Developmental Delay in Jacksonville and Serving Ponte Vedra Beach & Jacksonville Beach, FL
As your child grows up, there are different developmental milestones that they’ll reach at different ages of their lives. If your child is slightly behind, there isn’t usually anything to worry about and Happy Minds Healthy Bodies can help you oversee these developments and if there’s anything your child needs to meet their milestones. As this continues, you may notice that your child is still not developing the skills that they should for their specific age. These are developmental delays and can affect different areas of your child’s life
Many children suffer from developmental delays in communication skills, and motor skills, at some point during their infancy or childhood. The great news is that most children recover very well, and that these delays can be improved with early recognition and intervention. As a new parent, it can be difficult to know what you should be doing to foster your child’s development. Often general pediatricians don’t have enough time to spend with parents to explain what they should be working on to continue to stimulate their child’s speech and motor skills. Anticipating what your child needs to work on next, is of the utmost importance to your child’s continued development.
Understanding Developmental Delays
Child development happens at different speeds and it’s important that you aren’t comparing your child to others or worrying if they’re slightly behind. Happy Minds Healthy Bodies will help you monitor their delays and let you know if there are any concerns. When your child starts experiencing significant delays, then additional steps may be needed. There are different aspects of your child’s life that can be affected by developmental delays. Delays can impact areas such as:
- Motor function
- Speech and language
- Cognitive development
- Play
- Social skills
Developmental delays could be caused by conditions like Down syndrome, trauma to the brain, infections, exposure to toxic substances, or food and environment deprivation. It’s crucial that these issues are identified and that your child is able to receive the proper care that they need. Once appropriate adjustments are made, they may start to reach their developmental milestones at their own pace.
Developmental Milestones
Some important developmental milestones in the early infant include:
- Social smile by 6 weeks
- Seeing you at a distance by 4 months
- Laughing by 4 months
- Sitting alone (tripod position) at 6 months
- Nonsense babbling at 9 months
- Crawling and pulling up at 9 months
- Walking by 12-15 months
- Understanding “no” at 12 months
- Speaking 3-5 words by 15 months
- Climbing by 15 months
- Speaking 5-10 words by 18 months
- Running by 18 months
- Walking upstairs by 2 years
- Speaking 20+ words by 2 years
- Putting together 2-3 word sentences by 2 years
- Speaking in full sentences by 3 years
If your child is showing delays in any of these categories, they should be evaluated by a knowledgeable pediatric professional. Ways to treat these delays may include:
- Increasing your child’s stimulation with certain toys/activities
- Checking their vision with an eye specialist
- Checking their hearing via testing with your pediatrician or an ENT specialist
- Interacting in certain ways with your child that are crucial
- Activity mats
- Reading to your child
- Enrolling in daycare
- Speech therapy
- Physical therapy