Question
What are cognitive delays?
Answer
Experts divide the types of cognitive impairment into four categories: mild intellectual disability, moderate intellectual disability, severe intellectual disability, and profound intellectual disability. Clinical diagnoses of cognitive disabilities include autism, Down Syndrome, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and even dementia. Less severe cognitive conditions include attention deficit disorder (ADD), dyslexia (difficulty reading), dyscalculia (difficulty with math), and learning disabilities in general. General cognitive delay descriptors include the following:
- Child does not play ”pretend” games (pretend to feed a doll or talk on the play phone).
- Child does not point to objects to show interest and/or use index finger to point.
- Child does not look at objects when another person points to them.
- Repeats actions over and over again (lines up items or sorts by specific attribute, i.e. color).
- Child has difficulties adapting when a routine changes.
- Child does not respond to his/her name.
You may suspect cognitive delays if you see some of the red flags listed above. A child with cognitive delays may prefer to play by themself, will not respond to your voice, and might need lots of visual cues and use a lot of repetition.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Working with Children with Disabilities: Inclusion Works!, in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association, presented by Piret Leonetti, EdD.
