What are developmental milestones?

Developmental milestones are a set of functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children can do at a certain age range. Your pediatrician uses milestones to help check how your child is developing. Although each milestone has an age level, the actual age when a normally developing child reaches that milestone can very quite a bit. Every child is unique!

When we talk about normal development, we are talking about developing skills like:
Gross motor: using large groups of muscles to sit, stand, walk, run, etc., keeping balance, and changing positions. Fine motor: using hands to be able to eat, draw, dress, play, write, and do many other things. Language: speaking, using body language and gestures, communicating, and understanding what others say. Cognitive: Thinking skills: including learning, understanding, problem-solving, reasoning, and remembering. Social: Interacting with others, having relationships with family, friends, and teachers, cooperating, and responding to the feelings of others.

What is developmental delay? Developmental Delay is when your child does not reach their developmental milestones at the expected times. It is an ongoing, major delay in the process of development. If your child is slightly or only temporarily lagging behind, that is not called developmental delay. Delay can occur in one or many areasfor example, motor, language, social, or thinking skills.

IDEA's Categories of Disability

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Autism Deaf-blindness Deafness Hearing impairment Mental retardation Multiple disabilities Orthopedic impairment Other health impairment (i.e., having limited strength, vitality, or alertness that affects a child's educational performance) Serious emotional disturbance Specific learning disability Speech or language impairment Traumatic brain injury Visual impairment, including blindness

Four Steps in Evaluation

Your child is having trouble in school. Someone notices, maybe you, maybe a teacher. You both want your child to do well in school. The first step is to evaluate your child to find out what is causing your child to have problems.

Step 1: Using what's already known The group of people (which must include you) evaluating your child looks at what information is already available about your child. Does the group need more? If so, the school must collect it. Step 2: Collecting more information The school asks for your permission to evaluate your child. You give informed written permission. The school then collects more information about your child. Step 3: Deciding your child's eligibility Is your child eligible for special education and related services? Based on the evaluation results, the group of school professionals and you, the parents, decide. Step 4: Developing your child's educational program If your child is eligible, you and the school will develop an educational program to meet your child's needs.