All About (Global) Development Delays

[WaWa]

Hi All


Can I ask what's the main difference between GDD & Autism?

My son has autism. I remembered last year when he was attending early intervention at a certain centre, we met another boy whose parents told me he has GDD. However, his parents told me they felt he could have autism but because the KKH doctor \"labelled\" him as having GDD, she could not start waitlisting her son at any of those EIPIC meant for Autistic children. The mother asked me how I \"managed to waitlist my son at AAS\" and I told her \"well, the KKH doctor arranged it and I guess it was possible for my son to start waitlist cos he was diagnosed as having Autism\".

Sadly, I have lost touched with the mother.

And it sets me thinking what if the boy was Autistic but was not diagnosed as such and \"lost an opportunity to have a go at those EIPIC catered to Autism\".

Parents of GDD children - has any of your children been diagnosed as having GDD only to realise at a later stage that he is actually Autistic (cos i have read that the traits are pretty similar).

As a parent of an Autistic boy, I do feel \"sorry\" if similarly autistic children \"missed their opportunity\" to enter appropriate special school to help them develop.

And how to tell apart GDD and Autism?

Thanks for your inputs And may the FORCE be with us, parents of special needs children

[jnlmommy]

Dear WaWa


Development is broadly grouped into Motor, Language, Adaptive/Cognitive and Personal/Social. Developmetal Delay is given as a diagnosis when the child does not achieve milestones (of one area) by expected age. Global developmental delay is in 2 or more areas.

Autism is a more complicated disorder to diagnose.

Some children with autism will also have delays in more than one area. Most will have delays in personal/social or language. There are children with autism with no cognitive problems.

Hope that helps

[little doggie]

Juz to update i have enrolled my son to Fei yue. Going to have the assessment this month year. Anyone have been to the assessment before? Can share what do expect?


His NUH PT was stopped temporary since mid August and lucky i managed to get appts for him ard early oct. Think PT is really shortage in Singapore!

He is still babbling and not calling mama or papa.

[mummy always]

Hi, just wondering whether there is a discussion on developmental delay in children. I don’t think my son is autistic, and he does not seem to fit into the category of dyslexia as well


He is turning 5 this year, but has just started being familiar with the alphabets despite having been in school for 2+ years (since he was 3). In fact, he only learnt the alphabets/phonics well after I let him watch leapfrog videos (they are excellent, i can therefore conclude).

Till now, he is still struggling to learn to sound-out words (i just taught him "he", and had much difficulties teaching him things like "up", "of"). Needless to say, Chinese is worse for him. Thankfully at Berries he is able to read the stories, mostly through memorising, but his learning in recognising words is very slow. I think he can recognise no more than 10 characters, and i am not sure if he can even recognise his own name.

He is also not able to speak very fluently. He spoke very late, and till now, is unable to express himself in complicated situations (i.e. he can say things like "may i play with this pls", or "i like to go to school", but unable to express new situations e.g. if he wants to tell a story). He is unable to express concepts like last night, or last time. He just is able to say yesterday (past) and tomorrow (future). I suspect that he has expressive language diability/disorder.

By the way, he is also very small in size (below 3 percentile in height), so coupled with his language ability, most people think he is three years old. He is ok socially and in terms of motor skills though.

I have gotten him an appointment for assessment at KKH but that’s in May. Meanwhile, being a kiasuparent, I just want to know if anyone of you have any experience/stories to share about children with developmental delay - suspected or otherwise. Is there an option for them to start school a year late?

Thanks

[LJHLJH]

Hi mummyalways,

Your boy sounds so much like mine. He is a year older and is suspected of language impairment. And it wasn’t easy guessing what he is delayed in. We had to go by elimination as his delay signs were not very clear except for speech. We didn’t know if it was autism, ADHD, dyslexia that was preventing him from talking. But now, with SLT, we have more or less narrowed down to language delay. People also think that my boy is younger than he actually is due to his communication problem.

Having you started on speech therapy or getting him assessed for any developmental delay? We started off with KK too, and still going there for appts, but have supplemented with private SLT sessions as KK’s appts are packed, far and few which will delay his progress.

Wrt to defering P1, has his current preschool teachers said anything to you? Becoz mine kept telling me that my boy is not ready for P1 etc etc. which stressed me out. A year before he starts P1, KK will conduct a school readiness assessment to ascertain this. If he’s not ready, you can get a letter from KK to defer P1 enrollment. The decision is ultimately yours. And this is the difficult decision I will have to make soon as he’s due for P1 next year (2012).

For now, I think early intervention is best to find out what areas he is delayed in and work on it with him to see how he can progress and overcome it.

[IJJ]

LJHLJH:

For now, I think early intervention is best to find out what areas he is delayed in and work on it with him to see how he can progress and overcome it.

Agree. I am always for early interventions.

[mummy always]

Thks ljhljh for ur story. Wats slt? I enjoy my boy. I really wish there is a way he can be seen as a 3 yr old, that will be lovely. I am not in a hurry for him to grow up…

[LJHLJH]

mummy always:

Thks ljhljh for ur story. Wats slt? I enjoy my boy. I really wish there is a way he can be seen as a 3 yr old, that will be lovely. I am not in a hurry for him to grow up....

Your're welcome. SLT=speech & language therapy.
I wrote in another thread that I was really upset that my boy's preschool mates were asking why he talks funny, and inside me, I wished he could devt his speech normally. And as IJJ had rightly advice, we need to accept and love them for who they are. I think we just have to educate those around our kids that not all kids are alike, and every child is different and special in his own way. So if he's seen as 2 or 3yr old, or in my case, my 5+yr old is seen as a 4 yr old with a 2 yr old language ability... so be it. Becoz I know he's one of the sweetest and sensitive 'whatever age' boy in his class.

[mummy always]

Tks Ljhljh. I know what you mean. I feel worst when I wonder if I did anything wrong... Do share how ur boy does. We will celebrate every success!

[DesertWind]

Hi mummy always & LJHLJH,


I am glad both of you \"found\" each other. I read both your postings before and actually I got confused thought both of you were the same person since the problems sound similar!

All the best!
:celebrate: