Are you afraid that your child will not be able to join the normal school as they suffer from communication and social-emotional delays in development?
These delays can be overcome. But understanding why they happen will help you overcome them.
So, what is a developmental delay? Delays in achieving physical milestones like crawling, walking, talking or the slow process of emotional expression of your child can be termed as developmental delay. But now with the right care and advanced treatment options, it’s possible to see your child as equally competent as his/her peers,
They can attend regular school and start their studies with success and they can live a completely independent life.
Without wasting any more time, let’s know about how developmental delay can affect your child.
Key Takeaways
- Understand what is a developmental delay and how it affects a child’s life
- Learning about the causes of developmental delays is important to take preventive measures
- The types of developmental delays will give a clearer picture of how to treat them.
- Get insights on speech and language delays, motor skill delays, social and emotional Delays
- How to ease your child’s learning journey by overcoming developmental delays.
- Learning about the advanced treatment options for developmental delays can help your child overcome them and lead an independent life like their peers.
What is a Developmental Delay?
Developmental delay is generally described as a situation where your child fails to achieve developmental milestones defined for their age, unlike their peers.
The only way to ensure they achieve this developmental milestone or even level up with other kids of their age is by taking early intervention.
Developmental milestones are the skills acquired by a child as they grow up. These include, for example, first-time smiling, waving hands, or saying bye-bye.
Delays in learning the actions can happen due to defects in motor function, speech, cognitive abilities, and social skills. There can be many causes of developmental delays. Let’s learn about them in detail.
Causes of Developmental Delays
Children start walking, speaking, or going to the bathroom at their own pace. Yet, sometimes, a child may have problems in achieving such milestones and they take more time than their peers. There are many reasons for such delays, including
- Lack of oxygen during the delivery of the baby
- Being born prematurely
- Health disorders such as Down syndrome or muscular dystrophy.
- Poor eyesight or hearing
- Malnutrition
- Drug-induced or Alcoholism during pregnancy
- Physical abuse or neglect of the child
- P/H of Delayed Milestone
What are the types of Developmental Delay?
Developmental delays in infants and young children are usually categorized in many ways. They include problems with:
- Language or speech
- Movement – motor skills
- Social and emotional skills
Sometimes, in two or more of these areas, the output is significantly delayed or it is not accomplished at all. When that happens it is called “global developmental delay.” It is a condition that affects infants and preschoolers from age up to 5 with delays observed to have lasted for not less than 6 months.
Developmental delays are not the same as developmental disabilities, which are conditions such as cerebral palsy, hearing loss, as well as autism spectrum disorder which affect a person’s development throughout their life.
Speech and Language Delays
Of all the developmental delays, language and speech impairment are the most common.
Speech relates to stating or mentioning something in words and that includes how words are spoken. Language is a wider channel through which information is given and or received.
Causes of Speech and Language Delays
A variety of problems may cause language and speech delays, including:
- Bilingualism, which may result in slight delays in speech in toddlers
- A learning disability
- Child abuse or neglect
- Dysarthria is caused by muscular dysfunction in the mouth and the children are unable to speak
- Auditory impairments since birth
Symptoms of Speech and Language Delays
If your child develops any of the following signs at the respective ages, it is good to contact a pediatrician. Also, pay attention to the regression of skills that have been acquired earlier.
By 3 to 4 months, contact the doctor if your child:
- Does not seem to move when there are loud noises
- Doesn’t babble
- Does not attempt to make certain sounds (by 4 months)
By 7 months, contact the doctor if your child:
- Doesn’t respond to sounds
By 1 year, contact the doctor if your child:
- Don’t add only single words in the sentence, for example, ‘mama’
- Doesn’t understand certain vocabulary like ‘bye-bye’ or ‘no’
By 2 years, contact the doctor if your child:
- Unable to form sentences
- Does not communicate by using words to ask for things or state their requirements beyond the basic level
- Doesn’t gesture more than just to wave or to point, not even nodding or shaking the head for yes or no
- Cannot respond to a command to point at two or more body parts
Motor Skill Delays
Motor skill developmental delays might be categorized into two; gross motor skills such as crawling or walking, and fine motor skills such as using fingers to hold a spoon.
Premature children may not gain muscles as fast as other children of the same age.
Possible Causes of Motor Skill Delays
Possible causes of motor delays are the following:
- Cerebral palsy affects movement and muscle coordination and is caused by damage to the brain either before, during, or shortly after birth.
- Cognitive delays
- Myopathy is defined as a disease that affects the muscles
- Spina bifida, a genetic disease that affects the lower limbs and part of the body with paralysis
Symptoms of Motor Skill Delays
The following are the signs to check for and contact your pediatrician if your child has those at the indicated ages. Also, look for any loss in the previously acquired skills.
By 3 to 4 months, contact the doctor if your child:
- Doesn’t obtain, or take items by their hand
- Doesn’t support their head well
- Doesn’t begin to touch objects and put them in the mouth (by 4 months of age)
- Don’t lie on their stomach and push their body with the forearms or elbows
By 7 months, contact the doctor if your child:
- Complains of having muscles that are either very hard and tight or very soft and loose
- Sneezes and flops their head when pulled into a sitting position
- Only uses one hand to grab objects or does not attempt to grab objects at all
- Struggles to place objects in his/her mouth
By 1 year, contact the doctor if your child:
- Cannot push up to sit on the floor (9 months)
- Doesn’t crawl
- Can’t stand when supported
- Holds on to furniture and does not walk while doing so
By 2 years, contact the doctor if your child:
- Can not walk (by 18 months)
- Do not adopt heel-to-toe walking or walk on the toes only
- Unable to apply force to a wheeled toy
Social and Emotional Delays
Some of the problems can include the child’s inability to communicate or have proper relations with other people, this is known as social and/or emotional developmental delays. More often than not, such issues can be seen before the child starts school.
