The early years of a child’s life are very important for their health and development. Babies and toddlers develop at their own rate but sometimes they may be slower to reach their milestones.

While all children develop at different rates, and reach these milestones at different times, a child considered to have developmental delay will reach these much later, and may have difficulties in more than one of the following key developmental areas.

• Gross motor skills – the use of large muscles to sit, stand, walk, run, maintain balance and change body positions.
• Fine motor skills – the use of small muscles (specifically hands and fingers) to eat, play, draw and write.
• Speech and language development – speaking, using body language and gestures, communicating with others and understanding what others say.
• Social and emotional development – being able to interact with others, to interpret and respond to the feelings of others, especially with family /whanau, friends and teachers.
• Cognitive development – being able to engage in thinking, learning, understanding, remembering and problem solving activities and tasks.