Today we are going to help you to understand what a developmental delay is, how to detect if your child has one, and when you should worry about it.
What Is a Developmental Delay?
Do you suspect that your baby or toddler might have a developmental delay? A developmental delay is often diagnosed when a child does not reach their developmental milestone when expected. They can range from minor to something more significant.
Most developmental delays are not serious and usually correct themselves. And for some, there is no known cause. However, if your child does have some form of developmental delay, there are things that you can do to address it.
What Are the Signs of a Developmental Delay?
There are many types of possible developmental delay in babies and toddlers; speech, vision and motor skills are just a few. It can be hard, especially for first-time parents to distinguish a simple lagging behind with a true developmental delay in their child. The following are the warning signs for different types of developmental delays in children from newborns to two year olds.
Language and Speech
Speech and language delay in toddlers are very common. In fact, they are the most common form of developmental delay. While speech refers to verbal communications, language is more about how your little one is able to express and receive information. If your toddler is not speaking at the same age as his older sister did, or some other kids his age is ahead of him please do not worry. Early language development is very uneven and happens in spurts, a few months difference is not significant and your child will catch up before you expected, and it will likely happen all of a sudden when he has a big vocabulary growth spurt. One language delay cause that you should investigate though is a potential hearing loss, luckily this is rather easy to rule out, but if you are worried check with your child’s pediatrician. If your school-aged child is still struggling with language you may need to look into a possible learning disability (like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). If you suspect a speech delay, your pediatrician will likely refer your child to be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.
How to Spot It
If you suspect that your baby or toddler has a language delay, here are some signs to watch out for:
- Does not babble or respond to loud noises by 3 to 4 months
- Does not attempt to imitate sounds by 4 months
- Does not respond to sounds at all by 7 months
- Does not use any single words by age 1
- Cannot speak at least 15 words, can only imitate speech, or does not use speech to communicate by age 2
Motor Skills or Movement
Are you afraid that your baby or toddler is not walking when he or she should be? Or maybe you have noticed that your toddler is having difficulty grasping a spoon. If so, then it is possible that he or she may have a gross motor or fine motor delay.
Gross motor delay affects the ability to crawl or walk. Whereas a fine motor delay will impact your baby or toddler’s ability to use utensils or hold a crayon properly. Common causes include premature birth, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, vision problems, and cognitive delays. If you suspect a delay in motor skills, your pediatrician may recommend physical therapy for gross motor delays or occupational therapy for fine motor delays.
How to Spot It
If you suspect that your baby or toddler has a motor skills delay, here are some signs to watch out for:
- Does not reach for, grasp, or hold objects by 3 or 4 months old
- Does not roll over in either direction by 5 months
- Cannot sit up without help by 6 months
- Does not actively reach for objects by 7 months
- Does not crawl or cannot stand while being supported by age 1
- Cannot walk or push a wheeled toy by 18 months
- Still walks on toes by age 2
Cognitive
A cognitive delay refers to problems with thinking and can sometimes be referred to as an intellectual disability. If your little one has a cognitive developmental delay then it may be due to a learning disability (like ADHD), lead poisoning, a genetic disorder, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Early intervention and treatment is key when addressing this type of developmental delay.
How to Spot It
If you suspect that your baby or toddler has a cognitive delay, here are some signs to watch out for (with more in-depth information available here):
Vision
Your baby’s vision is normally blurry within his or her first 6 months. Eventually, it should improve. If it doesn’t, there are some signs you should look out for.
How to Spot It
If you suspect that your baby or toddler has a vision delay, here are some signs to watch out for:
- Does not notice hands by 2 months
- Does not follow moving objects with his or her eyes by 3 months
- Experiences constant tearing or eye drainage by 6 months
- Does not follow near objects at least 1 foot away or far objects at least 6 feet away with both eyes by 6 months
Social or Emotional
A social or emotional developmental delay causes problems with your child’s ability to interact with adults or even other children. These problems will likely appear before your child starts school. Some causes of social or emotional delay are cognitive delay or what is known as pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). PDD falls under the umbrella of ASD. While there is no known cure for this type of developmental delay, there is treatment. Treatment includes behavioral therapy and medication.
Global Developmental Delay
When a child has many or all of the previously listed developmental delays, it is called “global developmental delay.” Common causes include a genetic defect (like down syndrome), fragile X syndrome, fetal alcohal syndrome, and severe medical problems associated with prematurity.
