Hey guys, is the global development delay has something to do with LD?
Re: LD VS GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT DELAY
What the terms mean in scientific definitions and how they get ud=sed in practice are oftne two different things.
Global developmental delay means global, ie all over. This would mean the child is delayed in all areas and this is the new politically correct term for mental retardation.
Multiple developmental delays means the child is delayed in several areas — but may be OK in others. For example the child might be delayed in speech and language and physical coordination, but could be doing Ok in non-verbal reasoning.
LD implies delays or difficulties in certain *specific* areas, usually school subjects such as reading or math, OR something basic to learning school subjects such as language; part of the definition of LD is that outside of a few specific weaknesses, the child is generally of *normal or above normal intelligence*. (The use of LD as a euphemism for slow learning is confusing, and is a problem to all the bright LD students out there who find themselves being put down and discriminated against.)
Global developmental delay is therefore *not* LD. Multiple developmental delay may or may not be LD, depending on what the problems are and how severe.
The term developmental delay is used with younger children and also in a medical setting. The term LD applies more specifically to school issues.
No, the idea of waiting until after Grade 2 to diagnose and treat LD is outdated and is a real problem. Early intervention is very important. It is very much easier to help a five-year-old who has not yet developed bad habits and negative emotional reactions than it is to help an eight-year-old with three years of failure and frustration as a beginning to education.
If you don’t get diagnosis until later you deal with what you have. But if you see problems earlier it is important to take action as soon as possible; a lot of later problems can be avoided.
All I can do is give you me perspective. My now 11yo son was diagnosed with multiple developmental delays in Kindergarten. Global was never used. When DS turned 8yo his developmental delays magically disappeared (insert sarcasm) and he became LD.
As a lay person it’s my understanding that LD’s can’t be accurately diagnosed until the child is near the end of 2nd grade. My personal experience is that it wasn’t really until 5th grade that my son was diagnosed with multiple LDs.
It seems that delays are used with younger children and LD is used with older children.
HTH