When you think of developmental delays, the first thing that pops into many minds is Down’s syndrome or other diseases that affect individuals' development. But there are many forms of delays and as parents, it’s easy to worry a lot about children especially when they aren’t hitting developmental milestones as soon as you expect them to. Children develop at different paces so except the situation is really bad, give that child some time. A group I joined on Facebook called ‘Ask The Pediatrician’ is always filled with questions from concerned mothers and fathers about their children’s development so I thought I should write about Developmental delays, their causes, and how they can be managed or avoided.
There are various milestones that children are expected to hit as they grow up which have been categorized into the following:
- Cognitive Skills delay
- Motor Skills delay
- Social and emotional skills
- Vision
- Language and speech
Cognitive skills
Cognitive skills are the skills you are using right now, it facilitates reading, learning, thinking, remembering and paying attention. Children who experience brain injury, meningitis, hydrocephalus and many other diseases that affect the brain are prone to these delays. It is advisable to avoid shaking or throwing babies up to protect their tender skull and brain from injury.
Motor Skills
Motor skills help in movement and body coordination such as neck control in babies, walking and crawling and it is divided into fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills involve the use of wrists and hands, so the ability to do things such as grabbing or holding onto something is a fine motor skill, while gross motor skills involve the use of more muscles. Gross motor skills are what we use for movement such as crawling, walking, and jumping.
Social and emotional skills
These include giggles, cries, laughs, sadness and other emotions. This most affects children with Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is important to observe your child’s interaction with others and find ways to support his/her skill development by modifying your environment and activities to accelerate the development of such skills
Vision
Many hospitals perform tests on babies to determine their visual condition. Many children begin to see clearly in the first one month of life.For some children though this doesn’t happen immediately, the delay of eyesight is called delayed visual maturation (DVM). Vision plays an important role in cognitive skills development so it’s important to ensure that a child gets the help he/she needs in good time
Language and speech
Communication is important to facilitate interaction with others. Children use gestures and sound to communicate. Many children tend to fall under this category and as many as 10% of preschool children experience speech delay. This kind of delay is often caused when there are oral impairment that were not detected on time such as tongue ties and short frenulum, ear problems can also lead to speech delay, if you notice that your child is not speaking or communicating as expected, please seek professional advice because in such instances, early intervention makes a great deal of difference.
Children grow at different paces. If your child is not reaching the above mentioned milestones, try to address the issue by searching for resources that can help you. It is also very important to seek professional advice even though such professionals that will support a child with developing these skills may be hard to find in third world countries, you can meet a pediatrician for proper diagnosis before any form of treatment.
References
https://nyulangone.org/conditions/developmental-delays-in-children/types
https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/recognizing-developmental-delays-birth-age-2
All content is mine except otherwise stated
Images created on CanvaPro or with an IPhone 6 camera