This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs
Disability: Developmental Delay
Children develop many skills in their early lives. Parents often worry that their children are
not turning their heads quickly enough, crawling at the proper time, or
beginning to speak at a certain age.
While many of the time parents’ concerns are overblown, it is good for
parents to regularly check their child’s progress and make sure the child is
indeed developing properly.
The development of each of these skills is often called a
developmental milestone. Two children
born at the same time may develop certain of these skills months apart, but
both should develop the skill within a particular range of time. It’s when these skills are not being
developed properly or within this broad range that parents should begin to take
action.
A parent’s first step should be to take the child to a
pediatrician. Most of us are so tuned in
to using the Internet these days, it is likely that a parent will have already
researched developmental delays and the proper timeframes for children to
develop certain skills before they ever consider going to the expense of taking
the child to a pediatrician. All of that
research is fine, but a competent pediatrician can give a parent certain
assurances. Doctors are very aware that
children do not develop at the same pace, and while some children show slow
steady growth, others have bursts of development which allow them to catch up
with other children.
However, the pediatrician may see true signs of
developmental delay and suggest the parent have the child go through
developmental screening. This evaluation
should be done by a highly trained professional and should show the strength
and weakness of a child in five areas:
1)
Physical development
2)
Cognitive development
3)
Communication development
4)
Social or emotional development
5)
Adaptive development
The results of this evaluation should be used to determine
if a child needs early intervention services.
These services are a very important resource to children who experience
developmental delays. These services may
include assistive technology, hearing services, language services, counseling
and training for the family, medical services, nursing services, occupational
therapy, physical therapy, and/or psychological services.
States have an obligation to help children experiencing
developmental delays. The Child Find
system operated by each state can assist with screenings and evaluations. These are usually performed free of charge. A pediatrician typically makes the referral
to the state’s Child Find system.
Once a child reaches the age of three, the local public school
system has the responsibility to evaluate a child with signs of developmental
delays and to provide services to children who are determined to actually have
developmental delays. This
responsibility is defined in IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act.
Again, parents with children under three should contact
their pediatrician for a referral to the state’s Child Find system for
evaluations and services. If their
children are three or older, those parents should contact the local public
education authorities for evaluation and services.
It is not uncommon for parents to worry about their children
not crawling, walking, or talking when they feel they should. If, however, a child is not developing within
certain broad guidelines easily found on multiple sites on the Internet,
parents should get their children to a pediatrician to begin the evaluation
process to truly determine whether a child has developmental delays and needs
special services to remedy those delays.
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Grant Info:
Grant Name: IWP
Foundation Educational Grants
Funded by: Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation
Description: Giving on a national basis; giving
internationally if agency is recognized by the United Nations to provide
support primarily for the education, service, and care of disabled and special
needs children, and pre-school programs. No grants to individuals.
Program Areas: Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Early
Childhood, General Education, Health/PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environment,
Social Studies
Recipients: Private School, Other
Proposal Deadline: 12/31/12
Average Amount: $1,000.00 - $8,000.00
Telephone: 305-861-5352
Website: http://www.iwpf.org
Availability: All
States
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