Here - Health Promotion Agency

How your child will grow
You should also talk to your health
visitor or GP if, after the age of two,
your baby’s height curve does not
follow a centile line or starts to veer
upwards or downwards from it.
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT
Some health visitors may ask your
child to do little tasks, such as
building with blocks or identifying
pictures. Others may simply watch
your child playing or drawing, and
get an idea from this observation,
and your comments, of how your
child is doing. If you look at the
development chart on page 31, you’ll
have an idea of the kind of physical
and verbal skills they’re looking for.
If your child seems slow in one
particular area of development,
you’ll have the opportunity to
discuss what the reason may be, and
whether anything useful needs to be
done to speed things up.
EYESIGHT
A baby should be able to see from
birth. Eyesight develops gradually
over the next six months.
By the first review, you’ll have
noticed whether or not your baby can
follow a colourful object held about
20 cm (8 in) away with his or her
eyes. If this isn’t happening you
should mention it.
At birth a baby’s eyes may roll away
from each other occasionally. If a baby
is squinting all, or much, of the time,
tell your health visitor and your GP.
If your baby is squinting, you’ll need
to be referred to an orthoptist or
ophthalmologist who specialises in
understanding children’s eyes.
It is important that any vision
problems are identified as soon as
possible, particularly if your child has
any other disability (cerebral palsy or
Down’s syndrome) as visual
impairment can cause serious
educational and social difficulties.
Children themselves may not know
that their vision is impaired. Eye
examinations are available free of
charge to all children under 16 years
of age, and they do not have to be
able to read to have one.
HEARING AND TALKING
Hearing and talking are linked. If
your child can’t hear properly, he or
she will have great difficulty learning
to talk and may need to be taught
other ways of communicating. So
the sooner hearing problems are
discovered the greater the chance
that something can be done.
It isn’t only hearing that is
important though. Babies don’t learn
to talk unless they’re talked to, even
if, at first, the conversation is limited
to making noises at each other. By
learning to take it in turns to make
babbling noises, your baby is learning
what a conversation feels like. Most
parents quite naturally join in
babbling sessions with their babies
and so they’re very often the first
people to notice if there’s a problem.
If you’re ever worried about your
child’s language development, talk to
your GP or health visitor. Your child
may be helped by referral to a
speech and language therapist.
Babies born within areas that are
implementing the newborn hearing
screening programme will be offered
a hearing test within a month of
birth. Alternatively, your baby may
be offered a hearing distraction test
at 6 to 8 months old. For more
information on screening, go to page
5. If there’s no apparent problem, but
you’re still worried, ask for another
appointment. If a problem is found,
your baby will need to have a
follow-up assessment because hearing
loss may be temporary due to a cold
or a passing infection.
If your child doesn’t seem to hear
properly at the second appointment,
or you are still worried, ask for a
referral to a specialist.
TIPS FOR HELPING YOUR
CHILD LEARN TO TALK
•
Start talking to your child
right from birth – say
what you are doing
about the house, e.g. when
unpacking shopping.
• Start looking at books with
your baby from an early age.
• Point things out when going
for a walk, e.g. ‘There’s a
bus, the bus is red.’
• Have fun singing nursery
rhymes and songs, especially
those with actions.
• Encourage your child to
listen to different sounds.
• Gain your child’s
attention when you
want to talk together.
• Increase vocabulary by
giving choices, e.g. ‘Do
you want an apple or
a banana?’
• Give your child
opportunities to talk.
• Don’t have the television
on as a background noise.
• If your child says something
incorrectly, say it back the
right way. Do not make
your child repeat it.
BILINGUAL CHILDREN
Many children grow up in a
family in which more than
one language is spoken. It can
give children a good head start
and they don’t usually have
problems. The important
thing is to talk to your child
in whatever language feels
comfortable to you. This may
mean one parent using one
language and the other using
another. Children usually
adapt to this very well.
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