What is a Development Test?
Developmental testing is a structured evaluation of a child’s physical, intellectual, social and emotional development. Developmental assessment includes a team of professionals which consists of a paediatrician, language specialist, audiologist, occupational therapist, child psychologist, and a physical therapist, who altogether assess children.
The assessment usually varies from child to child depending on child age and problem. There are a whole question and answer session, related to child growth, physical movements, behaviour, play, and interaction with others.
A series of the test is done, which includes a physical exam, hearing and eye screening, and the nature of the test varies according to children’s strength and weakness.
Mostly child developmental assessment is considered to be a feeling of anxious, or guilty to be done. But developmental evaluation is a general evaluation; it is not something specified by disease. It is public testing of your child development. In most of the cases, the developmental examination reveals that your child is beautiful; there is no need for treatment. But on a precautionary note, early diagnosis is essential to save your child from some big trouble.
How to know whether your child needs developmental testing or not?
Most parents themselves notice unusual behaviour of their child and take them to a doctor for early diagnosis, the doctor after a general diagnosis refers your child to a physical developmental specialist for developmental testing.
If you notice specific issues, like a child’s speech ability or movement ability to grab things correctly, then don’t get too late to show to your doctor for a referral to a specialist.
Pro Tip: If your children are showing any unpredictable behaviour look for reliable developmental testing for early diagnosis of your child, otherwise the situation can be worse if disease prolonged keeping in mind developmental screening is only a formal evaluation which decides if your kid needs any intervention and treatment or not.
What Are the Developmental Issues?
Some common developmental problems, which generally occur, are mentioned and briefly described.
Cognitive Delays
Cognitive delay may affect a child’s learning abilities; it affects intellectual functioning, mostly appears when a child starts going to school, mostly these children have a communication problem
Motor Delays
Motor delays referred to as delay in motor skills like the ability to coordinate with large muscle groups are compromised, such as arms, legs, and small muscles in hands. Infants with gross motor delays often face difficulty in crawling or walking and holding objects.
Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Delays
Children suffering from disorders such as Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder usually experience social, emotional, and behavioural delays due to lack of proper brain functioning. It affects a child’s social, learning, communication abilities.
Speech Delays
Children with speech disorders usually have difficulty understanding words or concepts. They mostly have trouble recognizing body parts, colours, and shapes. Or they have a problem In speaking because of a lack of vocabulary, and they fail in sentence making.
What are the signs of a functional assessment?
The assessment method varies from child to child as every child has a different situation and different problems. Following have shared few signs for a proper assessment
- You, as a parent, know your child better than anybody else. It’s essential to cooperate with your developmental specialist and help them evaluate. Let them know everything about your child, and your opinions are necessary for a proper evaluation.
- The best assessment can be taken out if your child is assessed by a team of evaluators which includes a paediatrician, audiologist, child psychologist, and physical therapist. Altogether an expert team of doctors can give the best assessment, which has reliable information about child development.
- A child should be assessed in different settings, as the child responds differently in different contexts of people. For example, a child behaves differently when he is in daycare, or when he plays with friends and siblings, and a proper evaluation needs to assed in different settings.
- The evaluation process is critical; it should be able to recognize all the strengths and weaknesses of your child. The assessment should be done on a personal level of child condition not only be judged by the apparent sign and symptoms
- Make sure you are with your child all time while counselling and evaluation a child can’t function best when his/her parents are not there. Therefore a child should not be separated from parents to cover developmental milestone as parents can know better about their child condition
- A developmental assessment is a formal evaluation, and it gives an insight into child behavioural issues, and then the child is referred to have some intervention or treatment. But mostly after assessment, many parents find that it works and is helpful to understand their child’s condition and they are working better with it than before. It gives a sense of relief and hopes to be better in any way.
