The following are the most commonly available types of therapeutic managements of children with developmental delays:
Physical therapy– This focuses on motor development. Motor control refers to the actions your baby can do with his muscles. These include milestones like neck control, sitting, standing and walking etc. Appropriate physical therapy may assist a baby with developmental delays in achieving these milestones. Before birth and in the first months of life, physical development remains the underlying foundation for all future progress. Babies learn through interaction with their environment. An infant’s ability to explore his or her surroundings, reach and grasp toys, turn his or her head while watching a moving object, roll over and crawl are all dependent upon gross as well as fine motor development.
Speech and language therapy– This is a critical component of early intervention. Even before babies come up with their first word, there are many pre-speech and pre-language skills that they must acquire before they can learn to form words. These include the ability to imitate and echo sounds; turn taking skills (learned through games like “peek-a-boo”); visual skills (looking at the speaker and objects); auditory skills (listening to music, speech, or speech sounds for lengthening periods of time); tactile skills (learning about touch, exploring objects in the mouth); oral motor skills (using the tongue, moving the lips); and cognitive skills (understanding object permanence and cause and effect relationships).A speech and language therapist can help with these and other skills.
Occupational therapy– This helps children develop and master skills for independence. Occupational therapy can help with abilities such as opening and closing things, picking up and releasing toys of various sizes and shapes, stacking and building, manipulating knobs and buttons, experimenting with crayons etc. Therapists also help children learn to feed and dress themselves and teach them skills for playing and interacting with other children.
Special Education – Special education(also known as Special needs education,) is the practice of educating students with special needs in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Each child with special needs should ideally receive instruction that is specially designed:
- To meet his or her unique needs (that result from having a disability); and
- Learning in the general education curriculum. This planned process involves systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and their community, than may be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education