What Should I Do If I Suspect a Developmental Delay in My Child? When Should I Worry?
Remember that if your baby or toddler isn’t reaching developmental milestones “on time” that that is not the only deciding factor of whether or not your child has a developmental delay. All children learn and master milestones at different paces, meaning that the normal range for your child to reach a certain milestone is wide.
Here, at ADAM & Mila, we cover many milestones and for each milestone we include the typical age range for that milestone. Those age ranges are just averages which does not mean that all children must display that milestone within that average age range. Some may earlier or later.
It is also important to note that some milestones may be skipped completely. But it is uncommon for a child to skip two consecutive milestones (consecutive meaning they are part of the same “theme” and one is directly after the other). There is no need to worry if your baby is a little behind on a milestone. Here is a look at what you should do if you suspect that your baby or toddler is developmentally delayed.
Trust Your Gut
No one knows your child as well as you do. So, if you feel like something may be wrong, there is a good chance that it may be.
Act Early
If you are worried then it never hurts to reach out for opinions and help. With any developmental delay, early treatment is key.
Be Vigilant
Your child’s pediatrician is your go-to person if you suspect that your child is not developing on schedule; but it is you who is your child’s ultimate advocate. If you have a concern, be vigilant in requesting a developmental screening.
Get a Professional Assessment
There are two types of professional assessments that your child can receive when determining a developmental delay; medical and educational. Your pediatrician or a specialist can provide medical assessments in addition to your child’s well-child visit and your local school system can perform an educational assessment.
Developmental Delay Diagnosis
After a developmental delay diagnosis, you will be pleasantly surprised at the number of resources available to your child and family. You can start by researching online for what resources might be available in your area and you will find comfort in reaching out to other parents with children who also have a developmental delay.
Online Resources
Below are some wonderful and helpful resources that we suggest you read over and use to help you and your child.
Find a Community of Parents
After a developmental delay diagnosis, it is important and extremely helpful for you to find a community of parents whose children have the same or similar delay. Here is a list of online communities to find support and advice if your child receives a developmental delay diagnosis.
We hope that this information has helped you to learn more about your baby and developmental delays. Do you have a pregnant friend or mommy friend that could benefit from this article? Share our post because you never know who this may help!
So tell me why I shouldn’t worry?
At one point between zero and three years of age every child will have exhibited some sort of unusual development. Whether that be physical or mental, the only certainty about our babies is that each one is as unique as he or she is precious. Every child is special, and there is no such thing as an average baby.
Just as certain though, every parent will at some point start to wonder why their kid does not keep up with rest of the gang. Whether you are worried about crawling, walking, talking, crying or any of the other hundreds of milestones covered here at ADAM & Mila, it is essential that you seek professional advice from your pediatrician to rule out any medical cause of delay.
The good news is that for the vast majority of kids showing a mild delay the cause is not a medical condition – but rather what you might call natural causes. In these cases, the solution most commonly is simply to intensify the stimulation your child receives from the environment around him or her.
For those kids (and also for the few unlucky ones) we here at ADAM & Mila have collected a large number of fun and educational activities and categorized them by developmental milestones, so that you as a parent can easily find new ideas for providing the best learning opportunities for your little bundle of joy.
In fact, the exact reason why we started ADAM & Mila was to help busy parents find inspiration and practical ideas for awesome fun and educational activities for their baby and toddler. We believe that learning starts at birth, and having lots of fun with your child is one of the best gifts you can give!
Have a look at our complete collection of Baby & Toddler Learning Activities
Finally, if you like what we are doing we would love to say hi to you! Give us a shout in the comments below!
Just stumbled upon your web site and am checking things out to put this on my list to refer parents to! I am an early intervention evaluator in New Jersey, a Speech Language Pathologist with 14 years experience in early intervention, 20 years total in my field. You have some wonderful info here! Very comprehensive. The only thing I can comment on so far is that I am not sure you should be saying a language delay can be a sign of ADHD. Although a child’s level of activity and attention can make us suspect that is an issue, ADHD is never diagnosed that young. It is typically fully manifested after a child starts school, so after age 5-6.
