There is a tonne of anxiety that parents automatically inherit when blessed with a newborn baby. Are they eating enough? Is their development on time? And for goodness sake why won’t they sleep!
During the first few months of life there are an overwhelming number of changes that occur in your life and your babies. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first or fifth child in the family every child’s journey is different.
The most common questions we get in the Practice in regards to infant development revolve around the “golden” Milestones. Why aren’t they rolling? Or crawling? Or walking?
Development is a complex concept and there is still much to learn about the rate of progression in early childhood. Put simply,development is the process of your child exploring and learning about themselves and the environment as they grow.
Your child develops many skills in the first years of life and there is a wide variation in attainment of these milestones between children. For example, crawling may commence anywhere between 4 to 9 months. That’s a range of 5 months between some infants!
Despite variability from child to child, there is a general order in the progressive development of individual skills, with the simple skills preceding the more difficult ones. We know that most children achieve milestones at around a certain age and this is what is referred to as normal development. Individuals are outside the ‘norm’ when they display a rate of development that is faster or slower than most children the same age.
There are many factors that may affect development including:
- Premature birth
- Neurological conditions
- Musculoskeletal conditions
- Personality traits
Children with developmental delay benefit from a positive, secure and nurturing environment. They usually take longer to develop new skills and so it is important to build their confidence and self-esteem.
Many children with developmental delay will need extra help in one or more areas of their development. If you are concerned about your child’s development contact us to make a Play date with one of the Physiotherapists at the Healthy Body Company.
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