Humans are different from each other. You may look at one family and notice how each member differs. It’s also true when it comes to child development. For example, your second kid probably took longer to learn to walk than your first kid. These differences in meeting developmental milestones are common and expected.
However, if you notice that your child has issues meeting milestones in different stages or areas, there are high chances they have developmental delays. While this may cause a feeling of failure for some parents, there’s no to panic. Although it can be overwhelming, providing your child with all the necessary help ensures a normal life and boosts their confidence.
So what can you do to help? The following blog discusses how you can assist a child with developmental delays.
What Are The Types Of Developmental Delays?
Developmental delays describe a condition when a child is slower to achieve milestones than other children of the same age. The following are significant types of developmental delays a child can suffer from. They include:
- Motor Skill Delay
There are two types of motor skills: fine and gross motor skills. Gross motor skills require large movements like throwing a ball or climbing stairs. On the other hand, fine motor skills need small gestures, such as holding a toy.
As mentioned above, a child takes a different time to achieve a specific milestone. However, in a typical situation, a child should be able to lift their heads by the time they’re three months and walk well before they reach two years.
However, if a child has a motor skills delay, they might not be able to achieve the expected milestones. They may exhibit signs such as stiff arms and legs, the dominance of involuntary reflexes, limited movement in arms and legs, and more.
Although this may not always mean that the child is suffering from developmental delays, it’s crucial to seek the necessary health services and diagnosis to be on the safer side.
- Speech And Language Delay
It’s another type of developmental delay you might have to deal with. When a baby is younger, they usually communicate by crying. However, as they grow, they might be to say several simple words, for instance, ‘dada’ or ‘mama,’ by the time they’re one year old. The child will be able to say more exact words as they grow, making it easier to know what they’re saying.
Speech delay occurs when a kid cannot say many words as other children in the same age bracket. Language delay, on the other hand, is a condition that makes it hard for young kids to convey what they want or understand what the other person is saying. Besides this, a child with a language delay may have difficulties writing.
As a parent, it can be challenging to distinguish between the two types of developmental delays. For instance, a child may be able to understand what you’re saying and express what they want by pointing but unable to talk as many words as expected. The kid might be suffering from an isolated speech delay in such a situation.
One of the major causes of speech and language delay is hearing issues. If the kid has poor hearing, they might be unable to hear what you’re saying or learn new words, affecting their developmental process. For this reason, if your kid has a speech or language delay, consider visiting your physician, who will assess the cause and advise accordingly.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
The issues mentioned above are more of physical development delays. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) includes neurodevelopmental delays affecting how a child thinks, communicates, moves, or processes thoughts.
One of the major signs of this is when a child cannot socialize with other kids of the same age or has a language delay. Other signs of ASD include a lack of facial expression, repetitive movements, coordination problems, and more.
Although there is no cure for this developmental delay, providing the necessary help boosts child progress, making it easier for them to manage daily processes.
How To Help A Child With Developmental Delays
Now that you know various developmental delays and associated signs, it’s time to learn how to assist a child suffering from one. The following are ways you can help a child with developmental issues, ensuring they have a normal life as possible. 1. Visit An Early Intervention Specialist
This is one of the ways you can help a child with developmental delays. Visiting an early intervention provider may help reduce the effects of developmental issues. Thus, it’ll be easier for children to live up to their full potential, boosting their overall life.
As a parent or caretaker, you may encounter overwhelming challenges when dealing with a developmentally delayed child. Thus, an early intervention session ensures you have the necessary skills and know-how to interact with and manage your kid’s progress, ensuring they have normal a life as possible.
2. Have A Consistent Routine
When dealing with daily activities, it’s easier to know what is expected of you afterward. This is true when it comes to children. For example, most kids know that after taking lunch, it’s now time to take a nap. However, for a child dealing with developmental delays, the routine may hugely influence their moods and overall life.
For this reason, having a consistent routine is important when dealing with your developmentally delayed kid. You can also include transition routines to help kids move from one activity to another. With a consistent pattern, the child will know what is expected of them at a specific time, reducing chances of frustration, which ultimately leads to acting out.
It’s also important to place the schedule or routine strategically to make it easier for everyone to see. Additionally, consider incorporating your message with lovely pictures for those kids suffering from language delay.
3. Identify Strengths And Nurture Them
This is another way you can help a child suffering from developmental delays. Each child is born different, and the strength of each greatly varies. You can identify the strength of your child by encouraging them to play. Consider taking your kid to a local park and encouraging them to play with other children. This will make it easier for you to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Besides this, it’ll be easier to notice how they interact with other kids. Once you have identified their strengths, research how to nurture them extensively, boosting the child’s progress. Additionally, you can visit your physician, who’ll advise you on how to promote your child’s strengths and identify weaknesses.
Encouraging your child to play will help you identify their strengths and boost their motor skills. Also, it’ll be easier for them to learn life skills such as empathy, respect, and interaction with other children.
4. Improve Your Communication Skills
Communicating and conveying the intended message might be hard when interacting with a developmentally delayed child. Hence, it’s important to acquire unique communication skills, reducing the chances of frustrations and other issues.
One of the best ways to communicate with such kids is by using clear and straightforward language. Also, avoid complicating your communication by use of sarcasm and other subtleties. Additionally, complement your communication with body language to display your intentions and feelings.
Enhancing your communication skills is a challenging task. However, you can use several online resources to improve your communication skills, making interacting with a child with developmental issues easier.
Additionally, you can seek out a support group of individuals dealing with similar delays to learn a thing or two and get long-term emotional help. As mentioned above, dealing with such kids can be overwhelming. Emotional support boosts your well-being, ensuring you provide the best care to your child. Neglecting your needs may affect your sleep, mental health, and ability, making it hard to take care of your developmentally delayed kid and other children.
5. Educate Your Family
The family will play a huge role when dealing with a child with developmental issues. For this reason, it’s important to ensure they understand your kid’s strengths and weaknesses; hence, they have realistic expectations for your child. You can educate your family by inviting them while visiting your doctor. Through this, it’ll be easier for them to understand how they can offer the best support to your child.
However, educating your family isn’t easy, and some may judge or neglect you. However, this will only make them have unrealistic expectations of your kid, which could lead to frustration. Even if they don’t accept, continue educating them and helping to provide care to your child and avoid other causes of intellectual disability in the future.
Bottom Line
As mentioned above, your kid may have difficulties achieving specific developmental milestones. There are several delays a child can suffer from, including language and speech. If you have such a child who is experiencing developmental delays, it is important you understand how you can take care of them and assist them, ensuring they have a normal life as possible.