Hello. My son JUST turned 11months.. he doesn’t really babble, although he can a little bit. Maninly blowing raspberries and says “baaa”. He has an older brother. Older brother takes toys from him a lot. My son will smile at us all the time, he has recently started to “feed” me some of his food and has now also started to point to a photo in a book that I ask. He isn’t great with responding to his name however and seems very preoccupied when he’s involved in playing. Right now he also throws a lot of his toys and he watches to see what they do. He does get upset if I leave the room. He does look for me. Any advice?
Hi Debbie, thanks for sharing. Your son sound like a happy little guy. I would simply keep tracking his progress and finding fun activities to help him develop further.
If language is your main concern the recommendation is lots of communication. Reading is great, if he has a favorite book it is perfectly okay to read it over and over, babies enjoy the familiarity.
Try to incorporate rythm, singing, reading with rythm and strong articulation.
Also try to mix hearing with other senses, ie. Singing and dancing (movement) or talking about how the food tastes. Pointing at characters and objects in the book while reading is also a great way to reinforce the words visually.
hello, well done
Thanks Mrs. Akin 🙂
Very Informative. Thank You
Thank you for such an informative article.
You are very welcome Abuya! Glad you liked it 🙂
I have a 5 year old son who has delayed speech but can say few words,is their hope for his speech to improve.
Hi Pamela, you certainly are right to be worried, but I would not give up hope. Learning is a lifelong process. Generally speaking as long as their is gradual improvement there is reason to be hopeful.
Now is the time for me to say clearly that I am not a doctor, this is not medical advise. I am going to assume that your son has already been assessed by a professional so that you may gain clarity as to which underlying factors are contributing to his difficulty with speech. If not, that would be my number one recommendation – a professional who can identify the source of the problem (there are many possible reason your son is not speaking) can also point you towards the best actions to take.
Do try different things, be creative and test which language activities your son likes and respond well to. It is going to be a lot of work, so do make sure to have fun while at it.
Last bit of advise would be to seek out other parents with similar experiences to find inspiration and support.
My best wishes to both of you! Keep up the good work, don’t let anyone tell you there is no hope, of course there is!
Hi my son is three months old and he doesn’t constantly look at moving objects but we need to get his attention to make him look at the moving objects .. Is there a vision prob ?
Hi Vinuthna, congratulations on becoming a parent! It is one of the best experiences a person can have, but admittedly also one that can cause quite a lot of worry – especially while your son is still so small.
It is a good sign that you are able to get his attention, babies love faces – does your son like Peek-a-boo?
As for the moving objects, as long as he is able to follow an object that is probably good enough – it certainly doesn’t have to be constant or all objects that he finds equally interesting.
Do be aware that his eyes are still developing, his vision is somewhat blurry and he wouldn’t be able to focus on far away objects. Here is a good article that might give you some tips on activities to help develop your baby’s eyesight: https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/good-vision-throughout-life/childrens-vision/infant-vision-birth-to-24-months-of-age
All that said, there are a number of things that can impact your son’s vision, and it can be kind of hard to tell what is normal and what is a problem at this age. Luckily checking the ability to track a moving object is part of your pediatrician’s routine checkup, so do make sure to ask him/her at the next appointment, just to be sure.
My 5 year old daughter has speech delay. She speaks three words sentence like I wanna eat. She is having speech therapy and we have seen a lot of improvement in her during 6month gap. Sometimes getting frustratedand raise a question in my mind when she gonna speak like us? Some parents told me their relatives child speak late at the age 7 or 10.This makes me hopeful and still my heart says she will speak like us oneday. Please motivate me, sometimes I get so frustrated !
Hi Ash, thanks for sharing!
I can certainly understand your frustration. In my experience the trick to turn frustration into positive motivation is to make sure to channel it correctly.
Be super patient with your daughter. Make sure to celebrate every new achievement, there is guaranteed to be many – but understand that it is a very long road, and ultimately only she can walk it. Learning to speak is a huge task, even for someone who is already five years old. So remember to appreciate the progress she makes, don’t let yourself get knocked out by the long road still ahead.
Meanwhile be impatient with yourself. Try to let your frustration become a challenge to yourself to give all you got. The speech therapy is good and very important, however the most important resource your daughter has is you! Think of the therapist not just as someone helping your daughter, but as someone helping you to maximize the impact of what you yourself do.
Channel your energy towards doubling down on what you know will help.
