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What is Motor Planning Difficulties, and what are its ICD-11 features in early childhood?
Motor planning difficulty (dyspraxia) is impaired ideation, sequencing and execution of novel goal-directed movement with preserved strength and tone. It maps to ICD-11 6A04 Developmental Motor Coordination Disorder: motor skills substantially below age expectation, developmental onset, functional impact, and exclusion of neurological, intellectual or sensory causes.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Motor readiness, and how is it built?
Motor readiness is a child's developing ability to control and coordinate the body — both the bigger movements of sitting, crawling and walking (gross motor) and the smaller, precise hand movements (fine motor). It is not a pass-or-fail test but a way of noticing how the building blocks of movement are coming together for a child's age. It grows naturally through everyday play — tummy time, reaching, floor play and climbing — with repetition, encouragement and safe space to move.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Motor Skills in Child Development?
Motor skills are the abilities a child builds to move and control their body. They come in two kinds: gross-motor skills, using the big muscles for sitting, crawling, walking and climbing; and fine-motor skills, using the small muscles of the hands for grasping, pointing, stacking and feeding. In the toddler years these grow quickly and lay the groundwork for play, independence and later learning. Children develop along their own timelines, and noticing a difference early is simply an invitation to add support, not a label.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Non-Verbal in child development?
Non-verbal in child development describes a toddler who is not yet using spoken words, though they may communicate through gestures, sounds, eye contact and play. It is a description of a stage, not a diagnosis or a lifelong label. Between 12 and 36 months spoken language emerges on very different timelines, and many non-verbal children go on to talk or use other communication tools with the right support. Watching the building blocks beneath words — pointing, shared attention, gestures — matters more than word count alone.
Read the answer AnswerNon-Verbal / Minimally Verbal Presentation
Non-verbal / minimally verbal presentation is a descriptive functional profile — no or very limited spoken words — not a diagnosis. ICD-11 captures it via autism (6A02) severity qualifiers, developmental speech/language disorders (6A01) and the ICF, with hearing loss excluded first and AAC introduced early.
Read the answer AnswerOppositional Defiant Disorder (ICD-11 6C90): clinical definition
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ICD-11 6C90) is a persistent, pervasive pattern of defiant, disobedient, provocative or angry-irritable behaviour exceeding developmental norms and causing impairment. In early childhood it must be distinguished from normative toddler oppositionality, with the chronic irritability-anger qualifier carrying prognostic weight.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Organization in child development?
Organization in child development is the early cognitive skill of arranging objects, actions and ideas in a sensible order — sorting toys, following simple steps, knowing where things belong. In toddlers it appears in small, playful ways and grows with everyday practice. It is not a diagnosis but one thread of thinking development, and children vary widely in how early it blossoms.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Parent-Characteristics in child development?
Parent-Characteristics describes the qualities, behaviours and circumstances of a parent or main caregiver — warmth, responsiveness, confidence, routines, stress and support — that influence how a toddler learns and grows. It is not a judgement but a recognition that a child develops within a relationship, and that this relationship is among the strongest supports for development. Noticing these influences helps families access the right support, never blame.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Parenting Challenges in child development?
Parenting challenges are the everyday difficulties parents face while supporting a child's growth — managing tantrums, sleep, meals, routines, screen-time or behaviour. They are a normal, universal part of raising children, not a fault in you or your child, and they ease with the right understanding and support. Sometimes a persistent struggle is a gentle signal that a child needs extra developmental help, so looking at the whole picture with warmth opens a path forward.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Participation in Tasks in child development?
Participation in tasks (ICF d210) describes how a child takes on, stays with and completes simple everyday activities — like tidying toys, doing a puzzle or following a craft step. It is not just whether a child can do something, but whether they actually join in and see it through in real settings. For children aged 3 to 7 it grows alongside attention, understanding and confidence, and is a gentle window into how a child engages with the world. It is a strength to nurture, never a diagnosis.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is People in child development?
"People" in child development describes how a toddler relates to others — noticing, connecting, sharing attention and interacting. It belongs to the social area of development, spanning eye contact, seeking comfort, copying, pointing to share and early turn-taking. It is not a diagnosis but a way of noticing how warmly a child engages, so the right playful support can be offered early.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Permanence in child development?
Permanence, or object permanence, is a toddler's growing understanding that people and things still exist even when out of sight. Beginning around 8–12 months and strengthening through the toddler years, it is a foundational cognitive milestone that underpins memory, language, pretend play and the confidence to separate from a parent. It develops naturally through play, with wide healthy variation — and is not a diagnosis but a skill to notice and nurture.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Persistent Toe-Walking, and what are its ICD-11 features?
