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Special Education
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Therapy & support
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Therapy & support
What is the best way to parent and guide a child with Genetic / Chromosomal Syndromes?
Children with genetic or chromosomal syndromes thrive when parenting leads with their individual strengths, builds a coordinated care team, keeps routines predictable, and weaves small joyful learning steps into daily life — while caring for the family too. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Global Developmental Delay?
Parenting a child with Global Developmental Delay works best with patience, predictable routines and play-based learning, supported by a team of physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapists guided by a paediatrician. Break skills into small steps, celebrate every win, and seek early support. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Gross Motor Delay?
The best way to parent a child with gross motor delay is to make movement joyful, frequent and low-pressure — celebrating effort, following your child's pace, and weaving physiotherapy-guided play into daily life as a team with your therapist. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Hypotonia (Low Muscle Tone)?
Parenting a child with hypotonia works best by combining physiotherapy with playful daily strengthening, good positioning and patient encouragement that celebrates effort over speed, alongside paediatric review of the underlying cause. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Intellectual Disability?
Parenting a child with intellectual disability works best when you break skills into small repeated steps, keep routines predictable and warm, build on strengths and encourage independence, supported by speech, occupational and special-education therapy plus parent coaching. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Motor Planning Difficulties?
Children with motor planning difficulties are best supported by breaking skills into small steps, giving clear consistent cues, allowing patient repetition and protecting confidence, guided by occupational therapy. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Non-Verbal / Minimally Verbal Presentation?
Parenting a non-verbal or minimally verbal child works best by honouring every form of communication they already use — gestures, sounds, eyes, pictures — while building more through responsive everyday interaction, speech and language therapy, and AAC tools that support rather than replace speech. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Oppositional Defiant Disorder?
A child with Oppositional Defiant Disorder is best supported through warm, consistent parenting built on connection, clear calm limits, praise for positive behaviour, and steady follow-through — with parent-management training as the strongest evidence-based help. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Persistent Toe-Walking?
Persistent toe-walking is supported best with calm, positive parenting, playful calf stretches, supportive footwear and physiotherapy that gently encourages heel-down walking, alongside a check to rule out any underlying cause. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Prematurity-Related Developmental Risk?
Children with prematurity-related developmental risk thrive on responsive, nurturing parenting, calm predictable routines, milestones judged by corrected age, and regular paediatric follow-up with early intervention when needed. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Rett Syndrome?
Parenting a child with Rett syndrome means building a loving team that combines medical care with physiotherapy, communication support and occupational therapy — honouring her eye-gaze and expressions as her voice, keeping routines calm and predictable, and protecting comfort and movement. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with School Readiness Gap?
A school readiness gap is best supported by building foundation skills — attention, listening, sitting tolerance, self-help, communication and social play — gently and playfully at home, with predictable routines and close partnership between parents, teachers and therapists. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Selective Mutism?
Selective Mutism is supported by lowering the pressure to speak, never forcing or bribing words, honouring all ways of communicating, and building confidence in small, graded steps with speech-language and psychology support. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Self-Regulation Difficulties?
A child with self-regulation difficulties is best supported through co-regulation — staying calm and connected so they borrow your steadiness — alongside predictable routines, naming feelings, noticing triggers and practising calming tools in settled moments, with teaching after a meltdown rather than during it. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Sensory-Based Feeding Selectivity?
Children with sensory-based feeding selectivity are best supported by removing mealtime pressure, honouring the sensory experience of food, keeping meals short and predictable, and letting exploration come before eating — with a feeding-focused team guiding parents. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Separation Anxiety Disorder?
Children with separation anxiety are best supported through warm, predictable parenting: acknowledging feelings, practising short gradual separations, keeping goodbyes brief and confident, always saying goodbye rather than sneaking away, and celebrating brave returns. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Social Communication Difficulties?
Children with social communication difficulties are best supported by warm, predictable parenting that follows the child's lead, narrates everyday moments and turns play into gentle turn-taking and cue-reading practice, paired with speech and language therapy. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Specific Learning Disability?
Parenting a child with Specific Learning Disability works best when you understand how they learn, build on their strengths, use accommodations without guilt and keep the home blame-free and confidence-building, partnering closely with school. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Stereotyped Movement Disorder?
Parenting a child with Stereotyped Movement Disorder works best with calm acceptance, understanding why the movements happen, keeping the child safe, and using therapist-guided soothing alternatives within predictable routines. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Tourette Syndrome?
Children with Tourette Syndrome are best supported through calm, accepting parenting that never punishes involuntary tics, reduces stress and protects sleep, partners closely with school, and addresses common companions like anxiety and attention difficulties. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is the best way to parent and guide a child with Visual Impairment?
Children with visual impairment thrive when parents narrate their world, use touch and sound, keep routines and spaces predictable, and encourage independence — alongside prompt medical review and specialist therapy. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerChildhood Anxiety vs Separation Anxiety Disorder in Children
Childhood anxiety is the broad umbrella for all the ways worry shows up in children, while Separation Anxiety Disorder is one specific type focused intensely on being apart from a caregiver, severe enough to disrupt daily life. All separation anxiety is childhood anxiety, but not all anxiety is SAD. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerDCD vs Childhood Apraxia of Speech in Children
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) affects how a child plans and carries out physical movements — clumsiness with whole-body and hand tasks like dressing, writing or catching. Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor-speech difficulty where the brain struggles to plan the precise mouth movements for clear speech. Both are difficulties of motor planning rather than weakness, a child can have one or both, and both respond well to therapy. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Read the answer AnswerDevelopmental Language Disorder vs Childhood Apraxia of Speech in Children
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a difficulty with language itself — understanding and building words, sentences and grammar — while Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor-planning difficulty where the child knows what to say but struggles to coordinate the mouth movements to say it. DLD affects the message; CAS affects the physical production of speech, and some children show features of both. AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
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