Describes the development in a child who is slower than the accepted norms. For example, walking independently is usually achieved by most infants by 18 months of age and the acquisition of walking after that time would be described as delayed, although it might not necessarily be an indication of something wrong with the child. The same label is applied to children who cannot construct simple grammatical sentences by 3 years-of-age. In the States, it is common to find a definition of developmental delay as denoting delays in a child of less than 5 years-old who is delayed in development in one or more of the following areas: communication, self-help, social-emotional behaviour, motor abilities, and sensory or cognitive abilities (usually with reference to being 1.5 to 2 standard deviations below the age-related norms for such abilities). Identifying developmental delays forms an important part of a diagnostic work-up in determining whether ‚aadelay‚aa is a sign of a developmental disorder or disability. The all-encompassing term ‘pervasive developmental delay‘ is sometimes used as a synonym for autism, which seems quite inappropriate as autistic children can have both strengths and weaknesses across different aspects of their development.
See Autism, Developmental disorders, Developmental screening, Diagnosis (or diacrisis), Learning disability, Motor milestone, Walking