Delayed mental and psycho-speech development

A child's development has certain age norms.

In the 1st year of life, assessment is based on the rate of acquisition of motor skills – at 1 month the child begins to hold their head up and follows objects. At 4–5 months they roll over, at 6 months they sit up, and by 1 year a healthy child takes their first steps.

Mental development is assessed by the degree of sociability and volume of speech production.

At 6 months the child begins to coo, respond to their name, later babbling appears, by 1 year the child says up to 5 simple words, makes eye contact, and repeats simple gestures – "pat-a-cake," "bye-bye," etc.

Delayed acquisition of motor and psychoverbal skills indicates a disorder of the body's functioning and requires timely identification and elimination of the causes of the delay.

Often, with mild impairments, the delay can be overcome using massage and physical therapy for motor delay, and sessions with a defectologist, teacher, and speech therapist for speech delay. However, if the delay is severe, these methods will be insufficient; in such cases, a detailed diagnostic assessment of the body's metabolic and immunological status is necessary.

There are many causes of developmental delay, including consequences of perinatal hypoxia, hormonal insufficiency, deficiencies of minerals and amino acids, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and many other causes.

Previously, all brain dysfunctions were associated with the presence of cerebrovascular pathology in the child, so drugs that improve brain metabolism were actively prescribed. They may have a stimulating effect, but can often cause overexcitation and even the development of seizure syndrome.

Similar effects may be observed with the use of Tomatis, BAC, and other methods of non-pharmacological brain stimulation.

To determine the treatment strategy for a child's recovery, it is first necessary to determine which type of delay is dominant. If the child has exclusively speech developmental delay, it is often associated with pedagogical neglect, meaning the child is in a state of overprotection and has no motivation for speech activity, communicating through gestures and intonations. If the child is placed in an environment where they are no longer understood, a need for communication arises and they quickly build up their vocabulary.

A more complex situation is when the child has both mental and speech delay. This indicates the need for a comprehensive examination of the child. It is important to understand which type of delay is present – regressive or tempo.

In the regressive type, the child develops according to age norms up to a certain point, then a regression of already formed skills occurs, or the child loses already acquired vocabulary. Sometimes such regressions are recurrent. In this case, the key to successful recovery is identifying the cause of the regressions and eliminating it. This is often the result of internal intoxication or a chronic inflammatory process.

In tempo delay, the child acquires skills, but very slowly. Sessions with teachers have little effect; in this case, pharmaceutical support is also needed, which is provided by a doctor.

Thus, there are many causes of psychoverbal developmental delay; during a consultation with a doctor, it is necessary to identify the main one and begin working with it correctly.