Developmental Delays Main Info Page

What Are Developmental Delays?

Does your child have developmental delays? Typical delays are:

• Not rolling over on time
• Not sitting up unsupported on time
• Not crawling on time
• Not walking on time
• Speech and language delays
• Skipping a phase (such as not crawling)
• Never “creeping” (cross-crawling, when a baby crawls on all fours)
• Unusual types of crawling, such as:
  • “Army” crawling with the belly on the ground for most or all of the crawling phase. This is an indication of poor muscle tone and core strength.
  • Dragging a leg behind when crawling
  • “Butt scooting”
• Slouched posture when sitting. Babies who have not received enough neurodevelopmental movements to support proper posture, structural alignment and core strength will slouch when seated.
• “W” sitting: Sitting in the shape of a W with knees on the floor and feet behind them out to the sides. This is an indication of poor core strength.

See the CDC Developmental Milestones Charts section below to learn what “on time” means for specific milestones.

Not every child arrives at these developmental milestones at the same time, but if your child is struggling or just not responding, what does this mean? It may mean that birth trauma and/or neurological toxins, such as heavy metals, chemicals or microbial metabolites or even inflammation, may have disrupted your child’s neurological, sensory, immune and nervous systems while in development. Gastrointestinal and microbiome imbalance are often connected to developmental delays. Seeking a multi-faceted approach, the earlier the better, may be the most proactive plan of action.

What Your Doctor May Tell You About Developmental Delays

Developmental delays may be difficult to diagnose, especially early on. Doctors typically believe that children develop at their own pace, so what is considered normal is a wide range. Your doctor may ask you questions as well as talk and play with your child. Your doctor may also use a developmental screening process to see if your child is learning basic skills and has reached their developmental milestones in language or speech, vision, movement and motor skills, social and emotional skills, and thinking and cognitive skills.

Your doctor may tell you that there are no blood tests specific to developmental delays. However, the screening test may indicate delays, and your doctor may refer your child to a developmental pediatrician, developmental psychologist or a pediatric neurologist for a developmental evaluation. Your child’s doctor may also recommend a physical therapist, occupational therapist, audiologist or a speech and language pathologist in certain cases where needed. If the delay is in all areas of development, it is called Global Developmental Delay.

Sometimes, doctors may recommend a community early-intervention program and if delays are determined, early intervention services and/or a treatment plan may be recommended. Your doctor may tell you that your child will always be a slow learner and that their speech, coordination and behavioral problems are unlikely to change. Your doctor may suggest that your child needs to be medicated especially if there are behavioral issues at school and your child is unable to sit for an expected period.

Major Risk Factors for Developmental Delays

Developmental delays may not always occur due to genetic abnormalities; many times, birth complications and toxin or microbial exposure may cause neurological damage that can lead to developmental delays. Risk factors include:

• APGAR score less than 7 within 5 minutes of birth
• Birth trauma
• Fetal monitor used during labor
• Environmental exposures in utero or after birth such as lead, mercury, aluminum, arsenic or other heavy metals, as well as petroleum-based or synthetic chemicals
• Not enough “tummy time”
• Sleeping on the back instead of the tummy. Back sleeping contributes to an “upside down” neurological system as well as poor core strength.
• Not enough opportunity for gross-motor movement. This typically happens with babies who are constantly in car seats, strollers or toys that restrict their movement.
• Concussion, head injury or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Stroke
• Anesthesia
• Genetic or chromosomal abnormalities such as Down Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, inborn errors of metabolism, etc.
• Tobacco, alcohol and drug use during pregnancy
• Medical history factors such as anemia, poor nutrition, infections, diabetes and hypertension
• Complications and/or interventions during labor and delivery
• Gestational age less than 37 weeks (premature birth)
• Birth weight under 5 ½ lbs.
• Multiple births: Twins, triplets, quadruplets
• Congenital abnormality
• Brain inflammation due to infections or adverse events from immunization
• Lack of care
• Severe poverty
• Failure to thrive

CDC Developmental Milestone Charts

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has developed charts that show which developmental milestones a child should be achieving by certain ages. Please note that the CDC in conjunction with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) revised these milestone charts in 2022. This revision effectively pushes out and normalizes delays that were once seen as red flags. We strongly disagree with this revision, as it means that it will take longer for children to get interventional services and there will be less time for them to receive services in state-funded programs. Read more about our thinking on this issue in our article The CDC Has Worsened Developmental Delays.

If your child isn’t progressing normally or shows regression in developmental milestones, it is critical that you seek early intervention as soon as possible. Most states have early-intervention programs such as Birth to Three and Zero to Three that can test your child in more detail than your child’s pediatrician typically would. Even if your pediatrician doesn’t suspect a delay, you know your child best; ask, repeatedly if necessary, your pediatrician for a referral for your child to have an early-intervention program evaluation. If your child qualifies for early intervention, there may be state-funded programs that can provide services to your child at no cost to you.

