The following is written from a lecture given by Mary Mountstephen at Nikkei Education Centre about identifying developmental delay and dyslexia. Have you ever said these comments about a child before: He’s just a lazy boy or she’s just a lazy girl. He is stupid or she is stupid. He is naughty or she is naughty. He just can’t sit still or she just can’t sit still. The child kept on saying “I can’t,” but the teacher or parents would reply, “You can do it, but you won’t.” What is really behind these “lazy, stupid, naughty” children? What is making the child say, “I can’t” when it comes to something you know that the child should be able to do? Developmental delay is a neuro development delay. It is when a child is not reaching developmental milestones at the time it is suppose to occur. The child could be a late crawler, a late walker or a late talker etc. It is like immaturity in a way, which the brain develops, but it doesn’t imply brain damage. The cause of developmental delay has many factors. It could be trauma or stress during pregnancy and birthing process or the abuse or usage of alcohol, drugs and smoking during pregnancy. The child could be born premature or late birth. The child came down with an illness or serious accident or genetics would also come into play. Sometimes there would be no known concrete causes that may lead to developmental delay. An indicator from the first 3 years of life is very important. If parents can catch their child’s developmental delay early and get early intervention help, the child will most likely overcome some of those challenges. Crawling would be the first indicator. Why skipping crawling may not be a good sign? Crawling helps a child built up arms and legs muscles, develop vision in hand-eye coordination, and be aware of spatial relation of environment and self-awareness. Crawling, sitting, standing and walking are called gross motor skills. Late walking is the next indicator. Then fine motor skills such has using the hands to eat would be another indicator if a child is able to self feed and pick up food with fingers. Then talking which is a language skill includes communicating and understanding. After that are cognitive and social skills. Cognitive skills are thinking skills, which includes learning, understanding, problem solving, reasoning and remembering. Social skills are interactions and relationships with peers, family, friends, teachers and others. And it is also the ability to cooperate from responding to outside environments and emotions. In a primary classroom, teachers should be on the watch for signs of: Poor posture – a child that would sit sloppy, a child that would prop his head with his hands just to keep the head up, when sitting on the carpet for circle time the child will sit in a W position with his legs rather than crossed legs Handwriting – poor forming letters, sloping letters, inconsistency in letter sizes and spacing of letters or words, very untidy Emotion – overly sensitive, shouts out, get upset easily, the child usually acts much younger than their age Attention – poor concentration, wiggles and fidgets, forgets instructions Students with developmental delay tend to be messy eaters, doesn’t enjoy sports, muddle words when talking and have a hard time finding words.  They always confuse right and left. They are very bright in verbal skills, but slow to take in reading and writing. They are prone to having ear infection and/or glue ear. How does all these link to dyslexia? Dyslexia is the most common specific learning difficulties and it is a hidden one that often encompasses the skills in fluency of words that comes with reading, writing and spelling. A child with dyslexia has an average intelligent. Dyslexia crosses ability levels not only with aspect of language, but math as well. For example mental calculation would be very difficult for a dyslexic to master. Personal organization would be a mess. Dyslexic students are the ones that have their book bags filled with papers rather than color coordinated folders. Concentration would be difficult for a dyslexic student because of weak working memory and slow processing speed. A teacher reciting a list for students to write down would be a difficult task for a dyslexic. When the teacher said the third item, a dyslexic student would have only written down the first item and not heard about the second or the third. According to the University of Hong Kong 2008 research, 7 to 9 % of children in Hong Kong and up to 17% worldwide are affected by developmental dyslexia. http://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_5758.html What is the best way to learn? The best practice is multisensory learning or active learning. You hear, you see, you do – which are auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Every child has a different way of learning and any one of the modes would have strength and weakness that is why it is best to combine all three modes to learn. What can parents and teachers do to help? First, you have to identify the needs of the child then work together to create an IEP or individual education plan for the child. You have to be consistent in teaching at home and at school. Give the child a little more time to answer a question. Incorporate a rich physical environment for learning at home or at school. Exercises such as visual training and visual tracking or word patterns recognizing by saying sounds and drawing letters on the arms are very effective. Frequent breaks should be given to students for every 20 minutes of concentrated learning. Always call out the positive and not the negative. Try to minimize writing and up the physical activities. Dyslexia is not a barrier to success. Mary Mountstephen MA (SEN) is a child development specialist, educator and trainer who works with teachers, parents, schools and others in U.K. and also internationally. She was also a former head teacher who worked in mainstream, special and independent schools. She is a well-versed person to talk to about children developmental delay and especially in dyslexia, which is under the umbrella of specific learning difficulties along with dyspraxia and ADHD.