When is a developmental assessment useful?
Common triggers are a child not speaking as much as peers, not walking by the expected age, not making eye contact or responding to their name, struggling to settle at school, or losing a skill they had before. Loss of a previously acquired skill always warrants prompt review.
Concerns raised by a nursery or school teacher are worth taking seriously even when things seem fine at home, because a classroom compares a child with many peers of the same age.
What happens during the assessment?
The visit begins with a detailed developmental history from birth onwards, including pregnancy, birth, feeding, sleep, and the age at which each milestone was reached. The child is then observed at play and assessed directly, with tasks appropriate to their age.
Where a formal standardised assessment or a hearing evaluation is required, this is arranged and explained. Hearing is checked early when speech is delayed, because undetected hearing loss is a common and treatable cause.
What happens after the assessment?
You leave with an explanation of what was found, what it does and does not mean, and a specific plan. That plan may include speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, a hearing test, or simply a review appointment to track progress over the next few months.
What to bring, and what to prepare
The single most useful item is the child's health record with birth details, growth measurements and the immunisation history. Bring any earlier reports, hearing test results, therapy notes and school or nursery feedback, particularly anything written by a teacher.
Videos help here too. A clip of your child playing at home, attempting to walk, or interacting with a sibling often shows more than a clinic visit does, because children behave differently in an unfamiliar room with a stranger. Before the appointment, try to pin down approximate ages for the main milestones, since sat at around seven months is far more useful than a little late. Old photographs and videos are a good memory aid, and a baby book, if one was kept, is ideal.
Why the assessment covers pregnancy and birth
Parents sometimes wonder why questions reach so far back. Development is cumulative, and events well before a child's first birthday can shape what is being seen now. Prematurity, birth weight, difficulties around delivery, jaundice needing treatment, admission to a neonatal unit, infections in pregnancy, and feeding difficulties in the early weeks are all relevant.
Family history matters for the same reason. Late talking, reading difficulty, epilepsy or developmental conditions in relatives can shift the likelihood of certain explanations, and knowing about consanguinity in the family is relevant for some genetic conditions. None of these questions implies that anything was anyone's fault; they narrow the field.
Assessment as a process, not a single visit
One appointment is a snapshot, and for development the direction of travel often carries more information than the position on any given day. A child who is behind but gaining skills steadily is in a different situation from one who is behind and falling further back, and that distinction only becomes visible over time.
Review appointments are therefore built in deliberately rather than arranged because something was missed. They also allow the plan to be judged: whether the therapy is working, whether the referrals happened, and whether what was agreed at home has been practical to carry out. If something has not worked, that is useful information rather than a failure, and the plan is adjusted.
Making therapy work between appointments
Therapy sessions are a small fraction of a child's week, and the progress is largely determined by what happens in the rest of it. Good therapy is built into everyday routines such as bathing, dressing, mealtimes and the journey to school, rather than treated as homework that competes with them.
Ask each therapist what to practise, how often, and what improvement would look like. If you leave a session unsure, ask again. Where cost or travel makes weekly sessions unsustainable, say so rather than quietly stopping: a less frequent schedule with more parent coaching is usually better than a programme abandoned after two months, and it can be planned that way from the start.
Frequently asked questions
My child is two and not talking. Should I wait?
It is worth getting an assessment rather than waiting. Many late talkers catch up, but hearing problems and developmental conditions are far easier to help when found early, and an assessment can reassure you if everything is on track.
Will my child be labelled with a diagnosis?
Not necessarily, and not at any cost. The first purpose is to identify what support would help. Some children are found to be within normal variation, some need therapy without a formal diagnosis, and some do meet criteria for a specific condition.
Do you provide therapy at the clinic?
Assessment, diagnosis and follow-up are provided at the clinic, and therapy is arranged through referral to speech, occupational and physical therapists, with progress reviewed at follow-up visits.
My child was born premature. How should I judge their milestones?
Use corrected age, subtracting the weeks of prematurity from their actual age, generally until around two years. A ten-month-old born two months early should be compared with an eight-month-old. This correction is applied throughout the assessment, and it resolves a great deal of unnecessary worry in the first two years.
How long does the assessment take?
Longer than a routine consultation, because the history is detailed and the child needs time to settle and be observed at play. Plan for an unhurried visit, avoid scheduling over the usual nap if you can, and bring a snack. A child who is tired, hungry or frightened shows less of what they can do.
What if my child will not cooperate on the day?
This is common and rarely a problem. A great deal is learned from watching a child refuse, explore, seek a parent or react to an unfamiliar room, and much of the assessment happens through play rather than instruction. Where a child is too distressed for a particular task, it is deferred to the review visit rather than forced.
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Book an appointment
Consultations are by appointment at Huda, Sushant Lok 2, Sector 55, Gurugram. Tell us what is worrying you and the clinic will call you back.