Childhood Development Issues

While some developmental delays may be evident when your child is young, others may not be detected until they attend preschool. These delays can appear as learning challenges, such as problems reading, doing math, or following directions, while others are behavioral issues and include having trouble paying attention and sitting still.

Symptoms & signs of childhood developmental concerns

• Speech, vision, and movement problems
• Inability to follow directions
• Lack of attention span beyond what is normal for their age group
• Problems with reading, reading comprehension, or other similar subjects
• Issues with sitting still
• Inability to get along with peers

There are a number of different diagnoses that can cause learning challenges and intellectual issues. These include dyslexia, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders. However, there can be other causes as well.

When is it time to get help?

If you have concerns about your child’s development, it’s important to act early. Many conditions will improve with early intervention and an assessment is the first place to start. It’s not uncommon for a teacher or health care professional to notice possible delays, as they have extensive experience working with children.

Assessment methods for developmental concerns

Diagnoses of developmental disorders commonly involves the combination of understanding components of each of:

• Psycho-educational assessments
• Behavioral assessments
• Academic assessments
• Neuropsychological assessments

This may even include specific functional assessments for specific issues such as EQ or attention issues, not to mention the personality assessment components that are frequently identified as concerns.

Currently, Insight Psychological has the capacity to assess and diagnose disorders including:

• Cognitive disabilities
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Learning disorders
• Expressive and receptive language disorders
• Pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) that are not always able to be specifically diagnosed
• Other communication/social disorders.

Treatment methods for developmental concerns

The type of treatment method will depend on the kind of developmental concern in which your child has been assessed, and the mental health effects of the disorder. Some common treatment methods that have been generally effective in dealing with childhood developmental issues include:

• Emotionally Focused Therapy is based on observations and experience. It looks at emotions and emotional intelligence, which helps support stronger and more secure relationships by helping better understand how our actions impact others, and how our emotions drive our interaction.
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach to treatment that focuses on how people’s thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence their behaviour and how they perceive themselves.
• Behavioural Therapy tends to view human beings and behaviour with the assumption that humans are a product of their sociocultural conditioning and environment, looking at the current problems and the factors influencing them and emphasizes behaviour changes more than the underlying unconscious processes.
• Family Systems Therapy looks at the family as one emotional unit. This therapeutic approach looks at the relationships within the family and the structure as a whole.
• Our partners, at Vision by Design specialize in the testing that is required to ensure you or your child has the visual skills required for good academic success.  If deficiencies are found activities can be performed to improve these skills, which often translates into better school performance, less frustration and improved attention.

Your therapist will work with you and your child to explore the best treatment method for your child’s disorder and unique personality and circumstances.

What will my child get out of treatment with Insight Psychological?

At Insight Psychological, we have the most up-to-date psychological tests to explore, understand, identify, and sometimes even diagnose many of the developmental disorders experienced by children (and adults). A psychological assessment is a critical tool in diagnosing developmental disorders. Once a comprehensive evaluation is done to determine the type of disorder, a working therapeutic plan can be put into place.  Please contact us to learn more.