15 month old with GDD

[Goshdammit]

Hello - hoping for some advice really, as I feel a little clueless.

My 15 month old has a global development delay, he started sitting at 11 months and doesn’t yet crawl or say any words at all. He babbles and is very sociable, interactive and quite mobile as he rolls about. But his fine motor is quite behind and there does seem to be a disconnect with his arms and organisation of his body generally. He does seem a bit slow to pick up new skills, for example he can’t get himself into sitting and we’ve been working on it for months now.

He’s on the list for genetic testing but I understand this may not give us any definitive answers.

His physio and OT say he’s doing really well, but his latest paediatrician poured cold water on us a bit as he said when delays are picked up so young, the gap will often widen as they get older.
I suppose I don’t know what to expect and can only think of worst case scenarios.

Does anyone know if GDD always becomes a learning difficulty as they grow older? Any stories would be amazing to hear as I’m just stuck in limbo and finding it all quite hard. Thanks :)

Hi, my understanding is that generally GDD is a holding diagnosis and these children typically (but not always) go on to receive another diagnosis as they get older. My little girl has GDD, diagnosed initially at 19 months but I expressed concerns to the HV about her development at around 10 months. They're now looking at ASD & if speech and language & her nursery provide corrobative info the paed may be able to make the diagnosis without more formal assessments (basically, she already meets the diagnostic criteria). Too early to provide a sucess/ happy ending and I've wondered the same- how severe will difficulties end up if I've picked them up so early?? BUT she's a gorgeous, happy little girl and she has made so much progress! I sometimes thought she would never walk (hypermobile, couldn't crawl/ stand but had lots of physio and walked at around 22 months) and now always singing! I'd never want to change her, & feel incredibly lucky to have her, I just really hope she continues to be happy & her issues don't cause her too much of a struggle in life.
Genetic tests, eg for fragile X & chromosomal problems came back fine after a 6 month wait, she had seizures but luckily none since Feb but all these things seem fairly common in genetic disorders, so it was a tough 6 months waiting for the results. Hope your little one does well too :)

@Peelz I am so sorry, I never saw your reply! I feel awful. Thanks for taking the time to write back to me :) how old is your daughter now? It’s the not knowing what the future holds that gets me.

Since my post, we had our genetic tests and bloods back and they’re completely normal, MRI normal, our doctor is a bit stumped. My son does have nystagmus as well, so now I’m just left wondering if a visual impairment can cause delays.