The Global Developmental Delay (GDD) belongs to
neurodevelopmental diagnosis where individuals, usually in infants at
birth until early childhood years, take longer or are unable to meet or
perform expected developmental milestones in several areas of intellectual
functioning, compared to developing peers. They typically present as
younger or behind.
These areas include:
Gross motor skills or locomotion (sitting up, rolling over, crawling,
walking)
Vision and fine motor skills (hand-eye coordination)
Communication (use of facial muscles, lips, tongue; hearing and
language)
Cognitive ability (understand and retain information; problem-solving
skills)
Personal/Social/Emotional skills (interpret social cues and social
awareness, respons appropriately to others, gain personal independence
and self-care skills, and interact and play with their same-aged peers)
What are the signs and symptoms of GDD?
A child must not be older than 5 years old, and manifests regression in
otherwise expected developmental milestones, particularly in intellectual
functioning. At least 2 delays must also be observed in developmental
domains, such as gross and fine motor, speech and language, personal and
social, and activities of daily living.
GDD could also be with the diagnosis of...
"You may not have heard about GDD but do these ring a bell?"
Down syndrome if it affects the motor,
cognitive, linguistic and personal-social skills
Cerebral palsy if the child suffered from
brain damage during or right after birth
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) if it
specifically affects difficulty in social and communication skills
