If your child seems to be exhibiting symptoms of a developmental delay, you are most likely very concerned and worried. You may wonder what steps will need to be taken to have a proper diagnosis and what you can do to get the help your child may need in order to fix or adapt to the problem.
Here are some steps you can take in finding out if your child is indeed developmentally delayed and what you can do about it:
Ask Your Pediatrician
If your child's regular pediatrician has not seen your child lately or if they have not noticed any delay that you are aware of, you may want to ask them for a recommended developmental pediatrics doctor in your area. It never hurts to have a second opinion and sometimes general practitioners are not seasoned in recognizing subtle clues that can be noticed easily by a developmental pediatrician.
Diagnosis
The developmental pediatrician will be able to give you a better idea as to what underlying causes there may be for your child's developmental delay. If there is not a problem that can be seen, you will be able to go about your child's regular routine and realize that they may just be slower than other children the same age in growing or learning. If there is a problem, your doctor will lead you to other specialists to aid in the repair of the problem.
Programs Available
There are many schooling programs that are available to help children that are suffering from a learning or speech developmental delay. There are also programs available to help children that are growing at a slower rate, causing difficulty in doing tasks that are easy for other children who are bigger at the same age. Your doctor will work closely with other specialists and teachers in creating a program that is specialized for your child to follow.
This individualized education program will be analyzed a few times a year to see if there is any progress being made. It can then be tweaked to further educate the child. When things do not seem to be working, a different course of action will be recommended to give a try. When things are helping the child, the rate of teaching may be increased or additional activities may be added to help escalate the learning process in the child. Your child's teacher will stay in close contact with you about the results that are being obtained.
Share7 January 2015
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