Developmental Delay

Developmental delay is a term used to describe when a child is not developing in accordance with the national average. Developmental Delay can have an adverse effect on their ability to perform meaningful activities, such as writing, drawing, tying shoelaces, dressing, and playing. An occupational therapist can use activities and games to promote the skills needed to improve your child’s function within these daily activities

Does your child have any of the following difficulties?

Developmental delay can be identified by comparing how your child is developing against what is considered to be the national average for development. However, you may have some concerns as a parent regarding the development of your child. Below is a list of indicators that your child may not be developing correctly:

• Difficulty running
• Poor P.E score
• Difficulty doing up buttons/writing
• Behind compared to classmates
• Difficulty concentrating for long periods
• Struggling to complete everyday tasks
• Finds sport difficult/dislikes playing sport

One of these symptoms alone does not indicate developmental delay, however, noticing that a child is not performing as well as they should be can indicate an underlying condition or possibly developmental delay and is worth investigating further by speaking to one of our occupational therapists.

How can these difficulties impact function?

Developmental Delay can have an adverse effect on a child’s ability to function both at home, in school, and socially. An occupational therapist would be able to analyse how developmental delay is impacting on these areas and provide you with treatment to help improve your child’s ability across the home, school and social environments.

Home:

• Clumsy
• Bumping into things
• Slow morning routine
• Struggling to do things for themselves

School:

• Behind in lessons
• Struggles in P.E
• Un-coordinated
• Poor handwriting

Social/behavioral:

• Teased for poor ability
• Isolated/ without many friends