Early Childhood Development

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Most children develop basic life skills without any special assistance from their caregivers or professionals. However, if their attempts to interact functionally with people and their environment are compromised then their ability to acquire skills and learn from their interactions and explorations may also be compromised.
 
Early Childhood Development is a discipline that specifically looks at how a child is developing during the most critical period of growth and development – birth to about 6.  Child development specialists do not address one specific area but instead look at a child globally (e.g., cognitive skills, language and communication, social-emotional skills and behavior, gross and fine motor skills, and self-help skills.).
 
Using the child’s natural language of play, the child development specialist in our Paws to Grow Program will assess your child's global development and identify specific areas of need and areas of strength. They will then develop play activities designed to help your child overcome their challenges and improve the quality of their growth and development.
 
We offer evaluation, consultations, animal-assisted developmental interventions, and play interactions for families with children approximately age birth to 6.

​Some common reasons for early childhood development include:
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> Speech delay or communication disorder
> Delay in cognitive development
> Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
> Pervasive Developmental Delay (PDD)
> Sensory integration / sensory processing differences
> Decreased attention span, ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities
> Behavioral problems
> Poor social skills or physically aggressive behavior in groups
> Prematurity
> Foreign adoption
> Vision or hearing impairment
> Motor deficits, neurological or genetic disorders


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