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Early Detection of Developmental Problems by Parents
Last modified: 2018-09-09
Abstract
Work done by the Commonwealth Association for Health and Disability (COMHAD) together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the past 25 years has clearly demonstrated that normal children all over the world achieve developmental milestones in a unified step-up manner.
Works carried out by COMHAD in the early 1990s have shown that many developmental milestones follow a universal pattern of development in children in several continents.
We looked at milestones such as rolling, crawling, sitting, walking, running, etc (gross motor development) and fine motor developmental milestones, such as reaching out for an object, pincer grasp, waving, drawing etc. We looked at early and continuing speech and language development, play skills development. We termed these Universal Milestones of Development. The developmental testing studies were carried out done in India, Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia, Nairobi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ghana.
Achieving certain milestones eg eating with a spoon, using a knife and fork, or using chopsticks had a slightly different developmental timescale (and we called them Culture Appropriate Milestones of Development, but the differences were minimal)..
The WHO growth charts are incorporated. The Lingam Child Development Chart, modified in 2015 as Observation of Achievement Chart is now incorporated in the PCHR platform. This will enable parents and carers to check their child’s development. They can see how their child is developing. This will enable parents to request early intervention as necessary.
Parents can monitor their child’s developmental progress by themselves using the OBSERVATION OF ACHIVEMENT CHART.
Works carried out by COMHAD in the early 1990s have shown that many developmental milestones follow a universal pattern of development in children in several continents.
We looked at milestones such as rolling, crawling, sitting, walking, running, etc (gross motor development) and fine motor developmental milestones, such as reaching out for an object, pincer grasp, waving, drawing etc. We looked at early and continuing speech and language development, play skills development. We termed these Universal Milestones of Development. The developmental testing studies were carried out done in India, Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia, Nairobi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ghana.
Achieving certain milestones eg eating with a spoon, using a knife and fork, or using chopsticks had a slightly different developmental timescale (and we called them Culture Appropriate Milestones of Development, but the differences were minimal)..
The WHO growth charts are incorporated. The Lingam Child Development Chart, modified in 2015 as Observation of Achievement Chart is now incorporated in the PCHR platform. This will enable parents and carers to check their child’s development. They can see how their child is developing. This will enable parents to request early intervention as necessary.
Parents can monitor their child’s developmental progress by themselves using the OBSERVATION OF ACHIVEMENT CHART.
Keywords
early detection of disabilities
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