Dear charellie
My 3.5 ds has just been diagnosed with global development delay, and I have to say that finding information about this condition is very tricky. I really agree with everyone that your friend should alert someone where she is now- in my case it was my health visitor, so that her ds can get into the system now and start the process of getting support from different experts.
The thing with global development delay is that you really need the child to be fully assessed by a doctor/specialist, because it may be that he has different levels of delay in different areas, and the doctor can help put together the most appropriate plan of action- whether he needs speech therapy or occupational therapy etc.
In my son's case it meant numerous tests conducted in our house by different people- speech therapist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist and the team specialist, but at the end of it we all had a meeting and have now got a plan in motion to help and support him. It also means that you have someone in the profession to discuss your concerns with.
I don't know if it helps, but I have been referred to the ICAN website, (www.ican.org.uk) and also the afasic Website (www.afasic.org.uk) which deal with communication issues in young children. Apart from that I don't know of any other sites that target global development delay explicitly.
I really do understand how your friend feels -I had so many people (including family) telling me that my son would catch up, and that boys are always slower etc, but it can really break your heart when you know that your child is not the same as other children, and part of moving forward is admitting that you need to get help and support for both mum and child because it can be very wearing dealing with it every day. I hope she is able to get the help she needs, and please reassure her that she is not the only mum going through this!