Persistent (idiopathic) toe-walking is a habitual ball-of-foot gait continuing beyond ~2 years that is unexplained by neuromuscular or orthopaedic cause — a diagnosis of exclusion. ICD-11 captures it under gait and mobility abnormalities; the clinician's task is to exclude spasticity, contracture and neurodevelopmental causes.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Personal Development in child development?
Personal development (ICF b180) is how a child builds a sense of self — identity, self-awareness, confidence and the feeling that they can manage their own world. It is an emotional ability that grows steadily, not a fixed trait. In the 3–7 years it shows as knowing one's likes, making simple choices, coping with setbacks and feeling proud of small achievements. It is not a diagnosis, and warm, encouraging relationships help it flourish.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Physical Development in child development?
Physical development is how a child's body grows stronger and more skilled at movement over time. It covers gross motor skills — large movements like sitting, crawling, walking, running and jumping — and fine motor skills — small precise movements like grasping, drawing and using a spoon. It unfolds in a broadly predictable order, though each child has their own timing, and it supports confidence, play and learning far beyond the body alone.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Planning & Organization in child development?
Planning and organisation is a child's developing ability to think ahead, break a task into steps, sequence them and gather what is needed to begin and finish. Part of the brain's executive functions, it sits within ICF higher-level cognitive functions (b1641) and grows most between about 3 and 7 years. It is a strength to nurture, not a diagnosis, and emerging skills respond well to playful, everyday practice.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Play & Imagination in child development?
Play and imagination is how children explore and understand the world through self-directed activity. Between roughly 3 and 7 years it becomes richly imaginative — pretend roles, using one object for another, and shared games with friends. It is not just fun: it powerfully builds social skills, language, flexible thinking and empathy, and offers a clear window onto a child's development.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Play in child development?
Play is how toddlers learn about the world, build relationships and practise new skills — it is the natural engine of early development, not just passing the time. Between 12 and 36 months, play grows from simple exploring into functional play, pretend play and turn-taking with others. Each kind of play builds a different ability — language, attention, movement and the social give-and-take that underpins friendships and learning. Watching how a child plays is a gentle window into social and communication growth.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Play Skills in child development?
Play skills are the abilities a child uses to explore, pretend, build, share and connect through play. Play is how children practise language, imagination, problem-solving and friendship, and it develops in steps — from exploring objects to functional play, pretend play and cooperative, imaginative play with friends. Watching a child's play gives a rich picture of their social and thinking development, and gentle, playful support helps these skills grow.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Practical in child development?
Practical skills in child development are the everyday, hands-on abilities a toddler uses to manage themselves — self-care like using a spoon or helping to dress, simple problem-solving like posting shapes, and joining in daily routines. They belong to adaptive development, the know-how of daily living. This is not a test but a foundation for confidence and independence, growing steadily from about 12 to 36 months with playful practice. Wide individual variation is normal; steady forward progress matters more than the exact timing.
Read the answer AnswerPrematurity-Related Developmental Risk: Definition & ICD-11 Features
Prematurity-Related Developmental Risk is the elevated probability of neurodevelopmental difficulty in children born before 37 weeks — a surveillance profile, not a diagnosis. ICD-11 codes the perinatal antecedent (KA21) plus any emergent functional condition; assessment uses corrected age. A clinical AbilityScore and diagnosis are formed only at a Pinnacle centre.
Read the answer AnswerPretend-Play in Child Development
Pretend-play is when a toddler uses objects, actions or roles to stand for something else — feeding a doll, 'talking' on a toy phone, or cooking with blocks. Emerging between roughly 12 and 36 months, it is one of the richest signs of healthy imagination, language and social development. It is a growing skill, not a pass-or-fail test, and very limited pretend-play by around age 2 is a gentle reason to seek a developmental review.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Problem-Solving in child development?
Problem-solving is a toddler's growing ability to face something new or tricky and work out what to do by looking, trying, thinking and trying again. Between roughly 12 and 36 months it shows in everyday play — fitting shapes, stacking blocks, using a stool to reach. It is a cognitive skill (ICF b1), not a test, and it builds steadily with unhurried play and gentle encouragement. A friendly developmental check can map strengths if a clear gap appears across several areas.
Read the answer AnswerWhat is Processing Speed in child development?
Processing speed is how efficiently a child takes in everyday information — what they see, hear or read — understands it, and responds. It is a measure of pace, not of intelligence or effort: a bright child may simply need more time. In ICF terms it sits within mental functions (b147). It affects how comfortably a child keeps up with classroom pace, conversation and play, and many children thrive with extra time and chunked instructions.
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