Al Ain Oasis Hospital Abu Dhabi - Early Childhood Development UAE

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Early Childhood Development

How to Spot Developmental or Sensory Processing Difficulties in Children
Maria du Plessis, Occupational Therapist

As an occupational therapist for the past 12 years, I have had many families come to me with reluctant, but genuine concern for the early growth and development of their children. It is important for parents and others in the community that frequently work with children, to understand that signs of learning difficulties can show themselves in different ways. In many cases the children I work with do not have obvious or outward signs of any disability. They can, on the contrary, be very intelligent and sometimes even aware that they have a problem with an aspect of their social behavior or learning abilities. They may also struggle to express this verbally. In any case, it is important for those who work closely with children to know that ‘intervening' early on can make a significant difference to a child's ability to learn.

Recently, a concerned parent came to me after noticing that her son was having difficulty with reading, writing and coordination. She had asked their family doctor if there was anything that he was concerned about in the child's physical development and there was nothing. After some additional research and reading about the topic of early childhood development, the mother decided that it would be beneficial to take her son to an educational psychologist. Although the testing was very costly, she hoped that this would reveal something about why her child was having difficulties. When this testing was finished they came away with a few techniques that had proven to be helpful for other children experiencing problems, but no diagnosis or effective forms of treatment.

This story is not uncommon, parents can easily become frustrated with a situation where their child is obviously struggling with tasks that they should be capable of, but there is no clear physical or medical evidence why these struggles are occurring. My hope is that these parents are able to identify some of the less obvious signs that their child may be sending them, so that they can decide if Occupational Therapy would be beneficial. It is these concerned and involved parents that often see the most promising results from Occupational Therapy.

Some of the aforementioned symptoms that children who may experience learning difficulties might have include: walking, crawling or talking later than expected, clumsy or poor sense of balance, hyperactive or aggressive behavior. Also, some other common denominators in these childrens' medical histories include; common or persistent ear, nose or throat infections, high fever, premature or underweight birth.

If you are concerned about the development of your child, or a child that you know, please feel free to contact me for additional information about this topic. You can reach me at my Oasis Hospital office at +971 3 701 4108.

This article contains information that parents, child caregivers, nursery school employees, educators and other family members may find helpful if they know children who are struggling in school or other social environments.

The links below detail the milestones of a child's development. These checklists are from the Queensland Health website. Each link below will open into a new PDF window.