Global development delay

[Landladymews]

Has anyone’s child been a slow talker and slow walker and they’ve gone on to be ok in the end?

I have an 18 month old who doesn’t walk or talk. Not too worried about the walking as he crawled late and is cruising confidently so it’s only a matter of time in my opinion. I am concerned about the lack of talking because his receptive language seems very weak and he cannot follow any instructions. It’s possible that it’s down to the fact that I haven’t given him focused attention in the last 4 months due to having a newborn. For example he wasn’t pointing but in the last day or two I’ve made an effort to spend more time with him and point at things and he’s started doing it too. It’s possible he needs more time from me or it may be that he’s delayed like he was with physical milestones.

Did anyone else experience anything similar? Thanks!

He hasn't been diagnosed with Global Development Delay has he? It does sound like you're panicking a bit...

Some kids are just slower to talk. My nephew is 7 now and very good at talking but for a long time he said zero.

HE didn't actually talk until he was over 2....he could say simple words...Mum, Dad, cup etc but not a sentence.

Does he babble?

Oh and have you had his ears double checked?

The issue is that he’s slow to talk AND walk. If he was walking but not talking I wouldn’t think of GDD. He has been delayed getting to all physical milestones rolling, crawling and walking. I also am less concerned about the fact that he doesn’t speak yet as that can come later as the fact that he doesn’t understand anything which is a skill they’re supposed to acquire after 12 months and by 18 months. On speaking he doesn’t have any basic words like mum, dad, milk, food, Nappy; shoes etc or even understand what these words mean. He babbles a lot in his own language

Ears were checked by the GP and found to be totally clear. He’s having a hearing test in December to rule out hearing issues but GP said his hearing seems ok to him.

@Landladymews no advice but similar concerns to mine. Can’t decide if I’m jumping to conclusions or if there’s a real need to worry :/

Our son has been diagnosed with GDD, he is also delayed with his speech, toilet training etc. He is also very small for his age (he is now 4yrs 4mths and still in 18-24mth clothing, only now are some of the trousers starting to look a bit short!)

He was delayed with all the milestones as a baby; didn't crawl until he was a year old, didn't walk until he was nearly 2 etc. At 2 he didn't have any words and only a few very baby-ish sounds.

As our first child I knew he was behind in comparison to our friends children but nursery hadn't raised any concerns and he had been going there since he was 9mths old. It wasn't until his 2 year review that the HV bought up her concerns about how delayed he was and then she asked nursery their views and then they finally said "well actually...", she started the ball rolling with paediatric, slt, hearing referrals etc. His hearing is fine and so is his understanding - we never had any concerns about these! We ended up being lucky enough to be seen by the amazing team at our local child development centre and it was there he was assessed over a month and they gave the diagnosis of GDD.

He has been having regular speech and language sessions over the last 2 years and is now saying lots more single simple words & learnt more concepts like on/under, big/small, but even at the age he is at now, he only puts 2 words together usually and not a proper sentence.

If you have concerns I would speak to your HV, ours seemed to be able to pull strings and arrange things really quickly in comparison to going to the GP. For example I was worried about his eyesight and the GP said it could just be hay fever or "a tick he had developed...although he is a bit young for a tick", the HV quickly referred us to the eye hospital and low and behold he needed glasses!

Ask your HV for the skills matrix for his age range (and perhaps the one below) and then work through it and see how many he can do/sometimes does/ can't do - you may have to practice some of them with him before you can answer them. They are a good starting point to get an idea of if he is a little bit behind where he should be in 1 or 2 areas (and hv might say that's perfectly normal!) or if he is way behind where he should be. My DS was behind in all areas even on the younger forms when I did them for him.

Does your LO go to nursery? Can you ask them if they have any concerns about their development?

Just to add, we were advised that learning sign language could be a really useful way to help us communicate with our son & help ease frustrations. We went on a signalong course & honestly it made so much difference! I would highly recommend using sign language with your LO, it's amazing how quickly they can pick it up.

Hello, been through the chat and I’m in a very similar situation, worried sick about my dd who is 15m now. She is delayed with every milestone. She started rolling at 10m and started sitting around 11m and it’s only now I can say she sits properly doesn’t fall over. She now is able to stand holding on the chair or table etc but that’s only when I get her up she isn’t able to pull herself up. I feel she has zero understanding ... she will not respond to anything I say, her eye contact is okay, she may smile here and there, not overly interested in her toys or siblings, just happy in her jumperoo. We took her to paediatric privately and was told she has gdd, Wev just had her blood tests done and now waiting for results. It’s so worrying and I end up on google all the time only to make it worse for myself and I feel a wreck!

@Sabu1234 if your little one is not responding much when you speak to her, have you had her hearing checked? Does she react to other loud noises e.g. bangs, a plane in the sky, car going past when outside etc? Does she try to communicate with you by pointing at things?

Our son's standard genetics blood test didn't show up anything out of the ordinary, it felt like a long wait for the results to then be told that! In a way it was obviously a relief but on the other hand we still don't know why he has the delays he does. As he is so small and because he has some unusual skin tags, one either side of his ears, he has been referred to the geneticists to see if there are any other genes they want to investigate that aren't checked on the standard tests.

Have you spoken to your HV about your concerns? Totally understand how worrying it is! We have had a stressful year with it all and him starting school too, he has just had an educational psychologist visit him at school, so our next challenge is getting an EHCP in place ready for when he starts year 1.

