Postnatal Causes of Learning Disability (Intellectual Disability) Postnatal causes of learning or intellectual disability include head injury, infections, neurodegeneration, and toxicities. A study on the causes of developmental disability found bacterial meningitis, child battering, vehicle-related injuries, and otitis media as the most common causes. However, a developmental disability is a broader term that can include motor developmental disabilities too. The results still give us an idea as this overlap heavily with causes of pure intellectual disability. See Table 1. Table 1: Most Common Causes of Developmental Disability Bacterial meningitis 31% Child battering 15% Motor-vehicle- related injuries 11% Otitis media 11% Postnatal causes of developmental disabilities in children aged 3-10 years -- Atlanta, Georgia, 1991. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1996 Feb 16 45 13