DD has more general delays than we thought, what does it actually mean?

[used2bthin]

DD has just got an earlyyears SEN advisory teacher and things are finally haening. There is still no diagnosis other than seech and language delay with associated learning difficulties and no advice on the future other than we need to get her the right suport to help her reachwhatever otential she has but she is rogressing,just slowly and seems to be at about a two and a half year old level in areas other than physical development which is age appopriate.

Actually her social development is better than her s and l level which confuses things but I guess its normal to have different levels in different areas? Well I know it is, think I had just been hoing this was going to be easier to fix than it looks like it will be.

I asked is that what GDD is and she said yes it is delays over severalareas but said she doesnt diagnose so can't really call it that.

So does anyonehave any ideasof exectedoutcomes for children with GDD? Do children have a delay over several areas then "catch up"?

Sorry laptop on last legs and keeps missing out letters. Should have said,DDis 4.4

(pssst it's TotalChaos with a name change) oh, I guess that must not have been a pleasant appointment for you . I would take the SEN teacher seriously but not take her views as 100% gospel - I think you would really need a dev paed or possibly ed psych to be pronouncing more officially on labels/developmental levels.

I think as a lot of us on here have kids with ASD or ASD type problems, the language/social ends up in a big mish-mash iyswim, but for more "pure" language problems (in so far as they exist!), you can have great social skills even with ropey language ihswim.

In terms of expected outcomes - I can't reeally comment, as I don't have direct experience, my only experience is of reading about kids on here and other sites!

My daughter has GDD and IMHO it is a blanket term to describe learning difficulties which will later be classified as moderate, severe etc.

We were told when she was 2 that she would never 'catch up' and although very hard to hear at the time it did give us a realistic picture. She is now 12 and although she has made lots of progress in many ways she is a child with severe learning difficulties and very different from her the average 12 year old.

This is only our experience.

as already said you'd really need a developmental paed to be dxing gdd. The problem is that gdd is more of a description than a dx and is often used before they really know what is going on I've known a couple of prem babies given the gdd label that have just needed time to catch up and gone on to be fine. Then there's others like my dd3 who have started with a gdd dx until they found a genetic syndrome and a friends ds dx with cp. It's a bit of a catch all really that gives you very little information, especially when it comes to outcomes, I'm afraid it's one of those wait and see things.

Thanks all, yes she said about going back to the paed for afull assessment.Both her and the pead have said we can't know what will happen inthe future but in a way I think like vg13 that even if she isnt going to suddenly catch up it would be easiertodealwith now ifI knew.

Tc yes very hard but mainly because she was so nice to me and said its nothing I've done, its the way she is and she is a lovely little girl, re school love her,I am a lovely mum to her and am doing all the right things. So she basically addressed all my unsoken worries and had me an emotional wreck after but in a good way as I always worried that peole thought it was me.

bigcar that makes sense seeing it as a descrition. DD has a genetic condition so I think it had been assumed it was connected or that she'd been tested for everything but I ointed out that she was only tested for the things they suspectedso not everything and Ithink she will now have more tests done.

my son has gdd hes had lots of tests found no dx yet tho hes behind on lots of things he did not walk untill hes was 2.6m hes non verbal and still in nappies he will be 4 in dec

My ds was first given gdd diagnosis, gone on to be diagnosed with Mod Learning Dis and ASD, he is now 4, and has minimal speech, altho lots of signs.

I kind of think of it in terms of some things he will get, but get them slower, some things he will get but to a different degree to other kids, and some things he possibly won't get at all... but we have no way to know which things fall into which category, so we just carry on, and he really surprises us on many occasions, little star that he is.

ds was given the catch all GDD and i accepted long before the proffesionals admitted that ds will never catch up Ds is now 5.5 and in a speech unit he is making progress but at his own rate

Ther enowq looking at genetic condtions

Thanks all, I think for my own sanity I hope we get some sort of answer but it seems scarily common not to. What confusesme is that in some areas she was/is the same as her nt peers.She was dry in the day by 2.10 and has always been very able physically.

sign andsay yes that makes sense andits true its best to think of what they can do, DD surprises me too.

Progress at his own rate sounds like DD she is progressing its just very very slow and with a lot of work. I am feeling quite worried atprofessionals now talking in terms of whatever her potential is rather than helping her catch up.But nothing I can do except do as they say and focus on what she needs now.

I think we really needto have more tests she had a small fit or faint a while back and also I think it was assumed that she'd been tested for genetic things as she has a genetic condition but they would presumably only tested for that or the other suspected things as it was when she was born, no developmental worries at the time.