@luckymagnoliatree Wev had her eye sight tested that’s come out fine, I know she can hear she will turn and look when there is a sudden noise, also she sometimes responds to her name. Is your son going to mainstream school? I’m just so worried about dd future how will she be, will she be independent, will she understand ... seems like a dark tunnel right now😢

@Sabu1234 I'm glad to hear her eyesight is ok. Our sons ear tests came back ok, he does need glasses though as like his dad he has a stigmatism in one of his eyes. This was only picked up though when I noticed him squinting and rapidly blinking and then requested a eye test. Dr thought it was just a early "tic" or hayfever but I knew it wasn't that so persisted and I was right!

Yes he's started a mainstream primary school. He's a summer baby but we decided it would be better to just go for it and start him in school rather than delay him a year, we knew his preschool wouldn't push him anymore than they already were and we felt being with his peers would hopefully help him and hopefully bring him on quicker than being surrounded by children younger than him.

His doc said that his delayed by between 18mths-2yrs. He has been having speech therapy since he was 2 and is now saying a lot more single words and starting to say some very simple sentences. Like if he is digging in mud he will say "mud", "dig" but he won't repeat a more complex modelled sentence like "I'm digging in the mud". He still can't communicate with us that he needs the toilet (not sure he actually knows when he does to be honest and his paediatrician said we shouldn't expect him to know yet. Even so we have been trying to toilet train him most of this year in prep for starting school, this made me so anxious and it's been very very stressful. After 8 months of trying & him starting school wearing "big boy pants" and taking several changes of clothes, we ended up having a discussion with the school nurse/hv team and his teacher/senco & made the decision recently to take a step back as it just wasn't working and was too much for him. He is much happier in himself because of it and school have said it's much better as now accidents don't mean disrupting his enjoyment of the lessons as he doesn't have to miss big chunks getting changed into dry clothes.

It is very daunting I agree & of course as parents we naturally worry anyway (!) but he does catch up with doing these things.... it just all takes him much longer to catch up, you don't know when it's going to click either! He has honestly become so much more dependent (in some areas) since starting school and more willing to give some things a go without resisting. I find it hard not to compare him with his younger brother (who is developmentally already at the same point as him in most areas, even though he is 28mths younger).

My son is in the process of being diagnosed with GDD. Particularly behind in motor skills, speech is unclear but vocab good. His concentration isn't great and I'm worried about school in September. He's a summer born so I was already a bit nervous.

@Twilightstarbright we had some excellent sessions further to our sons diagnosis with the occupational therapist, perhaps this might be an option for your son to help with his development on his gross motor skills. They can give you tasks/ideas to practice at home too. Everyone who has seen our son has written up a detailed report at the end of their block of sessions, of their findings/observations and what they worked on with him and next steps which are really helpful.

I totally understand how anxious you are feeling about starting school!! In the end we decided not to delay his start as we didn't think being at pre-school another year would be of much benefit, as they weren't really providing him with much more support to push his development. I would definitely encourage you to make contact with the school once your son gets his place. Send across copies of any reports you have and ask to speak to the senco/teacher before he starts to make sure they are aware he will need more support and to try to get that ball rolling. We had a bit of a nightmare getting hold of ours - it literally took us months of chasing...but we eventually got to have a conversation with them in the summer before he started so they were a bit more prepared for when he started. We have had to follow their normal processes with regards to targets etc and now they are starting the ehcp process, so hopefully he will have that in place for starting Yr1 next September, if not before.🤞

Thank you @luckymagnoliatree
The OT service is the one that has the longest waiting list but the CDS liaison said we should be seen by the end of February- been waiting since August.

@Twilightstarbright gosh that's such a long wait ☹️ I'm guessing that covid hasn't helped with the long delay either. We ended up having face to face sessions cancelled with music therapy and speech therapy because of it. We were really lucky that we saw OT before all this covid saga started. I hope that you get the ot appointment soon.

Hi everyone, is anyone still around? I'd be interested in hearing an update on how your kids are doing now. My son is turning 2 and was diagnosed with GDD at 14 months old. We were lucky to get early intervention with Physio and Portage and we're still awaiting the results from his genetics tests.

@CwtchWithMam its great you got early diagnosis and intervention
My son is also diagnosed with GDD last week at age of 11 months. still in the process of getting all therapies started,
how is your son doing now?
has he started nursery yet?
please also share his milestones timeline,

Hi @ayeusm , thanks for the reply. He's doing a lot better thank you.

So he had genetic testing which came back clear. There was slow and steady progress but the gap between him and his peers did get bigger. He learnt to walk at a out 22 months old and was then discharged from physio but still has weekly Portage.

Since then he has gone on from strength to strength. Now he's a month away from his 3rd birthday and his main delays are speech and language, attention span and the fact that he is not fully toilet trained. He has had an appointment with the Educational Psychologist who said that he will be fine in a mainstream school so he might have a IDP just as extra support.

If you compare this to how he was at 1 year old it is a massive difference. At his first birthday he was like a 6 month old baby just laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. He couldn't sit, crawl and had just learnt to confidently roll over.

Starting nursery and being around kids his own age was/is really good for him. He definitely learns by observing and then copying others.

I am really glad that I got an early diagnosis, so good on you for getting that sorted so soon. My advice is to keep on them, if an appointment is late etc chase them. Also, apply for DLA as it will entitle you to more support if you are awarded it.

@CwtchWithMam thankyou so much for your reaponse so glad that your son is catching up, Mine will also be 1 year old next month still couldnt sit up on his own hoping to start his physiotherapy soon ,hopefully it will help him do better, lets hope for the best