What are the symptoms of moderate developmental delay?

Developmental delay can be mild, moderate or severe. Once developmental delay is discovered, it is important to take timely treatment intervention measures. Moderate developmental delay accounts for about 12% of mental retardation. The language and motor function development of children with this condition is slower than that of normal children since childhood.

1. Mild developmental delay:

Most mental retardation (75%~85%) belongs to this type. Their development in early years is poorer than that of normal children, and their language development is delayed, but they still have certain expressive ability. It is often not until the later period of kindergarten or after entering school that they are found to have learning difficulties. They have low comprehension, lack analytical and comprehensive abilities, and have simple thinking. After hard work, they can barely reach the level of elementary school graduates. They have certain social skills and have low level of occupational adaptability in adulthood. They are often docile, lack independent thinking, and lack the ability to cope with environmental changes.

2. Moderate developmental delay:

It accounts for about 12% of mental retardation. Since childhood, their language and motor functions develop more slowly than normal children, and their language development is often incomplete, their vocabulary is poor, they cannot express their meaning completely, and their learning ability is poor. After patient training, they can engage in simple non-technical work.

3. Severe developmental delay:

It accounts for about 7%-8% of mental retardation. It is often accompanied by some more serious brain damage, and may also have neurological symptoms such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Most of them are found to have obvious mental and motor development lags shortly after birth. They can only learn simple sentences when they are older, but cannot take care of themselves, cannot receive school education, cannot accept training to learn simple skills, and have no social behavior ability.

4. Extremely severe developmental delay:

It accounts for about 1%-2% of mental retardation. They have no language ability at all, are unable to recognize their surroundings and relatives, do not know how to avoid danger, and only have primitive emotional reactions, such as crying and screaming to express their need for food or dissatisfaction with people and things. Sometimes there are explosive attacks or destructive behaviors, and the entire life requires care.