How likely is it a six-year-old with a developmental delay to catch up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

All I’m saying is that GDD, according to the medical literature, is a diagnosis for kids under the age of 5. If they haven’t caught up by then, the diagnosis changes to ID. This is not a rubric that is specific to my child. It is the general framework for the diagnoses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

Medical providers are not versed in special education law/policies, educational disabilities/labels, or how schools operate. Schools can “label” or “qualify” under developmental delay younger than age 7. It is a broad category that most children get it has nothing to do with the school label or eligibility category of ID or placement of ID. Very few children get labeled or placed as ID in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

All I’m saying is that GDD, according to the medical literature, is a diagnosis for kids under the age of 5. If they haven’t caught up by then, the diagnosis changes to ID. This is not a rubric that is specific to my child. It is the general framework for the diagnoses.

It doesn’t work that way. Getting an ID diagnosis is a big deal and it requires extensive testing and evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

All I’m saying is that GDD, according to the medical literature, is a diagnosis for kids under the age of 5. If they haven’t caught up by then, the diagnosis changes to ID. This is not a rubric that is specific to my child. It is the general framework for the diagnoses.

No. The term GDD in no way takes into account the extent of the delays or the reason. A profound GDD coupled with say a syndrome, sure. A mild GDD, like many kids with autism have, no.

[Anonymous]

My DS had the non-categorical global developmental delay and is catching up. He's in 4th grade and is on the percentile charts for testing now. We are seeing "low average" and "average" where we used to see "very low average" or "does not meet benchmark".

Although not autistic, his recommended placement in K was with self-contained Enhanced Autism classroom because of it's 4:1 teacher ratio and focus on language development. As he gained language skills, we increased time in the Gen Ed room. Now, he no longer is self contained. He is in the GedEd classroom and gets pulled daily for Reading and Math (as needed) for instruction in the non-cat Special Ed.

I don't think he would be catching up like this if he hadn't had the more intensive, self contained support early on. Maybe your school would consider this kind of approach.

[Anonymous]

Many here are projecting based off their own kids and it's hard to guess without this child being fully evaluated. To have an ID, you need to have both verbal and non-verbal IQ tests as well as other testing. It's not as simple as saying oh, they have a global delay to a ID.

Either way, this child needs more support both in and out of school. Its anyones guess if they will catch up. Some kids do, many don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

All I’m saying is that GDD, according to the medical literature, is a diagnosis for kids under the age of 5. If they haven’t caught up by then, the diagnosis changes to ID. This is not a rubric that is specific to my child. It is the general framework for the diagnoses.

It is nowhere near as black and white as this, or the GDD term would almost never be used. Medicine is not like law. Plenty of kids don’t catch up at 5 or ever but are not intellectually disabled. To be intellectually disabled you need an IQ of less than 70 and low adaptive skills. Getting such a diagnosis is an involved process. Nobody simply goes from being labeled as GDD to ID automatically when they turn 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

All I’m saying is that GDD, according to the medical literature, is a diagnosis for kids under the age of 5. If they haven’t caught up by then, the diagnosis changes to ID. This is not a rubric that is specific to my child. It is the general framework for the diagnoses.

It is nowhere near as black and white as this, or the GDD term would almost never be used. Medicine is not like law. Plenty of kids don’t catch up at 5 or ever but are not intellectually disabled. To be intellectually disabled you need an IQ of less than 70 and low adaptive skills. Getting such a diagnosis is an involved process. Nobody simply goes from being labeled as GDD to ID automatically when they turn 5.

PP. I know I am guilty of using GDD to describe what was going on early on and then not naming the updated diagnoses.

I'm the poster above with the 4th grader. So now that he is verbal and above 6 years of age, he is now diagnosed with mixed expressive/receptive language disorder. The significant change here was moving from delay to disorder. This indicates that he still has the issues although he's making steady progress. He could either catch up completely, although it may take longer than NT peers, or at some point progress will stop and we will know the extent of the disorder. Being in 4th, we are very much still dealing with pandemic learning loss; it is much harder for SN kiddos to bounce back and make up for lost time.

