A developmental assessment evaluates a child’s physical, intellectual, linguistic, emotional, and social development. It is conducted by a panel of doctors and experts and tailored to the child’s age and specific problem. The assessment includes tests on various topics and evaluates a child’s vision and hearing. Parents should be vigilant and attentive to their child’s development and raise any concerns to the doctor. The assessment aims to identify any developmental issues and a child’s strengths and weaknesses to form a problem intervention program.
A developmental assessment is a comprehensive assessment of a child’s physical, intellectual, linguistic, emotional, and social development. It is usually conducted when a doctor or parent notices a child is experiencing a developmental problem in one of these areas. A developmental assessment is conducted by a panel of doctors and experts, including pediatricians, audiologists, speech specialists, child psychologists or psychiatrists, and occupational therapists. Sometimes, it may be conducted by a developmental assessment specialist, who is someone trained to do much of the assessment themselves.
The specialist or specialists performing the developmental assessment will tailor the questions and tests to the child’s age. The specific problem that prompted the development assessment will also be a factor in the assessment and may guide its course. The developmental assessment includes numerous questions and tests on a variety of topics, including physical and motor development, emotional health, and social skills, among many others.
A group of tests will evaluate your child’s vision and hearing to rule out any physical conditions that could be causing a developmental problem. The purpose of development assessment is first and foremost to get to the root of the development problem. Sometimes, speech problems can be traced to a hearing problem.
While one would hope that a pediatrician would notice developmental issues in a well-supervised child, some problems aren’t particularly obvious or don’t show up during a brief visit to the doctor’s office. Parents should be vigilant and attentive to their child’s development and raise any concerns to the doctor. Doctors often ignore concerns that may seem minor, so parents should trust their gut if they feel strongly that something might be wrong with their child.
A developmental assessment will evaluate a child in the following areas:
Root Problem: This set of questions identifies the problem of concern and when it was first noticed. How did it go on?
Family medical history: Is there related or relevant information about the child’s family history, such as learning and physical disabilities?
Pregnancy and delivery: Were there any complications during the pregnancy, labor or delivery?
Infancy: Were there any health problems with the baby as a newborn?
Child’s health history: Have there been any relevant illnesses, conditions or incidents?
Daycare: who is the child’s primary caregiver?
Nutrition and eating habits: what is the child’s diet like? Does he have any oral habits such as pacifier use or biting?
Sleep problems: what is the child’s normal sleep pattern? Are there any sleep problems?
Motor development: Does the child use his hands to grasp and play with objects?
Social Skills: How does the child interact with others? Can you follow directions? How do you deal with traveling away from home?
Coping skills: how does the child deal with stress and anxiety? How does the child express her feelings?
Language/communication skills: How does the child communicate? How does he speak, read and sing?
Play: How does the child play with toys and other children?
Fears: Is the child fearless? Is he overly sensitive? Is he too afraid of the world?
Aggressive Behavior: Does the child exhibit aggressive behavior on a regular basis?
Relationships: How does the child interact with other family members, friends, or strangers?
Parents should come prepared to answer many questions in a developmental assessment. For the assessment to be successful, the parents must also be cooperative, even if the questioning line seems superfluous. The child’s observations should take place with multiple people in different contexts. The goal is not only to identify any developmental issues, but also to identify a child’s strengths and weaknesses. A successful and comprehensive developmental assessment should come to some conclusions about a child’s development and be the first step in forming a problem intervention program.
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