And when you run out of energy try instead some new creative and fun ways to play with your daughter while encouraging her speech development.
Learning to speak is a puzzle with a lot of pieces. Some of them your daughter will discover through systematic and targeted training. Some will come to her as part of daily play.
Mixing work and play is a great idea! Don’t be afraid to have fun while you are pushing yourself to do all you can.
This has helped me understand so much more, thank you .
I have a 11month old son who still can not fully support his head and is not even close to sitting up even when aided such as being the the stroller or his bouncier he still flops to the side, he still can’t swollow solid food either and has only just started reaching for toys. .
He is under investigation at the moment by many doctors but would you say he had a severe development delay?
Hi Charlotte, what a difficult situation, I can understand why you are worried.
I am afraid my answer is going to disappoint, I am not able give an estimate of the severity of your sons condition.
I am just a parent like you, and must leave the medical diagnoses to the professionals. It is good to hear that you are already getting help.
What I can say is that babies are amazingly strong. Their bodies can recover in ways that to us adults seem nothing short of miraculous. This is still true for you son and will be true for another several years.
Here is the difficult part. It doesn’t really matter if the doctors determine a mild or severe development delay – what matters is the final outcome. For good or bad, there is no straight line relationship between diagnosis and final outcome. Some babies fully recover from amazingly difficult conditions while others sadly end up carrying their burden the rest of their life.
This is not meant to scare you, just to let you know that the severity of your sons condition might not be the most important question to ask.
Knowing the diagnosis will not tell you much about what kind of recovery to expect. However it will help you to find out what kind of activities will be most beneficial for you son.
It might not be possible to know what his situation will be five years from now – but it is 100% certain that you can help him. As long as that is the case, try to make that your focus: What can you do to support his development.
By the way, it will forever be the case that your actions are important to support his development – even if it turns out to just be a scare and your son is fine.
My apologies that I am unable to answer your question. I hope you will anyway find ADAM & Mila useful as a source of inspiration as you try to figure out the best ways to support his development.
By the way, the problems you mention are all things that babies have to learn – no baby is that strong at birth. Any delay there might be is no more than a few months by now, nothing that should make you lose hope. But do make sure to thoroughly investigate and understand any underlying conditions.
Hi my son is 31 months old he started saying many single words from which some are not very clear..he dosent point the things he wants but instead takes the hand of adult and goes to the thing what he wants and seeks help to reach his needs..his hearing, eyes aswel as play is excellent…
He can imitate actions and sounds he can play with kitchen toys cars ball ect ect….plz help me
Hi Glad,
There is a chance that your son has some degree of autism. I am not a doctor, I cannot give you a diagnosis, actually from what you say he does seem to develop well in most areas, but if you suspect something could be wrong please do have him assessed by a professional. Or you might want to try this quick self assessment as a starting point: https://m-chat.org/
Whether autism is present or not your son will benefit from a bit of enhanced training to learn how to point. Try something like holding a desired object in one hand (for instance a cookie) and point at it with your other hand. When he want the object, gently help him to make a pointing gesture and teach him to say “I want the cookie”. Make sure to follow up with praise and by giving him the object.
Also check out this story from a mum who taught her child pointing by focusing on the idea that the finger is one fifth of a hand and teaching the “parts” and their relation to the “whole”: http://www.autismhelpforyou.com/lack_of_finger_pointing_and_the.htm
Please don’t be scared by all this. Should your son end up with a diagnosis he will be just as good at talking, walking, hearing, seeing as he was yesterday – but a little more knowledge might help you speed up his further development in a more targeted and effective way.
Hii
My boy is jus turned 3yrs old
His speech is delayed..he find it difficult to request..othrwise he sings rhymes counts 1-10..can revognize colours..says lets go..here we go..but if he wants anything he is bit reluctant to say just keep pointing out at thing he wants..i am bit worried..he does eyecontact with me and his dad..but doesnt wana respond to some stranger if someone calls
.dont no why he does this..he plays with family friends kids but take bit time to get involve with kids he meet first time..can you plz share your feedback..because doctor assesed him and said he has moderate autism becoz his speech delayed and he did not involve with him while doing assesment
.waiting for reply thnx
PS he is preterm child born at 28th week
Hi Fanty,
I assume your Doctor is right, in which case your son is lucky that his condition has been discovered so early. Many kids with less severe degrees of autism do not get diagnosed until they start in school. Having this information early is a big plus since early intervention has very good results.
