CLINICAL ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY IN COMBINED INTERVENTION CLINIC

Objectives: Developmental and behavioral problem are commonly seen by pediatricians and other primary care practitioners. Early identification of children with this problem is important in the primary care setting. The purpose of this study is to analyze the category and underlying problem of these developmental delay children.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was carried out on all patients visited our combined early intervention clinic from January 2001 to December 2004, a total 482 cases less than 6 years old were enrolled in our study. Delay is defined when a child does not reach developmental milestones at the expected age (with adequate leeway for the broad variation among normal children). We classified theses developmental delay into the six major categories-motor, speech/language, cognitive, global, psychosocial, and non-specific developmental delay.

Results: In total, 273(56.6%) children were found to have motor delay, 284(58.9%)have language/speech delay, 144(29.8%) have cognitive developmental delay, 146(30.2%)have global developmental delay, 170(35.3%) have psychosocial problem, and 325(67.4%) have non-specific developmental delay.

Conclusion: Our reviews reveal that non-specific developmental delay is the leading problem of developmental delay in our series of patients. And there are heterogeneous risk factors related with different kinds of developmental problem. Our experience showed that combined early intervention clinic seems to be more efficient and convenient for those children with various types of developmental delay.