Child Development & Training

Developmental Disorders

Common developmental problems include:

Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders generally have the following problems:

Difficulty in social interaction: failure to notice the presence of other, understand others’ needs and feelings, and develop peer relationships; lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with others; lack of social reciprocity
Difficulty in communication: lack of body language, weak in verbal comprehension and expression, with echolalic speech
Restricted patterns of interest, resistance to change; repetitive, self-stimulating or rigid behaviors
Weak in identifying essential details, seeing relationships and generalizing the skills
Weak concentration and self-control, easy to lose temper
Weak self-care and social adaptation ability

Children with Asperger Syndrome generally have the following problems:

Difficulty in social interaction; insensitivity in interpersonal relationship; weak in understanding the perspective of others and their feelings; pursuing a conversational topic regardless of others’ reactions; preferring solitary activities or lacking of adequate social skills
Rigid behaviors, resistance to change and reluctance to accept new things; inflexible adherence to rules
Stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest,
Difficulty in communication, failure to express themselves effectively
Weak motor-coordination
Weak attention
Weak organization skill, inflexibility in thinking; difficulty to predict consequence

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder generally have the following problems:

Inattentiveness, easily distracted and hard to follow through on instructions; often forget and lose belongings
Impulsivity: have difficulty in taking turns; often interrupt others’ speech
Hyperactivity: fail to seat quietly, often fidget and talk excessively
Weak planning and organization ability
Easily to have social or behavioral problems
Low self-image and self-esteem

Children with physical disability generally have the following problems:

If caused by damages to muscular and nervous systems, may have primitive reflexes arising from hyper-tonic muscles and hypo-tonic muscles; abnormal motor pattern associated with the delay in gross motor and fine motor development; sensory disturbance and developmental coordination disorders.
If caused by congenital abnormities, may have physical deformities or paralysis of limb
If caused by genetic diseases, may have muscular dystrophy and more severe functional disorders
Self-care and social adaptation problems
Lack of self-confidence and tend to be passive

Children with language delay generally have the following problems:

Speech is not clear or comprehensible
Have limited vocabulary and fail to express themselves clearly
Failure to understand abstract expressions, complex sentence structures, unfamiliar concepts, etc.
Speech content is out of the context and improper use of words
Simple or uncommon sentence structures: mix, omit or distort phrases in sentences

Children with global developmental delay generally have the following problems:

Lag behind peers of the same age in terms of development or quality in many areas, e.g. slower development in gross and fine motor, hypo-tonic muscles, language delay, weaker sensory reception and recognition ability.
Weaker ability to learn and understand abstract concepts or reason logically
Weaker concentration and memory
Weaker self-care skills, e.g. feeding, dressing and washing themselves
Weaker self-care ability and easily lose control of their temper

Children with specific learning difficulties generally have the following problems:

Weaker concentration and memory
Difficulty in word recognition, spelling, pronunciation, and article comprehension
Difficulty in gross and fine motor coordination, weaker ability in the control of strength, slow in writing and illegible hand-writing
Weakness in visual space recognition, frequent errors in writing or missing strokes, components of characters are out of proportion, uneven distance between words
Weakness in organization of spoken sentences, and comprehension of complex sentences and instructions
Lack of self-confidence and exhibition of behavioral problems

Below are the emotional and behavioral problems children may encounter:

Often lose control of their temper and in tears; exhibition of damaging or offensive behaviors
Excessive anxiety or fear
Have nightmares or sleeping disturbance
Social difficulty, fear of and resistance to interacting with strangers
Recurring somatic complaints, such as headaches, stomach aches, vomiting, which are not fully explained by a known general medical condition
Regressive behaviors, e.g. enuresis
Repetitive and persistent oppositional or hostile behaviors, e.g. often arguing with adults, refusing to follow instructions, blaming others for his mistakes

For further information, please go to http://childrehab.heephong.org/