I suggest you start to familiarize yourself with the autism spectrum, the types of therapy and types of activities and support you can do to help him. There are quite a lot of resources online.
Don’t get overwhelmed when you do your research, it can all be a bit scary, but no two kids are the same, and no doctor is able to accurately estimate what your son will/will not be able to do as an adult. I would definitely assume he will grow up to have a perfectly normal life, but that he just needs a little bit more help to get started.
Hi my daughter who is 3 was born at 30 weeks we hav been 2 c the child development team who hav said we will go back 2 c the consultant in around 4 months time havin read ur article this has made me understand ehat she may have she hasnt been diagnosed with anything at the min but readin this article it may b global development delay that she is showing the symptoms
Many thanks
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing your daughters’ story, and I am glad you found the article useful. I am very sorry to hear that you expect a diagnosis of global development delay, hopefully, the news will be better than expected! Either way, I am certain you have a wonderful daughter, and she has a loving caring mother!
My best wishes to the both of you!
Hi, you mention that a baby is delayed if they don’t babble at 3-4 months (other sources I’ve read says babbling starts at 6 months). My daughter is almost 7 months old and is not babbling at all although she was born at 36 weeks so her adjusted age is closer to 6 months . She makes all sorts of vocalizations, squeals and coo’s but no sounds with consonants. She also is not sitting up independently, she immediately falls to one side when we sit her up no matter how much we work with her. Our Ped saw her a month ago and wasn’t concerned but do you think we need to go back and have her evaluated to see if she qualifies for early intervention? I’m very concerned and its preventing me from enjoying my time with her.
Hi Lisa, thanks for sharing.
There isn’t anything in your observations that would make me particularly worried, however, I am not a doctor. Since your daughter was born preterm it is prudent of you to keep an eye on these issues. If it will help you worry less then, by all means, do the evaluation. Especially since your worry is affecting your enjoyment of playing with your daughter. Perhaps make a commitment to yourself that if the second doctor also does not find a reason to worry then you will indeed not worry for at least 3 months.
So much will happen with your daughter in the next year, she will be like a completely different person with every passing month. I remember obsessing over Adam’s ability to roll, then to crawl, then walking, talking – the worry never stops.
Do make sure to enjoy every moment! And might I suggest more tummy time to help build her core strength.
hi my daughter 10 months old already but, she’s look like 5 month’s old if it is normal for a preterm baby ? any food or vitamins can recommend for my baby
Thank you
Ohh Leslie, I am not a doctor, I don’t dare to give you medical recommendations.
For a preterm baby there is always reason to be a little worried, so better to make good use of your regular well-baby checkups and ask the pediatrician as many questions as you can think off.
Hi my son is 9 months old and he doesn’t look at moving objects. Doctor s says he is development delay and what we do?
Hi Ishaan,
No need to panic, a lot of kids experience some form of developmental delay. Just follow the doctor’s advice. Try to understand the cause of the problem, that should help you get some idea about what to expect, and what you can do to help your son.
Thank you
My 9 months old son not sitting by himself. ..is tat a problem. .Ifor we make him sit he ll sit for smtms,
Maybe, maybe not – hard to say. Better check with a Doctor though!
Hi! My son is now 14 years old. He had delays in speaking, walking and many other things when he was a toddler. He was in a special education program until he went to kindergarten. Then he was with all the other kids in a normal school. Now he is 14 and doing very well academically and socially. My question: is there any link between developmental delays and height delays? My wife and I are well above average height, but my son is projected to be below average height if he continues to grow at his current pace. Do you think he will catch up to a height closer to my wife and me? Is there a link between developmental delays and height delay? Thanks!
Hi Dave,
How wonderful to hear that your son is now doing well!
I am sorry that I can’t really answer your question, I simply don’t know of any connection.
What I can say is that Development Delay is an umbrella term for falling behind on a long range of different developmental milestones. There are many different reasons that children fall behind, some due to physical injury, some due to environmental factors. You would need to go back and understand what the underlying conditions were that caused your son to have delayed speech and mobility – only then will you be able to learn if the same conditions can also explain his height.
