Developmental Delay

Human development refers to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes occurring throughout the lifespan. Many developmental lines progress sequentially and independently over time while also interacting with each other.  Examples of the many developmental lines include: Physiologic development and homeostasis. Structural and anatomic development. Motor development – both fine and gross motor. Development of language (the full spectrum of communications skills, including gesture and speech). Cognitive development. Personality Development. Social development. Psychological development. Sexual development. Development of adaptive skill (Activities of daily living (ADL). The development of the fetal brain starts during the first trimester, more specifically in the fourth week of gestation, and continues throughout pregnancy with very rapid growth in early childhood but continuing actively through adolescence and into the middle of the third decade of life with ongoing development throughout the lifespan. Delay in development is generally determined with a child does not attain developmental milestones as compared to peers from the same population. Statistical terms are often used to classify the degree of delay into mild (functional age (FA) <33% below chronological age (CA), moderate (FA 34% to 66% of CA), and severe (FA <66% of CA). "Developmental delay" is a general descriptor of a broad phenotype that must then be specified by carefully determining one or more elements linked with the area of disrupted development. Developmental delay is not a diagnosis by itself rather a categorical, illustrative term used in the clinic. Further, the terms often used to specify a developmental delay may vary by country or area of practice.  For example, the term "mental retardation is no longer in use with "learning disability being used in the UK and Intellectual Disability being used in the US to define a group of individuals with a significant delay defined by "performance equal or greater than two standard deviations below the mean on age-appropriate standardized norm-referenced testing" (IQ or intelligent quotient testing). There are three types of developmental delay based on the number of domains involved: 1) Isolated developmental delay (involving single domain); 2. Multiple Developmental Delays — 2 or more domains or developmental lines affected; and, 3) Global developmental delay (GDD) —significant delay in most developmental domains. Other entities with abnormal developmental models are: is a developmental disability that mainly affects cognitive functioning. As per American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (ID) guidelines, it is characterized by significant lifelong developmental deficits in areas that are responsible for learning, problem-solving, adaptive skills development, and independence, generally with onset prior to age 18 years of age. are a very large group of syndromes in which the typical sequences or patterns of development are disrupted with delays in developmental steps and/or deviations in development processes. Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics policy on early screening, a significant number of developmental disorders remain undiagnosed and untreated