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1.4 ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT

Atypical Development Overview

Atypical development

Child development exists on a continuum. The development of most children falls somewhere in the “middle” of that continuum. A child is described as developing atypically when one of two situations arises:

  • A child reaches developmental milestones earlier than other children his/her age
  • A child reaches developmental milestones later than other children his/her age

It is very important to pay attention to children whose development is just a little bit different. They are referred to as “gray area” children because for the most part, their development is typical. This is why they may not qualify to receive services in the developmental areas in which they may be struggling, especially during their school years. It is important to monitor their progress and especially watch those areas in which they may be developing typically, but lagging a bit behind their peers. Here are a few examples:

  • A child may have a lot of words in his vocabulary, but may still struggle with articulation or pragmatics.
  • A child may walk to get to where he/she needs to get, but he/she may still take much longer than other children to get to his/her destination.

It is also quite important to pay attention to children with moderate to severe delays, or who have multiple disabilities. These children are usually identified quite early in life and end up receiving a wide variety of services. Intervention should be focused on providing as much support as possible to both the child and his/her family, so that the child can  be active and participate in his/her community.

The focus of intervention for children with severe developmental delays may be different from intervention for other children. A seriously involved child may never learn how to read or walk, but with proper intervention, he/she may learn how to eat or use the toilet on his/her own. This will make a huge difference in his/her life and the lives of those who care for him/her.

After the family has received information about intervention support, parents make a decision on what types of services to accept. They should be supported in any decision they make.

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1.4 Social and Emotional Development: Temperament

Temperament

Temperament1, or the way a person behaves, includes a whole range, or continuum of traits or characteristics. Caregivers may notice when a young child’s temperament falls on either of the extreme ends of this continuum because the child’s behavior and emotional needs may require additional management and support that is not required for his or her peers. These may be signs of atypical development. Parents will most likely need of professional help.

Children who place very few demands on their caregivers may be seen as very “easy” children. Some of them rarely cry and may not react to pain or feelings of hunger. However, it is important for caregivers to be aware that it is atypical not to react to pain or hunger, and these are not signs of an easy temperament.  Instead, these may be red flags that something in the baby’s or child’s development may require immediate professional attention. A first step is usually a referral to a pediatrician, who will start a screening process.

Some characteristics of children who are mistakenly thought to have an easy temperament include:

  • the child does not appear to feel pain (may not react to an immunization shot);
  • the child does not cry when hungry;
  • the child is not bothered by being left alone for significant amounts of time;
  • the child may oversleep.

Children whose temperament falls on the other end of the continuum may be described as being “overly difficult”. Children with overly difficult temperaments need help and should not be left to “overcome” this temperament on their own. Some characteristics of children considered as overly “difficult” include:

  • the child may cry at the slightest sign of discomfort;
  • the child may not enjoy being held or cuddled;
  • the child may not establish eye contact with others;
  • the child may be very difficult to feed;
  • the child may not have regular sleep habits and/or may continue to wake up several times during the night past the age of six months.

Most children go through “easy” or “difficult” stages.  However, if these characteristics are present most of the time, these are reasons for parents and caregivers to be concerned and seek for professional advice.

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1.6 Cognitive Development: Overview

Cognitive Development

A Brief Overview1

In the Typical Cognitive Development section of this course, we described how cognitive development involves the development of thinking or evaluation and coping, or ‘adaptation’ skills. Thinking or evaluation skills, such as “thinking outside the box2 (see full Glossary),” are related to the development of intelligence (see full Glossary). Coping skills involve the ability to adapt to changes in one’s environment.  Cognitive skills also look at creativity, the ability to learn new things, retain (see full Glossary) what one has learned, and how one applies information to new situations. Cognitive development also includes pre-academic and academic skills that children need in order to succeed at school. Examples might include the ability to sit quietly for certain periods of time, the ability to listen and follow instructions and the ability to perform paper and pencil tasks.

Some children do not develop these skills at par with their peers. They may develop some of these skills much later than others —or not develop them at all. In other words, atypical cognitive development involves difficulties with both the quality and quantity of certain skills (see full Glossary):

Severe cognitive delays often effect all other areas of development. Below are some signs of cognitive delays that can be observed in all areas of development between the preschool and school age years, around ages 3 – 5 years old.

In the domain of cognitive development:

  1. Children may experience serious difficulties in learning basic concepts (e.g. colors and shapes);
  2. Children may experience serious difficulties in learning advanced concepts (e.g. counting, reading and writing);
  3. Children may experience serious difficulties in generalizing what they learn from one situation to the next;
  4. Children may experience serious difficulties in adapting to changes in their environment and to new situations.

In the domain of social/emotional development:

  1. Children may trust others too easily and readily enabling others to take advantage of them;
  2. Children may not read visual or language cues as they their attempt to socialize with others.

In the domain of motor development:

  1. Children may exhibit delays in the development of their fine motor skills;
  2. Children may exhibit delays in the development of their gross motor skills

In the domain of communication development:

  1. Children may exhibit delays in the development of their receptive language skills;
  2. Children may exhibit delays in the development of their expressive language skills;
  3. Children may exhibit delays in the development of their pragmatic skills;
  4. Children may exhibit delays in the development of their articulation skills.

In the domain of adaptive skills:

During the preschool years:

  1. Children may be delayed in becoming toilet trained, and in extreme cases, may never be toilet trained.

During the elementary school years:

  1. Children may experience difficulties bathing and cleaning themselves properly;
  2. Children may experience difficulties with dressing and undressing.

During the high school years:

  1. Male adolescents may experience difficulties with knowing how and when to shave;
  2. Female adolescents may experience difficulties knowing how to handle their menstrual cycle.

Severe cognitive delays have been linked to developmental disabilities (also known as mental retardation and developmental challenges). Developmental disabilities involve global delays and affect all areas of development, including motor, language, social and emotional, and self-help skills.

1. see References
2. Source: University of Wahington, available at: http://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/imdt.htm

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