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Most of the parents have concerns about their child development. Many of them often visit to paediatricians for regular physical and well being check-ups. In our countries due to the lack of awareness, many a time the development screening either does not complete or remains superficial. Moreover the paediatricians are busier in immunization or vaccination. Many a time they miss the developmental delay or forget to refer to early interventionist or developmental paediatrician for further evaluation.

Here as a parent, you should be aware of child’s development and behavioural growth so that you can share your concerns with the professionals and if there are issues then you can intervene earliest.

DEVELOPMENT

All children go through developmental “stages” in various developmental areas like motor, fine motor, cognition, speech and language etc – typical and predictable changes in the areas.

The next stage of development depends on the previous stage and hence they are interrelated.

Every child develops on his own pace.

DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING

• The checklist which guides the child development with respect to normal population. Experts have developed a list of developmental milestones in all development areas. Most of the time, it is conducted by psychologist, early interventionist or a developmental paediatrician.
• Screening includes interactive session between parents and specialist. This may include a checklist or questionnaire about the family, prenatal, natal or antenatal history. The developmental history includes all developmental areas.
• According to evaluations and results, recommendations are made for further services.

IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING

To determine the healthy growth of the child and to monitor the child development.

To detect the developmental issues at earliest and intervene early.

CONTACT

Child’s paediatrician or EARLY INTERVENTIONIST or child psychologist can provide developmental screening.

Most of the times parents of children with language or communication delay complaint or have concern about their children watching television for longer time. Recently a parent approached me and had a concern that child talked very less and whatever he talked was monotonus or like parrot talking. During assessment it was found that both the parents were on full time work and they left the child at home alone. A nanny took care of him and most of the time child was kept in front of cartoon channel and there was very less human communication with child.

Other child of 6 years was indulged in watching a DVD. She had almost memorize the whole DVD and she could repeat the whole DVD without mistake. most of the time, child was preoccupied with the self talking and it was all about the DVD content.

Researches have proven that excess TV watching is associated with delayed language development. Research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical period for speech and communication development and that needs direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Children who watched television alone were 8.47 times more likely to have language delay when compared to children who interacted with their caregivers during television viewing. As recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children under the age of 2 should watch no television at all, and after age 2 watch no more than one to two hours of quality programming a day. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged. Parents should engage children in more conversational activities to avoid television-related delays to their children language development, which could impair their intellectual performance.