By: Cierra Harris and Michelle Harris
Developmental Delay
A developmental delay is defined as a child's not reaching his developmental milestones at expected times. It is an ongoing major or minor delay in the process of development. Delay can occur in one or many areas, for example, gross or fine motor, language, social, or cognitive skills. Developmental delay is most often a diagnosis made by a doctor based on strict guidelines. Usually the parents are the first to notice that their child is not progressing at the same rate as other children the same age. Developmental delay can have many different causes, such as genetic causes, like Down syndrome, or complications of pregnancy and birth, like prematurity or infections. Often, however, the specific cause is unknown. Some causes can be easily reversed if caught early enough, such as hearing loss from chronic ear infections, or lead poisoning.
Hypotonia
Low muscle tone, or hypotonia, is one of the physical problems often associated with developmental delays. Children can have generalized hypotonia or it may affect just specific areas such as the hands or upper body. It is clinically significant because in severe cases the muscles are literally too weak to perform important tasks such as holding a pencil or sitting without slumping in a chair. In milder cases, stamina or precision is affected.
Treatment
The multi-disciplinary treatment approach is usually utilized in order to provide intervention for developmental delays. This approach consists of pharmaceutical intervention, special education, counseling and applied behavior management. These approaches focus on assumed neurological and observed behavioral, language, psychological, and academic deficits, not their possible causes. The ultimate goal of treatment is to eliminate undesirable behaviors such as hyperactivity, attention difficulties, anxiety, depression, mood swings, agitation, self-injurious behavior, insomnia, perseveration and impulsivity, while increasing desirable outcomes such as relatedness, eye contact, self-control, attention span and confidence. Determining appropriate treatments and their sequence requires knowing the multiple causes of symptoms in each patient. Hypotonia can be treated by increasing the amount of nutrients available for transport and by trying to regulate the naturally sluggish dispatch system.
Early intervention is a key part of intervention for children with a developmental delay. It is important to detect a developmental delay early so that early intervention can begin. The type of intervention that is appropriate depends on the type of delay and what areas need to be addressed. Generally, children need to learn developmental skills in a consecutive fashion. For example, a child needs to learn to sit up on her own before she will be able to stand up, which is why it is important for early intervention to occur. Also, early intervention helps a child advance in all areas of development. Sometimes if a child has a delay in one area (e.g., speech), the delay can affect other developmental areas (e.g., social and emotional). Therefore, it is vital that a child receive early intervention as soon as possible. Finally, early intervention is critical for the child to develop good self-esteem. Without early intervention, a child's self-image may suffer and his may become avoidant of school. For example, a child who has a language delay may feel embarrassed to speak in front of his peers and teacher at school. Early intervention can help prevent these embarrassing moments for a child before he begins school.
Ten Tips for Improving Parent Participation in an IEP Meeting
We found that parents are sometimes uncomfortable at IEP meetings. Listed below are tips that will help parents feel more prepared for the meeting and more comfortable during the meeting.
1. Prepare and plan for your meeting. Look at the current IEP. Think about what is working well and what isn’t. Review recent evaluations and assessment information that you have. Do you have copies of the most recent assessment information done by the school district? If not, ask for it. Make a list of questions you want to ask at the IEP meeting and points you would like to make.
2.Do you have someone who can help you plan for the meeting and attend the meeting with you? If possible both parents should attend an IEP meeting, but it is also very helpful to take someone else as an advocate or support person. It is hard to advocate for yourself. Having someone to brainstorm with you ahead of time, take notes in the meeting, and ask questions can reduce your anxiety and help you participate more effectively.
3. Look at the notice inviting you to the IEP meeting. The notice should tell you who the school district intends to have at the IEP meeting. Are there additional individuals that you would like to attend the meeting? You have the right as a parent to invite other individuals who have knowledge or expertise about your child’s special needs. For example, perhaps your child receives speech therapy or other therapies from a provider in private practice. Would you like that professional to attend the meeting to make recommendations to the other members of the IEP team?
4. Are you and the others you would like to attend the IEP meeting available at the time scheduled? You have the right to have the meeting arranged at a reasonably mutually convenient time. If the meeting is not scheduled at a time that works for you, you should contact the appropriate school staff to reschedule.
5.While at the meeting make sure you ask all of your questions and get your questions answered. Educational professionals often speak in their own language. If you don’t understand something that is said, don’t hesitate to ask that it be restated in more understandable terms. It is part of an educator’s job to communicate effectively to parents and others. It is important that all team members understand what is being recommended in the meeting.
6.Communicate what you would like to see in the IEP. As the parent you are a member of the IEP team and as the parent you have important information about your child’s strengths and needs that should be shared with the other members of the IEP team. While wanting to provide appropriate services, school staff can sometimes forget whose child it is. You are not just the parent. You have an important perspective to share and you do not have to just agree with what other members of the team recommend.
7. Make sure the meeting focuses on developing a program to meet the unique needs of your child. Special education is specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability. If the needs of other students or the administrative needs of the school staff creep into the discussion the meeting can get off track and result in a poor plan. These other needs may be important but should not influence your child’s IEP. The IEP should be designed to meet the unique needs of your student with a disability.
8. Make sure issues are discussed sufficiently and the meeting does not end without completing the task. Sometimes it takes longer to complete the IEP than the time the school has allotted. For example, the IEP meeting is scheduled from 3:00 to 5:00 and the discussion becomes rushed as five o’clock approaches. Or, sometimes the meeting runs long and individuals cannot stay for the entire time. There is nothing wrong with scheduling another meeting to complete the IEP when all the needed team members can be available.
9. Keep your cool. Try not to take comments about your child personally or encounter disagreement with anger. That can be difficult. You may be justified in your anger, but the views of parents who become too angry can sometimes be discounted. So, try to keep your anger in check and keep cool.
10. Finally, review the IEP document to make sure that everything agreed to in the meeting is written into the document.
Therapy Sites for Children
The website below provides therapy tools for children. These are free tools that parent can utilize to provide their children with additional support at home.