Although, as a short guy, I would say that if height is his biggest challenge then he will likely have a very good life 🙂
My lg will be 3 in October she still doesn’t talk. She can only feed her self with her hands she can only sit in the w-sitting or just falls over. She see’s a physio. But not really giving any answers.
Hi Jasmine,
Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry to hear about your little girl’s struggles.
Obviously, I don’t really have any answers for you either, wish I did. You are on the right track with the PT, you could also include Speech Therapy. If you haven’t already, it might be worth doing a brain scan, it could possibly tell you more about what is going on.
Best of luck to you both!
Hi My son is Now 2years 4 Month. He still not speech and walk his own balance. What i do now. I am in india. Thank u
Hi Idhayath,
Thanks for reaching out! I am sorry to hear your son is struggling with speech and mobility. It sounds like development delay, the good news though is there is a lot you can do!
First, you need to understand the underlying cause of the delay – to do that you need professional assessment by a Physical Therapist and Speech and Speech and Language Pathologist (Speech Therapist).
I am not sure about India, but here in China these kinds of therapists, unfortunately, are not many. Important though that you find a good doctor to have your son’s condition assessed. The therapist will also be able to suggest activities for you to do at home that targets the specific delays and current abilities of your son.
Then you will need to work hard on doing those helpful exercises at home – it is going to be a lot of work and will take a while, maybe years, but it is well worth it!
Once you know what is causing your sons development delay I would also recommend reaching out to other parents with kids suffering the same challenges – you should be able to find many good communities online where parents are sharing ideas and advice.
Hope all this is not scaring you, I can totally understand if you are already deeply worried. The thing to focus on is that you can help him, and it will help.
My best wishes to both of you!
I tried to search and read about developmental disorder as my 4 and half years old son doesn’t speak lots or talk in sentence yet. He’ll try to copy what we say if we try to teach him ex. Darling if you want something you can ask mommy can I have water please but obviously not straight sentence and correct words..it’s like he don’t understand what we/he’s talking about. Most of the time we try to figure out what he wants as mostly 2 words are clear for ex. He wants to go outside and want me to open the door ( He will say #@,/,&¢|¿$&<© open door then grab my hand and lead me to the door or sometimes he just look at the door. Most words we really can't understand it! Apart from that he is not really comfortable with kids it takes few minutes to hours before he will really play or join with them. We already took him to speech therapist and Therapist assessment is my son's sons cognitive thinking is not inline not for 4y.o though in her 1st session with my son she said he listens, wait, understand, has vocabulary and verb but he can't solve the problem. She gave him 2 puzzles instead of sticking it together my son just put it on top of the other. But when she instruct him how to do it he made them correctly. Therapists advise us to meet our son 2x a week for for max of 2mths to see any improvement if not he will be referred to Development therapist? something like that. But at the moment I am praying and hoping that he will improve and catch up like normal toddler. Would love to hear similar case with my son to give me more hope. Thank you 💗
Hi Sol, Thanks for sharing your experience. Your son’s brain is still developing at a very fast pace, which means there is plenty of reason to be hopeful, especially since you are just getting started with therapy.
Having hope is very important – however, hope is not going to make him speak clearly, the therapy is what is going to actually help him. Even more important are the things you learn during the therapy sessions that you can then practice with your son at home.
Whatever label the doctors and therapist will put on his condition, do not take it as final and unchangeable. He is still early in his development, you must keep supporting him the best you can.
Do however expect that this will be quite an effort on your part, and probably for more than the two months your therapist initially suggested.
All the best wishes to both you and your son!
My grand daughter is 18 months old but can not stand , crawl or walk. Also, she can only say one word. Also, she is still wobbly sitting straight up. She has vision or lazy eye problems. She can not feed herself , we put food on her utensils , then she will pick it up and use it. She will not stab at food to feed her. All genetic testing , MRI of her Spine and Brain are normal. She is going thru physical and occupational therapy and starts speech therapy next week.. The eye doctors in Iowa , just want to patch one of her eyes 1 hour a day, which has been going on for 8 months with some improvement in vision. Eye surgery or glasses are not need per the eye specialist., We are upset they will not pursue glasses , when my great nephew had the same problem , and eye surgery and glasses helped him significantly. I had crossed eyes as a young child too. So do we live with the current treatment, what do you recommend, and can you recommend a place or doctor to see for a second opinon. . Your comments are appreciated
Hi Kevin, what an incredibly difficult situation. I wish I could give you some great advice, but I have no useful knowledge in this case. I would certainly seek out a second opinion, just be prepared that it may lead to more questions and provide few answers – it can’t hurt though.
