Why Therapy & What To Expect
What you should know! As a child grows and develops, they learn different skills like walking, talking, waving and more. These skills are markers, called “developmental milestones”. They are skills that children should be able to do at different ages, but remember children grow at their own rate.
Developmental delays are when a child is not reaching those milestones within that age range, and are more than “a little behind”.
How Do I Know If My Child Has A Developmental Delay?
There are 5 main groups of skills that make up the developmental milestones, let’s take a look:
Cognitive or Thinking Skills: this is the area that deals with problem solving or cause and effect.
These would be like the inability to follow simple directions, pointing at objects, using gestures, stacking blocks, using a spoon.Motor Skills (Fine and Gross) or Movement: this is the area where they are not able to move and explore their environment
These would be difficulty in standing, walking, crawling or unable to roll over. Picking up small objects, or grasping for things.Speech and Language Skills: this is the area the involves difficulty in communicating verbally or in expressing and receiving information
These would be does not babble or respond to sound, not able to utter a single word.Vision Skills: this area involved how they can see
This area primarily deals with if the baby is able to track an object as it moves across in front of them, does not follow near or far objects with both eyes.Social and Emotional Skills: this area is how they interact with others (adults other children)
These would signs of anxiousness or anger, cries out quickly in difficult situations, uncomfortable in new situations.
If you have a concern that your child is not reaching these milestones, you should contact your child’s pediatrician.
What is Early Intervention?
A range of services and supports that are available to infants and young children with developmental delays or disabilities, up to the age of 3.
These services are provided under the (IDEA) (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Every state has to offer Early Intervention, but can decide to provide it, but it can be different state to state on how they provide it. So you should see what your state offers.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law guaranteeing all children with disabilities have access to a free and appropriate public education. In addition, under Part C of the Act it states that Early Intervention services should be provided to at-risk children 0 – 3 years’ old.
Developmental delays can affect a child’s physical skills, learning abilities, and socialization skills.
If you have concerns, get an evaluation done, and your child’s pediatrician can recommend it.
Benefits
When services are provided early for children with developmental delays, they can significantly increase their ability to succeed and develop:
Skills necessary for school and life
Overcome challenges that could hinder reaching their fullest potential and life
Increase the chances of social inclusion
Who is eligible for Early Intervention?
Some children are automatically eligible for early intervention services. This may include children born prematurely or diagnosed with a developmental delay before or immediately after birth. To learn more, contact your local early intervention program or ask your child’s health care provider.
This is where we want to help, because stopping those vital services and resources, ultimately is not in the best interest of your child. We learned from our own experience, that these services can be extremely expensive but necessary for your child’s learning and growth. We want to be able to take some of that burden off of your family.