I often hear some novice parents ask: Is my child developing slowly?
After all, is what slow to develop? What should parents do if they encounter this phenomenon?
Let’s analyze several common situations one by one:
Case 1
Sisi was born 2 months prematurely, and now she is 3 months prematurely. She will not look up and there are no other special circumstances.
Analysis: Sisi was born for 3 months, but she is a premature infant. The age of the first month should be calculated and corrected according to her expected date of delivery within 2 years old. In fact, she is only equivalent to a 1-month-old baby. It is acceptable that she will not look up at this time.
Handling: Waiting for Sisi to grow up; Family parent-child interaction training; Regular follow-up of development. Among them, personal interactive training refers to early passive exercises for premature babies who belong to high-risk infants, exercise to raise their heads, and advocate parent-child interactive communication, which is very beneficial to baby development.
It is suggested that high-risk infants, including those with major diseases in the newborn period such as premature delivery, perinatal asphyxia, nuclear jaundice, etc., should be regularly monitored according to the doctor’s advice. The follow-up time and content of them are slightly different from the routine physical examination of ordinary children, and appropriate early intervention should be carried out.
Case 2
Beckham has not looked up for 3.5 months and has no history of high-risk diseases. When asked, he was the elders in his family [worried that his neck did not grow well]. Since he was born, he has been lying flat and has never been prone.
Analysis: It may be that Beckham was deprived of the opportunity to exercise, resulting in temporary development backwardness.
Handling: Immediately hold Beckham up vertically. His small neck is quite tough and wobbly. It is suggested to go home and give him the chance to play on his stomach every day. Two weeks later, my mother reflected that Beckham could look up on his stomach.
Hint: Although newborn babies are young, they are not delicate. They already have the basic ability to adapt to the world. Parents’ [excessive care] is not conducive to the healthy growth and development of babies. It is time to change some old ideas!
If your child fails to reach the development index due to [no exercise opportunity], then you can try to exercise for 2 weeks. If there is corresponding progress, you don’t need to worry too much, continue to exercise, and regularly go to the community hospital for routine physical examination. If you don’t make progress in any exercise, you should see a doctor in time.
Case 3
Xiao Ming was still unstable for 9 months, and the result of the development screening in the community hospital was [underdevelopment].
Analysis: Community hospitals found abnormalities in screening, and parents are advised to go to higher-level hospitals in time for diagnostic development assessment.
Treatment: After a diagnostic assessment of Xiao Ming’s children’s motor development, it was found that his overall motor development was equivalent to the level of 6 months, which belonged to motor retardation. Rehabilitation training was recommended.
It is suggested that when a child’s development index is delayed for more than 2-3 months, he should go to the relevant departments in time for children’s development evaluation and rehabilitation training when necessary. At the same time, the routine physical examination in community hospitals is the [outpost] for finding abnormal development, and parents should pay attention to it.
Case 4
Lingling is 2 years old, still can’t speak, the family said she is [big instrument late], also said Lingling’s father is more than 3 years old to speak, it doesn’t matter. After this year’s shift, the teacher found Lingling didn’t play with children and suggested to take Lingling to see a doctor.
Analysis: Lingling’s inability to speak at the age of 2 belongs to language development backwardness, but the specific reasons need further examination. Not playing with children is a social disorder. Specific reasons should also be analyzed and screening for autism spectrum disorders should be carried out.
Treatment: After relevant examination and evaluation of Lingling, it was found that her language understanding and expression ability was only 1 year old, and her IQ was low, which eliminated autism spectrum disorder. Considering that her language and social development backwardness may be related to her cognitive development retardation, rehabilitation training is suggested.
It is suggested that once the child has more than two fields of development problems, he should go to the relevant departments in time for a comprehensive assessment of the child’s development. When the child’s development index is obviously delayed, he cannot refuse to seek medical treatment for reasons without scientific basis, such as [big equipment is late], [so-and-so is the same], etc.
Through the above cases, we may already have a vague impression.
But is what developing? What does development contain? What is the normal range of development? What factors can affect the development process? Only by understanding these concepts can we judge the development of our children.
1. Development
It is the process of children’s growth and development from birth to the period when they are close to adults. It is not only the growth of the body and the maturity of sexual characteristics, but also the development of functions. The English [development] of development has the meaning of gradual acquisition and progressive layer by layer. This article also refers to this gradual functional development.
2. Functional development
The fields covered mainly include sports, language, cognition, social interaction and behavioral performance. The development of each field has its own sequence and is interrelated. The general sports field is the earliest developed and is also the most easily detected and evaluated. Language, cognition, social interaction and other subsequent development, the early development performance is not very characteristic or not easy to be detected, so it is necessary to a certain age to make the corresponding evaluation.
3. Normal range of development
Every child’s development process is different, how to judge whether it is normal or not? The prevailing practice is to conduct a large-scale survey, After completing scientific statistical analysis, Get a normal range. For example, the action of [looking up on your stomach], Maybe some children can be 2 months old, Some will not take until 4 months, However, the survey found that 90% of normal children can complete this movement by the time they are 3 months old. Therefore, [3 months] is taken as a time point for the investigation [head up]. However, the normal range of head-up is actually larger, so it is inaccurate to judge the development of children at only one time point. Therefore, doctors often monitor the development process of children according to the development scale, a common tool for screening and diagnosing growth retardation, and the results can more scientifically explain the development of children.
4. Factors affecting the development process
There is a folk song describing life like this: [Three days are doomed, seven points depend on hard work.] Children’s development is just the opposite: [seven days are doomed, three points depend on hard work.] Although it is predestined by nature, it does not mean that hard work is not important the day after tomorrow. For developmental diseases, if early detection and intervention are carried out, even if the nature of the disease cannot be changed, its function and quality of life can be improved. For normal children, depriving them of the exercise opportunity to adapt to the law of development, [struggle] is less, and temporary development backwardness may occur. Timely correction can still catch up. If it is not corrected for a long time, it will also have negative effects on normal development.
All in all, In the matter of functional development, Congenital factors are dominant, but also to provide appropriate environment to promote development, if it is a high-risk child should pay special attention to. Routine physical examination of children can find some developmental backwardness, parents should pay attention to it. A certain development index delay for more than 2-3 months or at the same time more than two areas of developmental backwardness phenomenon, should be timely medical treatment.
Responsible Editor: Fei Fei
This article is exclusively authorized by the author to be used by Clove Garden and refuses any other form of reprinting.