Lovely article. My kid was having speech problems but it later corrected itself. I urge all parents to exercise patience with their kids and they will soon be able to talk well
Thanks Abby, that is so true!
Hi, I really enjoyed reading your article! My daughter was born near term, at 36.5 weeks. She’s now 5 months (around 4 months adjusted). There’s a few things that worries me and I was hoping to get your thoughts. She doesn’t show excitement when she sees us after being away. She also seems disinterested in people when held upright (although this is the opposite when laying on her back). Everyone points out how different she is when held upright vs. laying down. She’s much more interactive when laying down. She also doesn’t look to sound or respond to our voice unless we’re face to face. Other than this, she will coo, babble, and smile daily to us (although not a ton), She hates tummy time but can push up on both elbows for quite a while. She recently lost her head lag, but her head is still very wobbly when I hold her in a sitting position. Thanks!
Hi Jane,
It is wonderful how tuned in you are to the signals your daughter is sending. I don’t read anything alarming in any of the things you mention, but if something is making you worried do make sure to ask your pediatrician at the next checkup.
Your daughter is still very young, she will gain a lot of strength in the next few months, which will likely improve her enjoyment of tummy time and being held upright. Her vision will also improve, which means she might recognize you from a bit further away – although don’t expect her to be interested in everything. As long as she smiles and laughs at you sometimes that is all good.
Keep up the good work, you are already doing great 🙂
Hi Emil,
My baby girl is now 8.5 months adjusted! She is crawling, pulling to stand on everything, and starting to cruise furniture a bit. She can even climb a full flight of stairs unassisted! But my concern is she still seems dis-interested in us. She rarely smiles or laughs, maybe once a day. She barely babbles at all and is pretty much quiet most of the day aside from raspberries and says “mmmm” when she wants something. Aside from the gross motor and fine motor stuff, she just behaves more like a much younger infant. I was worried about autism but she makes eye contact, will turn to sound, and reaches to be picked up. Can you give me your thoughts here? Thanks in advance!
Hi! Can you help? My son will turn 1year and 5months this oct17. He still cannot stand, sit on his own he still needs support. He also cannot crawl. He only says AHM meaning he wants to eat or drink but that’s it. We already tried to have his CT scan but failed. Do you think he can overcome his delays?
Ohh Liz, I can totally understand your concern, but I’m afraid I am not able to offer much advice. It sounds like you are working with a doctor to pinpoint the problem, which is of course very important to know what kind of treatment/therapy might be useful to him.
The best I can offer in terms of advice is “be strong, never stop trying”. He is still very young, so yes almost anything is possible, without knowing more I certainly would say you should be optimistic about him overcoming his delays – what exactly to expect no one can tell you at this point. The only thing that is certain is that he will need your help and that everything you do to help him is worth the effort!
Keep in mind that his brain is growing rapidly for the next 18-24 months, the brain is as important as the muscles to enable movement, so do try a holistic approach where you work on both his mind and body.
Hi there,My little baby is 21 month old still not walking ,but crawling everywhere and reaching up on sofa. She has riched all milestones a little late than normal. Hasn’t passed any problem since birth. She smiles and interacts. Repeating (not always)when has interest. Saying mama & baba. Pointing, showing light, nose , hairs, belly etc,,,,but still she is far from her coeval friends. Working with physiotherapist 1 year now., also w try to speak and show as much as we can for learning.. We are worried a lot for the future 😔
Hi Nina,
Thanks for sharing your daughter’s story, hope she will be up walking soon and catching up on her milestones.
It is easy to become worried, especially when reading about your child’s milestones. It is always the case for every child that they will be behind their peers on some milestones. As parents, we must educate ourselves on our children’s development so that we can give them the best possible support and then we must resign ourselves to the fact that we did the best we could and not worry too much about things that we can do nothing about.
It is good that you are already working with a PT, that is important and will help both you and your daughter. Keep doing all you can, keep trying new ideas, and then be patient.
Autism Speaks is actually hated by a lot of autistic people and leads to a lack of trust towards organizations that support them.