[Anonymous]

I know this is a place for the parents for most part but I’m someone with developmental delay and I’m 19yo. I didn’t get much support for it on average (I got it when I was 5-6 to learn to communicate and a year before I started college so I could get a “catch up”[I know it doesn’t sound perfect but I don’t know how to put it any better]). I know most cases aren’t like mine. My delay is mild and the gap is just about 5-6 years (apparently I think like a 14yo). But the most startling thing for me was that until last year NO ONE told me anything about it. Today I keep wondering if I could be better off if I had known earlier. Maybe I’d be able to get a part time job without having to get stared weirdly by the employer (or have that pointed out to me by someone else). Maybe I could understand that (theoretically) funny conversation amongst my roommates. Or maybe even be able to finish high school without being held back. But at the same time I don’t think I would have tried as hard to learn how to do the things I can today if I knew about it earlier. The constant expectation of being “normal” that hanged over my head was a powerful (not necessarily positive) motivator. I usually don’t even get close to what is expected but at the same time it’s something I’m always striving for. Sure, it does get frustrating when that happens (basically always) but at least I did my very best. All I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter if we “catch up” or not. People are still going to judge regardless. My parents basically made the decision to have me see that with my own eyes. I recognize that people have expectations, they react differently when they aren’t met, and I can very rarely meet them. I really believe that I can only be living on my own today because of it. I never “caught up” but I learned how to live without ever needing to “catch up”. Don’t worry about whether or not it’s possible (I don’t even know if it’s possible). Just try your best and show your son that he can try his best too. The road here hasn’t been pretty or easy but there are a lot of us that get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much time does she work with the special ed teacher? In what size groups? Does the special ed teacher have access to high quality, multisensory curricula?

Me again. I just saw that she gets 60 minutes a week of cognitive therapy -- does that refer to specialized instruction with the special ed teacher? She needs much more than that -- probably 120 minutes a day, to start.

You admit you don't know what cognitive therapy is, yet you somehow view yourself as being knowledgeable enough to determine the appropriate service time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kindergarten teacher here. I have a student this year who came in with an IEP from preschool under the category of developmental delay. She receives services in speech/language for expressive and receptive delays and cognitive services, with goals like identifying the letters in her name and counting to 10. Her speech goals are using the pronoun I, identifying nouns and verbs, and answering who and what questions.

This child is on track to meet her speech goals by her IEP meeting next month but has made no progress at all toward her academic/cognitive goals. The service providers do not seem concerned with the lack of progress and actually said that due to her delays the goals may be too challenging and she needs easier ones in her new IEP, and that we should not worry if she doesn’t appear to be learning much with the current level of support because she is at a three-year-old level developmentally.

I did try to advocate for more service minutes (she is only pulled out 30 min 3x a month for speech and 60 minutes weekly for cognitive).

I brought up that I am concerned about her being in school every day just watching other kids learn. I was told that she may catch up in the future because some kids with developmental delays do (although I haven’t seen this happen in all my years teaching kindergarten), but we shouldn’t sweat her lack of progress because she isn’t ready from a developmental standpoint. I also don’t see how not providing more intensive services or a more restrictive placement is going to help her catch up.

Does anyone have a similar child? I guess I am looking for insight on what to do differently or how to advocate for her. I have 25 students, several with other special needs and behavioral issues, so it is difficult for me to figure out how to work with her more in the gen ed classroom.

Thank you so much!

Where was the student last year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many thanks for your responses! To clarify, “cognitive minutes” are basically resource room minutes for reading and math support.

The girl’s parents are not in a position to get her private services outside school and are not savvy about the system and advocating for their daughter. I feel like she is being “swept under the rug” because she is not a behavior problem.

I will attempt again to push for more service minutes. After seeing what some other kids get, she is not getting enough resource room time or speech services. I am going to frame it as what does she need now to learn now because she is not making progress with the current level of support!

Didn't school start last week? How are you determining what progress she is making already? Did she get ESY? You'd be amazed by the change that can occur over the summer. When is her annual review and what program was she in before grade K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!

You’re thinking it’s some kind of concrete thing based on the diagnosis but the reality is that they’re telling you it looks like your child has an ID. Many kids with autism are delayed in more than two areas - speech, motor, social - so GDD - yet have high IQ and are not obviously ID. ID refers to IQ. Delays =\ ID.

All I’m saying is that GDD, according to the medical literature, is a diagnosis for kids under the age of 5. If they haven’t caught up by then, the diagnosis changes to ID. This is not a rubric that is specific to my child. It is the general framework for the diagnoses.

This absolutely does not apply to schools. You may be referring to something that is true of the medical model, but ID requires a certain IQ in addition to poor adaptive skills. That's the definition. All other educational codes are an option when the child ages out of the DD code.

It doesn’t work that way. Getting an ID diagnosis is a big deal and it requires extensive testing and evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many thanks for your responses! To clarify, “cognitive minutes” are basically resource room minutes for reading and math support.

The girl’s parents are not in a position to get her private services outside school and are not savvy about the system and advocating for their daughter. I feel like she is being “swept under the rug” because she is not a behavior problem.

I will attempt again to push for more service minutes. After seeing what some other kids get, she is not getting enough resource room time or speech services. I am going to frame it as what does she need now to learn now because she is not making progress with the current level of support!

Didn't school start last week? How are you determining what progress she is making already? Did she get ESY? You'd be amazed by the change that can occur over the summer. When is her annual review and what program was she in before grade K?

The original post was from January.