# 17 month old developmental delays- advice please!!



## [email protected]

Hi,

I'm a mummy to an (almost) 1 and a half year old daughter in Australia. She isn't walking yet due to problems with her legs- her left foot is 'tip toed' and her right foot is turned outwards. I've been to the children's physic and all they did was give me stretches to do for her left leg to stretch the calf muscle as they thought it was too tight that's why she's tip toed. It's not making any difference, should they have done more tests??

Also , her development- she has always hit her other milestones really early in the first year, her first words, teeth, crawling, laughing, cruising etc but now that she's 1 and a half years old I was expecting her to be more mentally developed and I'm starting to worry. She says about 5 real words- mum, dad, Bub, yeah, hi and 'hi dad' and makes a lot of 'coos' and sounds like oooh, wee, yee and a lot of baby babble. Every single day I encourage her to say new words, I sing, rhyme, repeat every word, point to things, talk slowly, tell her everything I'm doing, and do things to make her copy me but she doesn't copy anything I say or do like words or noises! 

She doesn't clap, but can band her hands on a surface like a drum,
She used to wave, like an open and close hand wave (not side to side wave) and she understood that but hasn't done it recently,
She sometimes knows her name but when I try to get her attention by saying her name she always ignores me and doesn't turn around. 
I did just teach her how to use a fork and a cup though, she has good hand skills except for clapping? 

Should I be worried about these things?? I want to take her to another doctor but I'm worried I'm failing as a parent. My fianc? works in Africa and I'm in Australia for 6 weeks at a time raising her and doing her physio exercises as well as trying to teach her new things by myself and I try my hardest to encourage and support her development every day so I don't know what else to do 

Any advice??


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## Linda on the move

I'm so sorry that you are going through this. It sounds like your mom instincts are all kicking in and saying that something is off in your DDs development. I agree with your that it sounds like something is off. Of the things you list, the lack of walking at 17 months due at least in part to issues that you can see is very concerning, as is the lack of copying actions such as waving. The speech development doesn't worry me as much because there is a HUGE range of what is "typical" development in area of speech, and it is possible that her speech is in the lower end of "typical" range but that it will eventually come along on its own.

I don't know how the system works in Australia for evaluating and providing intervention services to toddlers. If you were in the US, I would make specific recommendations about who to call and what to do. Even though the US doesn't have socialized health care, we do have systems in every state to provide free evaluations and intervention services to children with development challenges. I suspect that Australia, as a country that has better social support overall, has something similar. Whatever that system is, I think that you should try to get tied into it and so that they can help figure out what is going on with her and what will help. For starters, has she had a hearing evaluation? Not turning towards her name causes me to wonder what is going on with her hearing, if she has chronic fluid in her ears, etc.

Also, even though the stretches they showed you do not seem to be helping immediately, I would continue to do them faithfully.

My last piece of advice will be hard to follow. I'm the mother a child with special needs, who is no longer a child but is now a young adult. My advice is to* enjoy every precious day with your daughter*. Take pictures of her and savor the experience of watching her grow up. Do get services, do all the homework therapist tell you to do, but also just play and enjoy her and enjoy watching her grow up. It is possible that your DD has some mild challenges and needs a little intervention and she will outgrow her challenges. It is possible that, like me, this is a longer term situation. It is impossible right now to know. Either way, she is still your sweet baby, and it is still possible to find the sweetness is being her mother. Finding the way to address the challenges without letting the challenges take over life isn't easy, but it is possible. For me, part of the journey of being a mom to a child with special needs was making peace with not knowing what the future holds, but enjoying the present anyway.


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## katelove

I agree. I think the walking difficulties and not responding need to be further assessed. 

I am also in Australia and I work in health care. I would suggest you start with your GP. I would request a referral to a different paed as you weren't happy with the last one. A developmental paed if there is such a beast in your area. 

If you wanted to, you could also self-refer to audiology but you may have to pay for all or some it (do you have private health insurance?) yourself. Alternatively you could ring your local community health centre and ask if you can self-refer. If not, your GP can do it. It will be free there. 

You aren't failing as a parent. You're doing a great job supporting and advocating for your daughter. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Ratchet

My DD is 18 months so I'm thinking a lot about milestones lately. My DD has had hearing testing done a few times, screening due to being a preemie, so I know she hears okay- but she is often so focused that she doesn't listen to me call her, and sometimes seems to have a hard time telling where im standing if I speak to her- like when I first pick her up from daycare. But I think that's more about focus and filtering. But a hearing test isn't a bad idea. 

Handling a fork etc is a really good test of a lot of skills, IMO. And sometimes kids do a lot of something new (like waving) then stop for a while when they learn something else that's new. 

The leg stuff does sound like it warrants more evaluation. Like maybe neurology? Certainly worth a dedicated conversation with her pedi. 

But for the other stuff: don't worry, But also don't ignore anything that just feels concerning; and go to regular check ups with a provider you trust for routine health/ developmental checkups.


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