Neurodevelopmental

Developmental milestones refer to the skills most children grasp by a certain age. While all children develop differently, there are certain skills like taking a first step or saying a first word that characterize typical childhood development. Developmental milestones can be broken down into numerous components, many of which fall into five categories: physical growth, cognitive development, emotional and social development, language development, and sensory and motor development. If you are worried that your child is behind in any of these areas, it may be worthwhile to schedule a consultation with a child psychologist.

Cognitive skills refer to how we learn, pay attention, remember, understand, synthesize, and apply information. In early childhood, cognitive skills could look like making connections between words and images. Asking questions, becoming inquisitive, gaining a fund of acquired knowledge, and problem-solving are all signs of healthy cognition. Delayed cognition may present as weaknesses with language, academic skills development, independence, and understanding certain concepts.

The ability to communicate verbally is imperative for all individuals and is something that parents look out for during early childhood development. Speech skills development and oral motor skills are important for articulation and are considered expressive language. Receptive language skills indicate how well a child can encode, comprehend, and process what is heard. Expressive language skills show how well a child can retrieve words, communicate in functional speech, and organize ideas on demand. Language skills help kids have meaningful interactions, form friendships, and make connections with others in their lives. The first several years of a child’s life are critical for developing language skills.

Motor skills are grouped into two categories: fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills are the things we do with our hands, wrists, and fingers. Fine motor skills underlie handwriting and fluency with finger movements such as buttoning, zipping, playing with small toys, and writing. As children grow, gross motor skills and strength start to develop. These larger movements include standing, walking, running, and jumping and organizing visual motor coordination for active movements.

The speed at which it takes someone to complete a mental task is known as processing speed. Related to cognition, processing speed requires the person to understand the task at hand and then execute it properly. It draws on information recall from both long and short-term memory, as well as visual, auditory, and verbal processing. Information processing is a foundational cognitive skill and children who show slow processing speed need more time to complete tasks or respond.

Visual perception enables people to make sense of and comprehend what they’re seeing. Visual perceptual skills include visual discrimination, scanning and tracking of information on a page, the ability to grasp concepts from visual details, the ability to remember things seen, and the ability to interpret mearning in visual imagery.

Information recall is the hallmark of memory skills. This group of psychological processes includes acquiring, storing, retaining, and retrieving information for later use. There are a variety of factors that could contribute to memory difficulties in children. Understanding a child's ability to retain information and their ability to recall and recognize information helps understand the strength of their memory skills. Children can be evaluated for verbal as well as visual memory skills. When children struggle with one or more parts of memory, factors such as sleep deficiency, stress, ADHD, mood and anxiety, and cognitive factors need to be considered.