Spring Event

Sydney Shindler Period 7 Spring ISM Current Event Title: What You Need to Know About Developmental Delays Date: March 2018 Summary: In this article, author Amanda Morin discusses the basic information about developmental delay in infants and how to find help as the child continues to grow. Morin first begins her article by defining what developmental delay is people may have different concepts of its meaning. After asserting that a delay occurs when a child is continually behind in meeting various milestones, the article then proceeds by explaining the difference between a developmental disability and a delay. Here, it is stated that a disability is considered as an issue that a child cannot outgrow (ex. Down syndrome and autism) while a delay is simply caused by short-lived complications (ex. illness). Morin also mentions the five different skills that an infant could be experiencing delay in, which are cognitive, social, speech, motor, and daily tasks. The article then discusses what an infant should be able to accomplish in each of these skill levels without any delay. Afterwards, Morin discusses some of the risk factors that can cause developmental delay, such as birth complications and environmental issues, before moving on to suggest that delays can be linked with learning and attention issues during early schooling. The article is then concluded by informing readers to talk to a pediatrician about early intervention programs if worried about a child having severe developmental delays. Project Topic Connection: This article connects extremely well to my project topic as I will be discussing developmental milestones in infants and what to do if a child is experiencing delays. The information on this website will be especially helpful in the creation of the latter half of my presentation as I now have a better idea of what delay is and how it can occur. For example, I was made aware that delay is a larger issue than simply not meeting a developmental milestone on time as “kids don’t develop skills on a strict timetable”. I also learned more about the five different skill areas that need to be built up as well as what actions fits into these categories. This connects well with my project as I was planning on talking about the milestones that should be accomplished by infants in each of these skill areas while they grow. And even though, “there is no one cause of developmental delay”, the author’s mentioning of the risk factors behind delays is extremely helpful since I want to talk about how treat and possibly prevent such circumstances. Morin’s suggestion about the linkage between delays and learning issues is interesting as well since it shows how trend of late development can progress if left untreated. Overall, this article will be extremely helpful in the making of my project as it has provided me with new information as well as ideas for other information that could be included in my final presentation. Personal Response: Upon reading this article, I feel that I had acquired a lot of knowledge about development that I had not previously known. I was very interested in learning about the differences between developmental delays and disabilities as I had thought of them as being within the same realm as each other. After reading the article, I was also struck by how important

it was for me to be learning information such as risk factors since I will have to be aware of such things when I have my own children. However, I do have some further questions about development that the article did not address. For example, what are some more specific risk factors behind delayed development? Is there any research supporting that the increased amount of screen time that infants receive today causes developmental issues? And what are the kinds of treatments that a child would receive when going through early intervention? Despite having several unanswered questions, I really loved reading this article as it has inspired my to do further research into these areas. MLA Citation: Morin, Amanda. “What You Need to Know About Developmental Delays.” Understood.org, Mar. 2018, www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/earlyintervention/what-you-need-to-know-about-developmental-delays#comment-list.