Identifying and Addressing Developmental Delays in Children
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Developmental delay is a delay in one or more areas of a child’s (birth-18) development. The areas of a child’s development include their physical, cognitive and intellectual, social and emotional, and speech and language development.
Developmental delay in children or infants refers to an inability to reach skills (gross motor, language, cognitive) that are expected according to a set age. Developmental delay can occur in just one area of development, say physical development delay, or it can happen across different areas of development and skills.
We take a look at the speech milestones for infants and toddlers, as well as the causes and signs of speech delay and why there might be cause for concern with your 18 months old’s speech development. Speech delay is defined as a delay in how and when a child learns to speak. Speech delay generally refers to a child’s speaking ability, ability to form words and sentences, rather than their ability to comprehend speech and how it works. A child with speech delay may have no language comprehension issues but will struggle to form words for speech.
Crawling is a developmental milestone that most babies will reach by the age of 9 months. It is one of the gross motor milestones, and it is often considered a major milestone, recognized and celebrated by parents and caregivers alike.
Gross motor skills involve whole-body movements and the use of the larger muscles in the arms, legs, and trunk. Several gross motor milestones, organized by age, that infants and children are expected to reach include crawling, standing unaided, walking, and running.
Gross motor skills are those that involve using whole-body movements in order to move or make a physical movement. These include crawling, walking, running, climbing, lifting, and throwing amongst others. Gross motor activities involve using the larger muscles of the arms, legs, and torso.
Speech delay (alalia) is defined by a delay in speech development. This means a delay in making the necessary sounds for speech. A child who is not meeting the developmental milestones for speech may be showing signs of speech delay.
In some cases, there is a need for genuine concern if a child is not meeting the set speech and language developmental milestones for their age, and in this case, speech delay may be diagnosed. Speech is a part of language development and involves the words we use to communicate and incorporates articulation and forming sounds to make words. The language itself includes many forms of communication, including verbal (speech) and non-verbal, and comprehension and understanding.
Developmental delay is when a child does not meet the developmental milestones expected for their age. Children naturally develop at different rates, and some degree of slower or delayed development is completely normal.