Causes of Social and Emotional Delay
Some causes of social and emotional delays include
- Lack of parental time
- Broken family relationships
- Problems in bonding
- Screen time above average.
Symptoms of Social and Emotional Delay
Some of the symptoms of social and emotional delay are the following:
By 3 to 4 months, contact the doctor if your child:
- Doesn’t smile at people
How to teach a child with Developmental Delay?
It is always quite inspiring to watch children going about their discovery of the world. Many developments occur in a child in the initial years of their life. When your child has developmental delays, it’s as if time is against you and you are always trying to catch up.
However, even if your child is enrolled in early intervention and the child is learning skills, one may wonder what more can be done to assist the child. Fortunately, there are a few little things that you can do to support your child’s learning.
Playing with your child
The following are some simple yet engaging tasks that children can do at home including playing with play-dough, slime, or putty which can be beneficial for the child’s fine motor skills. For instance, even simple activities that any child would engage in such as playing in the dirt or dancing will go a long way in developing the gross motor skills.
Other measures that can also be helpful include playing with other children at the local playground, sliding, swinging, climbing, and laughing with other children helping the child to build on various essential skills. In school especially on the playground children learn social values such as learning to follow directions, sharing, and being polite.
Making visual schedules for your child
Children with developmental issues may also have a hard time processing what you are saying or even obeying commands like other children of their age do. That can be annoying for your child and, of course, for you as well.
Make visual schedules for your home. They can range from mere diagrams that explain how a certain activity is carried out. Or they can depict your daily schedule. Get and use picture charts on brushing teeth, washing hands, getting dressed, and other picture schedules that can be suitable for your child.
If you are giving the directions verbally, then ensure that the directions that you give are short and straightforward. And learn how to help the child understand and adhere to the rules.
Keeping in touch with your child’s therapist/caretaker
If your child is in early intervention, make sure to contact the service coordinator from time to time. Also, continue to discuss with your healthcare giver or any other person who attends to your child for check-ups. That may be a general physician, a health center, or a hospital.
Advanced Treatment for Developmental Delay
Stem cell therapy is a form of advanced treatment to treat different types of developmental delays.
This is a new treatment which has been introduced for the Neurodevelopmental disorders. Stem cell therapy helps in the management of the aspects of concern in the kid in the first place. In cases of hyperactive children, it alters their hyperactivity and the child is seen to get docile. In cases where comprehension is difficult and there is difficulty in learning, improvement with stem cell therapy treatment can be seen by the repair and regeneration of cells. Additionally, their social interaction skills get boosted and they start understanding relationships and acquire the concept of self-identification.
MedicoExperts helps you offer your child a better future and overcome all developmental delays.
We use autologous adult stem cells, and the cell therapy we provide is safe, effective, and noninvasive.
Below is the reason for using adult autologous stem cells rather than umbilical cord cells:
- Autologous cells are harvested on the same day of the infusion
- The use of patients’ cells is less likely to have adverse effects, hence the safety aspect is enhanced.
Autologous stem cells can be more effectively used in intrathecal injections (intrathecal – inside the layers of tissues covering the spinal cord) as compared to umbilical cord cells.
Takeaway
Developmental delay can occur in your children during the early years of development. You have to remain careful during this time and monitor your child’s motor skills, speech-related skills, and emotional skills.
If you find any anomaly, you need to contact Pediatrician for immediate support. We at MedicoExperts strive continuously to offer better health to your child and give them a self-reliant future.
In case of serious developmental delay, we have a specialized and advanced treatment regime, that can help your child level up with the other children of their age.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Can a child overcome developmental delays?
With the right kind of therapy and advanced treatment options, a child can overcome developmental delay. By adopting special teaching techniques and stem cell therapy, developmental delay can be conquered.
Q2. Is there a treatment for developmental delay?
Early intervention with proper teaching techniques and stem cell therapy can help beat developmental delay in your child.
Q3. Is developmental delay a mental illness?
Developmental delay may not change a child’s process of thinking or perception, therefore it may not be considered a mental illness.
In autism spectrum disorder or cerebral palsy, your child suffers from genetic defects or any kind of damage to the brain during or before childbirth. Developmental delays may or may not be related to specific disorders and early intervention can help your child overcome them completely.
Q4. Does developmental delay go away?
Developmental delays go away in most children if detected early. Even very serious cases can be treated with success if the treatment is started at the right time.
Q5. Is it normal for a 3-year-old to not talk clearly?
It has been observed that by 2 years of age, a normal child can speak 50% of what they want to express, and by 4 years one can understand a child almost completely. However, parents understand their children’s speech more than other people when they are between 2-4 years of age.
References
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351281531_Developmental_Delay
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559061/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10519674/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266514/
- http://www.ijstr.org/final-print/oct2019/Services-To-Children-With-Developmental-Delays-In-Early-Childhood-Education.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7069665/
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Medically Reviewed By MedicoExperts Editorial & Clinical Review Board on 22 August 2024
