Intervention Strategies and Developmental Delays

Intervention Strategies and Developmental Delays

In her Journal article, “Early Intervention In the Home for Children Under the Age of Three with Developmental Delays: An in-depth Examination of the Interactions Between Service Providers and Family Members”, DeCoster (2009) starts by emphasizing upon how important it is for parents to realize the harm that they would bring to their children by ignoring the red flags that are an indication of developmental delays. However, she adds that it is practically impossible for an unconcerned or untrained parent to figure out that their children are suffering from developmental delays in social cognition. It is indeed true that every child develops at his own unique pace so that doctors simply cannot standardize what the normal or ideal time is for the development of children.

DeCoster iterates that developmental delays are commonly attributed to a lag in either physical mental, cognitive or emotional development of children. in the case of children, there are a wide range of developmental delays that may affect his language and speech, motor skills, emotional skills, or cognitive skills. Development delays may also affect the vision of a child, causing impairment of sight. According to DeCoster, there are a myriad of reasons that may be responsible for delays in the development of children and it is also common for children to suffer from delayed development in more than one areas. For example, she a genetic defect by the name of Down Syndrome may be responsible for the delayed development of the mental, and physical faculties of one in every 800 children in the United States.

At times, there may be a delay in more than one of the areas related to the physical, mental, emotional and cognitive development of children. Such a case is called “Global Development Delay” and affects the development of nearly all of the faculties of the child. Global development delay may commonly occur due to Down Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (when a pregnant woman indulges in careless drinking). Moreover, global development delays may also commonly be caused by certain types of inherited cognitive impairments such as fragile X syndrome. The development of severe medical problems in children soon after they have been given birth also often leads to development delays.

DeCoster asserts the importance of the “Family-Focused Approach” in order to provide early intervention in addressing the development delays in children. She emphasizes that it is ...