Language has two sides, that of reception (which allows us to understand) and that of production (which allows us to express ourselves).
From a developmental point of view, reception and production do not evolve synchronously because they depend on different mechanisms and processes. Language, whose main function is expression and communication, includes speech, sign language and written language.
The development of language requires the meeting of certain physiological, sensory, perceptual, cognitive and affective conditions.
The acquisition of language must be considered as a continuous dynamic, from intra-uterine life to adulthood, being built in interaction with the Other and in the pleasure of communication and from different determinants: linguistic, social and cognitive.
There is always a lag between comprehension and language production (comprehension begins around 8-10 months and production five months later),
even if the speed of motor maturation, which underlies production, can vary from one child to another.

The psychomotor development of children refers to the maturation and evolution of their skills from birth to adulthood, on the motor, psychological, cognitive and social levels. It depends on genetic factors and factors of interaction with the environment. Although there is a standard timeline for psychomotor development, it is important to remember that each child develops at his or her own pace and that it is not always appropriate to compare him or her to peers. This is particularly the case for premature babies, for whom it is appropriate to take into account the corrected age during the first 2 years of life.

The key points of psychomotor development:

– Motor (coordination, balance) and postural (tone) acquisitions.
– Manual acquisitions, fine motor skills (prehension then graphism);
– Acquisitions of verbal and non-verbal communication (comprehension then expression);
– Sensorial acquisitions

Other parameters are considered: feeding, sleep as well as day and night cleanliness with sphincter control. But also the quality of the child’s intellectual and emotional development and his social adaptation capacities.
Thus, the delay in psychomotor development is defined as a delay in the acquisition of specific skills at key ages.

Attention Deficit Disorder is sometimes manifested with hyperactivity (ADHD) and sometimes without hyperactivity (ADD). It is a neurodevelopmental disorder.

ADHD

ADHD is characterized by behaviors of agitation, impulsivity, and inattention. These behaviors impact the young person’s ability to adapt in all areas of his or her life, especially in school. When impulsivity is high, children tend to take risks, react without thinking (sometimes with aggressive gestures) and have difficulties with emotional regulation. One can observe in these children:

• Significant motor agitation: the child has difficulty sitting still, wiggles in his chair, often runs and climbs excessively,
• Logorrhea (talking a lot)
• Impulsivity: acts without thinking, takes risks, gives answers before the question is even finished, interrupts others, has trouble waiting for his turn,
• Difficulty controlling his emotions: he has tantrums, he does not manage his frustration well and this affects his relationships with others,
• Homework time is painful, the child has difficulty making a sustained mental effort, concentrating on what he/she needs to do,
• Difficulty organizing school materials, organizing assignments, planning tasks to be completed, tends to be messy,
• The child tends to forget or lose personal belongings.

ADD

ADD manifests itself mainly through inattentive behaviors and sometimes slow processing of information. They tend to be forgetful, forget their belongings and don’t have time to finish their work. From a cognitive functioning point of view, it has been observed that children with ADD may have difficulties with selective attention, sustained attention, or divided attention. These difficulties significantly affect classroom functioning and learning abilities. These children may be observed to have difficulty in:

• Maintain attention on a task
• Complete a task within the allotted time
• Resist distractions around them while performing a task, such as the sight of crayons, the sound of a passing car
• Complete a task to completion
• Retain instructions given to him or her
• Focus on a conversation
• Plan and organize what he/she is doing And/or a tendency to:
• Avoid activities requiring sustained mental effort
• Isolate himself/herself and engage in anti-social behavior
• Resort to violence
• Misplace belongings, be frequently forgetful

Dys disorders or learning disorders

These are developmental disorders where the acquisition process is disorganized from the first stages of development. We find among the learning disorders, dyslexia, dysorthography, dysphasia, dyspraxia, or dyscalculia. These disorders are neurological in origin and persistent. It is therefore a non-typical functioning of the brain, and not a problem of intelligence or stimulation. In fact, since performance in other areas is within the norm, these children are often said to not make an effort or not to work hard enough.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
General signs of Dyslexia

● Struggles to organize written and spoken language
● Trouble memorizing number facts and performing math operations
● Difficulty with spelling
● Cannot read quickly enough to comprehend
● May struggle to learn foreign languages
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Children who are very uncoordinated for their age may have a disorder called developmental coordination disorder (DCD), or dyspraxia. These children frequently drop, break and bump into things. They may have trouble with small movements like eating with a spoon or holding a crayon. But there’s nothing wrong with their muscles. Instead, their coordination issues happen because their brains have trouble telling their bodies what to do. Some kids have trouble with what are called fine motor skills. These kids struggle to use their hands in tasks like using scissors or writing by hand. Other kids struggle with gross motor skills, which have to do with moving their bodies in space. Kids with gross motor skills problems have trouble doing things like catching a ball or riding a bike. Some children with DCD have issues with both kinds of motor skills. Signs of dyspraxia often show up in young children, who might be slow to sit up, crawl, and walk. But DCD is usually diagnosed when kids get older and struggle to do age-

Dysorthographia is a significant impairment in the development of spelling performance, in the absence of visual acuity disorders, or
related to inadequate schooling. Both the ability to spell orally and to write words correctly are affected. It is usually associated with a reading deficit (dyslexia) and difficulties often persist into adolescence, even when the child may have made some progress in reading.
This translates into: Numerous spelling mistakes, frequent lack of verb conjugation and Grammatical errors, Syntactic errors altering the coherence of sentences Difficulties in transcribing the homophones “sea” and “mother”, “water” and “high”, Confusions of gender and number, Lexical errors: “lesson” and “the are”.

● Struggles with counting, number facts, and basic calculations4
● Difficulty with measurement, telling time, counting money, and estimating number quantities4
● Trouble with mental math and problem-solving strategies4
e.g. “five cookies”5
● Struggles to recognize patterns or sort items by size
• Focus on a conversation
• Plan and organize what he/she is doing And/or a tendency to:

appropriate things like dressing themselves, using utensils and playing games. Kids with DCD often start to avoid things like writing, drawing and physical activities.
Dyscalculia is a term for specific learning disabilities related to math. Students may have trouble understanding the real-world meaning of numbers, forget basic math facts, or struggle with simple problem-solving skills.
EARLY SIGNS OF DYSCALCULIA

● Better at communicating through speech than through writing
● Tight or awkward pencil grip
● When writing, says words out loud or carefully watches hand
● Tires easily when writing by hand
● Hands are sore when they finish writing
● Body position is awkward, or eyes are too close to the paper
● Memorize arithmetic facts (multiplication tables)
● Uneven spaces between letters and words on paper, or difficulty writing within lines and margins