Significance of Development Delay in Children
05 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Children, Developmental Delay, Health Tags: Convulsions, Delay, Fits, Milestones, Seizures
I was wondering how many of us really understand Development Delay in children. I had had an understanding of developmental delay as say an infant who doesn’t hold her head at 3 months would hold at 6/7 months or a child who is 1yr but isn’t walking would walk at 1.3yrs/1.5yrs. But when it really came to me is when I learned the real meaning of developmental delay and how important it is in a child’s growth and development.
My little daughter was born and the anxious mother in me waiting for my little baby to smile back at me; I guess that would be the best of the moments any mom would cherish and yearn for; it was past 3 months…..past 4 months but my baby never smiled back at me but always tried to avoid eye contact whenever I tried connecting to her.
- I kept checking with my friend’s who were convincing me saying “atleast give the baby 6 months to get used to and respond back”
- I tried surfing the net “Why infants avoid eye contact”, but couldn’t find a fruitful result to zero down on something
- I kept consulting my paediatrician who did ask me to wait for another month….
Then one day it occurred to my baby when she was 4 months old, she had a blank stare for few seconds and choked back for breath in seconds; it had occurred couple of times and we rushed her to the hospital. The doctors identified the blank stare as convulsions/seizures and that there is developmental delay in the baby as she was not able to identify her mom or hold her head and didn’t really reach the milestones of a 4 month old baby. I was devastated when I heard convulsions, the term which was completely new to me. Developmental delay really didn’t bother me much as I thought my baby would cope at a later time, what big deal? I realised later that how wrong I had been!
Had someone helped me, including my paediatrician in identifying the delay in my child, it could have done wonders to my baby by now. I felt the lack of knowledge and how caregivers aren’t informed by doctors about the importance of developmental delays/ medical conditions and what could be the after effect. I write this with a heavy heart and with the intention that this article should be of help to parents in identifying any delay in their child’s development and should understand how important is developmental milestones in children and monitor them against the milestone chart.
Developmental delays can also be normal for a child, and she may catch up with her peers without the need for further intervention. But if at all there is a delay it could be associated with any specific cause,
- Caregivers should give primary importance in such cases and never be careless in following developmental milestones
- It should be zeroed down clinically that there is no bounded cause to be at peace
- Early intervention is very important in cases of delay and caregivers should consult a developmental paediatrician
- Early intervention could be by means of infant stimulation programs, occupational therapy, Sensory integration programs etc; a developmental paediatrician would be able to guide appropriately
Enlightening links : Infant Milestone Charts; Recognizing Developmental Delays in children
