Global developmental delay

Global developmental delay is an umbrella term used when children are significantly delayed in two or more areas of development. It can be diagnosed when a child is delayed in one or more milestones, categorised into motor skills, speech, cognitive skills, and social and emotional development.^[1] There is usually a specific condition which causes this delay, such as Cerebral Palsy, Fragile X syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities. However, it is sometimes difficult to identify this underlying condition.^[2]

Other terms associated with this condition are failure to thrive (which focuses on lack of weight gain and physical development), intellectual disability (which focuses on intellectual deficits and the changes they cause to development) and developmental disability (which can refer to both intellectual and physical disability altering development).^{[citation needed]}