Developmental Disorders Related to Developmental Delays

If your child has a developmental delay, there’s a good chance that he or she may develop a neurodevelopmental or neurobehavioral disorder such as:

• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Learning disabilities
• Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)

Parents of children with these conditions almost universally report that their child was developmentally delayed. In addition, if your child has any of the following disorders, there’s a good chance that he or she may have experienced developmental delays.

• Learning disabilities
• Intellectual disability
• Neural-tube defects
• Prader-Willi Syndrome
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)
• Seizure disorders
• Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
• Tourette’s Syndrome
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Williams Syndrome

Regression of Milestones

Research has shown that 88% of children with autism regressed into autism, meaning they weren’t born with it. Anecdotally, we know of many children who also regressed into ADD/ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder, as well as of those who suddenly developed seizures, lost muscle tone, developed failure to thrive when they were progressing normally or whose head-circumference percentiles suddenly grew.

Regression sometimes occurs within a few days of trauma or toxin exposure, but in many cases, it is spread out over a period of time. If your child has slowed down developmentally, such as now only speaking a few words when they had been speaking more words or has a loss of language or loss of gross motor skills, there may be a regression unfolding. If you’re a busy caregiver, you may not immediately notice regression until you go back and think about it, comparing your child to old photos, milestone charts and doctor’s reports.

One of the best indicators of neurological impairment is to look at your child’s eyes, which is what a doctor or neurologist will do if they suspect neurological injury. Are your child’s eyes teaming (both looking in the same direction) or is one eye now slightly turned in a different direction than the other (strabismus)? Has your child’s smile suddenly become crooked, with one side up and the other down?

If you answered yes to either of these two questions, your child may have experienced neurological injury, which a neurologist or neurologic chiropractor can help confirm. If regression has occurred, think about what happened in the time period preceding the regression: Was there a head injury, toxin exposure, infection, surgery or medical intervention, even a routine one, that occurred? It may take you days, weeks, months or even years for you to pinpoint the likely cause or causes of your child’s regression. There could even be many causes.

Understanding the root causes can help your practitioners know what to do to help your child achieve optimal health and regain lost language and motor skills. Typically, there is no one single cause that leads to regression; instead, regression usually occurs after a “perfect storm” of events in which the total load of stressors has built up to the point that one last stressor is the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”.

Another Way to Think About Developmental Delays

Children with developmental delays almost always have retained primitive reflexes. These reflexes are inhibited during normal infant development, but in developmentally delayed children, they are retained. This is an indication and a giant red flag that your child’s brain and central nervous systems are not developing properly, often due to birth trauma and/or toxins that cause neurological damage. These children will often have:

• Behavioral problems
• Mitochondrial dysfunction
• Low muscle tone

Children with developmental delays typically may also have issues such as:

• Decreased need for sleep
• Fatigue
• Hyperactivity
• Rapid heart rate
• Heat intolerance
• Frequent infections
• Colic
• Cradle cap
• Delays in potty training
• Acid reflux
• Projectile vomiting
• Tongue tie

Early intervention is your child’s best ally: the earlier the better, and the greater the chances are of improved outcomes or even recovery.

Nutritional Deficiencies

Children with developmental delays often have specific deficiencies and imbalances that require an individualized therapeutic and nutritional protocol. Medication is only a band-aid that masks symptoms. Don’t let your school or healthcare practitioner bully you into giving your child medication that they may not need. There are better, safer ways to address symptoms. If you are thinking of medicating your child, seek help from an integrative, holistic or functional-medicine practitioner first. Your child may have underlying issues that can be discovered and addressed. When these root issues are addressed, your child’s symptoms may reverse.

Laboratory Testing

While lab tests cannot identify developmental delays, they can pinpoint potential root causes of your child’s delays. Laboratory testing may include blood, urine, stool or saliva with the intent on:

• Correcting underlying deficiencies and dysfunctions
• Restoring body and brain functioning
• Improving problematic behavioral or developmental symptoms

Underlying Considerations

Important testing of various contributing factors include:

• Inflammation
• Low muscle tone
• Nutrient and mineral deficiencies
• Persistent pathogens – virus, bacterial, fungal, parasitic
• Neurotransmitter imbalances
• MTHFR genetic mutation and poor methylation process
• Automatic dysregulation – sympathetic overdrive “fight or flight”
• Insufficient fats in the brain
• Biochemical stress
• Developmental vision problems
• Auditory and language processing difficulties
• Speech delays and speech deficits
• Abnormal gait
• Low cholesterol
• Imbalances in the right and left hemisphere of the brain

Developmental Delays Healing Checklist

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