Neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) is the standardised term used internationally for any clinically significant condition that relates to “…a developmental deficit …with onset in the developmental period … that produces impairments of personal, social, academic, or occupational functioning?”[1]
It has several major categories and, within each category, there are specific diagnoses. There are then specifiers under most of the main diagnoses.
The categories are in bold below, the diagnoses in plain text and the specifiers in bullet points:
Intellectual Disabilities
Intellectual Disability (Intellectual Developmental Disorder)
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- Profound
Global Developmental Delay
Communication Disorders
Language Disorder
Speech Sound Disorder
Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering)
Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Specify if: Associated with a known medical or genetic condition or environmental factor; Associated with another neurodevelopmental, mental, or behavioural disorder
- Severity: Requiring very substantial support. Requiring substantial support. Requiring support
- Specify: With or without accompanying intellectual impairment. With or without accompanying language impairment. With catatonia
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Combined presentation
- Specify if: In partial remission
- Specify current severity: Mild, Moderate, Severe
Predominantly inattentive presentation
- Specify if: In partial remission
- Specify current severity: Mild, Moderate, Severe
Predominantly hyperactive/impulsive presentation
- Specify if: In partial remission
- Specify current severity: Mild, Moderate, Severe
Specific Learning Disorder
With impairment in reading
- Specify with word reading accuracy, reading rate or fluency, reading comprehension
- Specify current severity: Mild, Moderate, Severe
With impairment in written expression
- Specify if with spelling accuracy, grammar and punctuation accuracy, clarity or organisation of written expression
- Mild, Moderate, Severe
With impairment in mathematics
- Specify if with number sense, memorisation of arithmetic facts, accurate or fluent calculation, accurate math reasoning
- Mild, Moderate, Severe
Motor Disorders
Developmental Coordination Disorder
Stereotypic Movement Disorder
- Specify if: With self-injurious behaviour. Without self-injurious behaviour
- Specify if: Associated with a known medical or genetic condition, neurodevelopmental disorder, or environmental factor
- Specify current severity: Mild, Moderate, Severe
Tourette’s disorder
Persistent (Chronic) Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder
- Specify if: With motor tics only. With vocal tics only
Provisional Tic Disorder
Where it is clear that there is a clinically significant condition due to a developmental deficit but that it does not meet the specific criteria for one of these diagnoses, then an Other Specified or Unspecified diagnosis can be given, either within the relevant category or just as a neurodevelopmental disorder overall.
You can read more here about the specific terminology that is used and how confusions can occur: Understanding Diagnostic Terminology
[1] http://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm01
