Understanding Developmental Delays: A Parent's Guide

As a parent, you cheer for every little milestone your child reaches, especially if it's before their peers. However, what happens if your child is behind? Would you know?

Understanding developmental delays can help you find the appropriate resources to assist your child. Fortunately, we at Tri-Valley Pediatrics, serving Pleasanton and San Ramon, CA, and the nearby region, can help.

General Information

A developmental delay is when your child doesn't reach a milestone at a time similar to their peers. For instance, these are some of the skills we'll ask you about:

• Smiling 
• Rolling over
• Crawling
• Standing 
• Walking 
• Speaking

Every child is different when it comes to their development. Some are slower than others, which doesn't always indicate an issue. However, there are roundabout times, and we especially take notice if your child isn't hitting multiple milestones at the roundabout times.

Physical delays aren't the only type. Some kids may have a social/emotional, cognitive, or speech delay.

Causes of Delays

Sometimes, the cause of your little one's delay can't be determined, but it's possible it could be genetic. In some cases, the cause is drug, alcohol, or toxin exposure during pregnancy. Having a low birth weight, not receiving enough oxygen at birth, and poor nutrition are some of the other causes. 

Your child could have Down syndrome or autism disorder that is causing the delays. 

Treating a Developmental Delay  

In some cases, we can guide you on ways you can interact with your child to help them improve their fine motor skills, speaking, or whatever developmental delays they're experiencing. 

However, your child may need to receive treatment from our Pleasanton, CA, doctor to address the underlying cause. 

We'll help determine this by discussing your little one's delay and reviewing their medical history. We'll want to know about your child's family history as well. 

Occasionally, the testing may include a hearing evaluation. We may ask to watch your child perform certain tasks to assess their progress. 

Based on the results, we may refer your child to a specialist for further, more entailed treatment. 

With a child with a delay that affects them into their school-aged years, we may recommend they have therapy through the school to help them advance to their full potential. 

We also encourage you to ask any questions you have so we can best help you assist your child. 

Tri-Valley Pediatrics, serving Pleasanton and San Ramon, CA, and the nearby region, has several pediatricians who can help your child reach milestones, if possible, despite a developmental delay. We have several tools we can use and know of countless resources to further assist. 

If you worry your kid has a developmental delay, contact us at (925) 460-8444 (Pleasanton), (925) 380-6230 (San Ramon).