload as a basis and by campaigning and recruiting data.  Such a database will allow us to perform comprehensive analyses on the effectiveness of various interventions.
  • Provide a resource of information on safe and effective treatment options.
  • Initiate a national campaign to educate parents on the significant correlation of diet to neurological function.

Funding for the Foundation Will Support

  • The dissemination of information, i.e. public service announcements, newsletters.
  • A campaign to recruit families of special needs children to add to our database, i.e. placing ads in special needs publications, as well as radio and TV public service announcements.
  • Specific areas of research and analysis.

Why Our Work is Critical

There is a dramatic rise in the number of children being diagnosed with developmental disabilities.

The rise in the number of children being diagnosed with developmental disabilities has sparked a great flux of research into the field of developmental disorders and much interest into potential services and treatments for these children. Parents of children with developmental disabilities are bombarded with incredible amounts of information (and misinformation); there is much confusion as to what is and what is not helpful.

Recent Data released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) regarding the rise in incidence of developmental disabilities is alarming:

AUTISM

  • About 1 in 6 children in the U.S. had a developmental disability in 2006–2008, ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments, to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism.
  • About 1 in 88 children has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
  • ASDs are reported to occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.
  • The number of children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in the U.S. has increased by 78% in the last 5 years.

ADHD

  • Parents report that approximately 9.5% or 5.4 million children 4–17 years of age have ever been diagnosed with ADHD, as of 2007.
  • The percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased by 22% between 2003 and 2007.3
  • Rates of ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 and an average of 5.5% per year from 2003 to 2007.

DOWN SYNDROME

  • From 1979 to 2003 the prevalence of Down Syndrome at birth increased by 31%, from 9–12 per 10,000 live births, in 10 U.S. regions.