DUBAI // Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is warning parents through social media of signs that may indicate developmental problems in children.
Through a Twitter clinic, doctors said excessive exposure to screens and no outdoor play could trigger problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The campaign was set up to advise users of the authority’s latest health programmes, and encourage them to take advantage of an advisory panel.
It follow efforts by the DHA to educate people on summer skin problems, respiratory conditions management, medication control and Parkinson’s disease.
Latifa Hospital’s paediatric rehabilitation unit has an early intervention programme for newborns and children aged three years to ensure developmental delays can be identified early on.
The unit assesses children up to age 13 and handles, on average, 5,000 visits a month.
“As a child grows and develops, he learns different skills, such as smiling for the first time and saying his first word,” said Suji John, a senior occupational therapist at the hospital.
“These skills are developmental milestones. There is normal variation around what age children will achieve a specific developmental milestone.”
He said a child not achieving these milestones within the age range of that normal variability should be treated.
The top disorders treated at the unit are cerebral palsy, autism, ADHD, Down syndrome and other genetic conditions.
Indicators in older children can include difficulties developing muscular skills to sit or run, finger skills to eat or dress, language problems, basic learning and problem solving or basic social skills.
Speech therapist Haidar Wreidan, also from Latifa Hospital, said milder disorders were often missed by parents of younger children.
“The earlier the diagnosis the better the chances are of long-term recovery for the child,” he said. “Optimal brain development takes place until the age of four, so the best outcomes are in children diagnosed as early as possible.”
nwebster@thenational.ae