HOW MOTOR SKILL DELAYS MAY CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL SKILL DELAYS IN THE DEVELOPING CHILD

Clarification: the difficulty in the development of social graces is specific to the developing child, whether they have achondroplasia or not. More specifically it’s auditory processing and the ability to carry out motion at the same time, which becomes even more difficult when motor skill delays are a factor, which is the case in most children with achondroplasia. This does NOT mean that children with achondroplasia are anti-social. In fact, my son, although he may have difficulty with auditory processing, has lots of friends at school, he loves to play with them and talk to them, and he is very social. This is more to inform parents that auditory processing may be an issue with motor skill delays so that they can understand what may be happening in their child. This may also help them to be less hard on their children; they will get there eventually, it just may take more time for the developing child to master these skills. 😊
Children with achondroplasia generally take a little longer to develop gross motor skills. In this video, I discuss how this can also lead to delays in developing social skills. This information is based on what I learned from discussions with some of my son's therapists.
As discussed in the video, here is the link to one of my other videos that includes a discussion of occupational therapy and exercises that focus on proprioception:
• OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY (...