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by Angelica Weathersby

Created on: April 01, 2008

Developmental delays do not necessarily mean learning disabilities. Although science often dismisses what are referred to as "anecdotal" evidence, there is too much of it on this subject to be ignored.

My neighbor's little boy was not speaking as early or as clearly as other children his age, but it was obvious that he was intelligent and had exceptional reasoning ability. His mother had him evaluated through the school system (see below) and was able to get him into an early intervention program. After two years his clarity of speech is still a little less than that of some children his age, but the gap is closing. His mother has him in both kindergarten and Headstart, and by the time he enters first-grade next autumn he will be at least on a par with his peers.

My own son frequently was ill during the first three years of his life. A cold could never be common or ordinary with him; it almost always developed into pneumonia. Another concern after he turned one year old was that he did not walk alone for another 3-1/2 months. However, one evening just before I was going to put him to bed I had him standing by me and holding my hand. He pulled his hand loose and because I was straightening his bed I didn't realize at first that he wasn't holding onto anything else. I looked down and saw that he was standing on his own. He stepped away from me and then he started walking, hesitantly at first but then with increasing confidence.

Excitedly, he toured the house, pausing only to look closely at things that he was seeing from this angle for the first time. His older sister and I could not help but laugh, delighted with his enthusiasm and the fact that he now was going so fast that he was almost running. From that time on, nothing about him seemed "delayed."

Before this happened I had been warned by other mothers that a delay in walking probably was only the tip of the iceberg, and that I could expect him to be behind other children when he started school. At that time (1966) there was a general ignorance regarding the relationship between developmental delay and learning disabilities. To make matters worse, there were none of the programs available then, that now are offered in all American school systems for evaluation and intervention.

In my son's case the reason for his delayed walking became apparent to me when I thought more about it. Because of his frequent illnesses and the fact that our apartment often was drafty, he had spent much more time in his playpen than on the floor. He moved from one side of the playpen to the other by standing and holding onto the edges, but did not have the opportunity to follow the normal progression from there to walking on his own.

As for the misinformation of the other mothers who had warned me about his gloomy future, as it turned out, he spent his school years in GATE (California's Gifted and Talented Education program.) Fortunately, his proclivity for pneumonia passed before he was four years old and doesn't seem to have left any lasting damage.

This, and many other examples, should serve to reassure readers who have children that seem slow in one area or another. Parents whose first child is a girl and who then have a boy may be concerned because the boy doesn't do the same things at the same ages. Delayed speech is much more common in boys than in girls, and boys also are likely to take longer to potty train. In other words, at this stage boys may be a little behind girls the same age. This does not mean that developmental delay should be ignored. Whether it is suspected in a girl or a boy, it should be checked out. If there is a problem, appropriate measures should be taken.

Having a low income does not close this opportunity for American families. According to the University of Michigan medical site if you are concerned about whether your child's development is delayed, or a possible learning disability, "Ask your school system in writing for an evaluation of your child, even if your child is a baby, toddler or preschooler. They are required to provide it, at no cost to you. The purpose of an evaluation is to find out why your child is not meeting their developmental milestones or not doing well in school. A team of professionals will work with you to evaluate your child."

For more on this, check out: http://www.med.umich .edu/1libr/yourchild /devmile.htm
Another very helpful site is:
http://www.nichcy .org/parents.asp#pa2

If your child seems to be losing ground-in other words, begins to be unable to do things they could do in the past, you should have them seen right away. This can be caused by a wide variety of things, including lead poisoning. The effects of moderate lead poisoning in a young child can, like many other issues, be halted through medical or other intervention.

Great strides have been made in recent years, in early detection and intervention for children who have either developmental delay or learning disabilities. One of the things that has been established, however, is that if your child has the first one it does not mean that the second one automatically will follow.

Learn more about this author, Angelica Weathersby.
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