Boosting Your Child’s Development with Busy Books

Every parent wants their child to succeed in life, reaching milestones and developing skills. Sometimes this may be a little slower than expected, such as development delays in the way a child moves, communicates, learns or even behaves with others. Whether you’re a parent or work with children, you can help children with developmental delays overcome hurdles using a number of tools and strategies.

Busy Books have been designed and created by speech pathologists, early childhood educators, occupational therapists, paediatric pathologists and other child specialists to help children of all ages and abilities progress and with learning delays. These are just some of the ways Busy Books can be integrated into your child’s routine to help with their education and progress.

5 Areas of Development Delay & How Busy Books Can Help

There are five key areas of development in children; physical, cognitive, communication, emotional and behavioural delays. 

Physical developmental delays.

As your child grows, they will begin to progress physically, learning to reach, grab, crawl, walk, cut with scissors and more. Gross motor skills, fine motor skills and other physical development delays can mean they don’t do these things as fast as other children, but aren’t often permanent delays.

Busy Books are great for helping children with physical developmental delays. Books in general help encourage physical skills by having children turn pages. However, Busy Books go that next level with hands-on activities requiring kids to point, use pencils to trace or draw, pick up and place cut outs. For example, the Community & Construction Printed Busy Book has children trace or follow a path with their finger to help guide a worker through a construction site, or place pictures of machinery on top of the outline of that equipment. Each book progresses with difficulty to help challenge your child as they learn new physical skills.

This is amazing!!!! Thank you so much BUSY BOOKS!!!! My son Max is 10 years old and has Severe Intellectual Disability, Severe Autism and Global Development Delay. Max is not able to hold a pen or pencil and learning has always been difficult.” Max O’Loughlin

Signs of physical developmental delays include delayed:

• Rolling over.
• Sitting up.
• Crawling.
• Walking.
• Fine motor skills, like tying shoes, using scissors, etc.

Cognitive developmental delays.

Cognitive delays are the most common developmental delays. It’s estimated 12 in every 1,000 children experience some sort of cognitive delay, whether that’s a generic, pregnancy, birth or health condition. So, while it may not be very uncommon, it doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to help improve your child’s skills and progress. 

Busy Books can help with cognitive delays, created by childhood mental and health professionals to help with a range of abilities and skills. The use of bright colours and characters, as well as different niches, help pique childrens’ interest, and keep them engaged, holding their attention for longer. Even the youngest of children will enjoy books like Shapes, Colours & Patterns, where they learn to match coloured cars to the corresponding house colour, match different lollipop-shaped heads to one another and more. One of our customers said they showed their child this particular Busy Book before bed, and they were instantly so enthralled they didn’t want to go to sleep!

These books are absolutely fantastic! My daughter was immediately captivated and wanted to spend all night playing with them (my mistake for showing them to her shortly before bedtime).” Becky O’Hara

Signs of cognitive delays:

• Difficulty speaking.
• Trouble thinking logically.
• Lack of age-appropriate self-help skills.
• Infantile behaviour past toddler age.
• Lack of curiosity.
• Trouble understanding social cues.
• Short attention span.
• Spatial awareness.
• Memory skills.

Communication developmental delays.

Children typically begin to show signs of communication delays as easy as 12 months of age, but they may show signs over the coming years. There may be a delay in verbal or written communication, or language skills you notice and want to help develop through support tools, like Busy Books.

Talk With Me Busy Book was created by award-winning speech pathologist, Emily Mackie, designed to help children between the ages of 3 to 4 with their communication development. It aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) so perfectly matches up with early childhood learning, with 20+ activities for children to learn from. It uses fun puzzles like putting cut out items in an illustrated school bag, putting vehicles on a road from fastest to slowest and more to encourage them to learn new words, speak, write and more.

I have two boys with global development delay and currently their speech is affecting their mood since noticing other kids their age and size can communicate more fluently. This has been affecting their enjoyment and enthusiasm about going to kindergarten.” Rosemary Beecher

Signs of communication delays:

• By 12 months: Unable to point or gesture, such as wave.
• By 18 months: Preferring gestures over physically speaking.
• By 18 months: Unable to imitate sound.
• By 2 years: Can only imitate sound but not say words or phrases.
• By 2 years: Can’t follow simple instructions.
• By 2 years: Has a raspy, nasal or unusual tone to their voice.

Emotional developmental delays.

Little people have big feelings, and it can take a while to learn what these are and how to react. However, emotional developmental delays can mean some children are a little slower to learn how to self-regulate, exhibit empathy, manage stress and more. Busy Books are a good way to help children learn emotions and start conversations that can lead to greater emotional development.

My Body Mindfulness is a good Busy Book to help teach children emotions, cause and effect, relationships and even basic yoga. It’s ideal for kids aged 3 to 8, having them match facial expressions to names of emotions, match body parts to what sense they evoke, what feeling matches the picture (such as a child crying next to a fallen bike) and more. You can work through the activities with them, asking them about real life scenarios to help them progress their development even more.

This Busy Book has been amazing tool for helping teach both kids about their
bodies, emotions and ways they can help themselves when dealing with different
emotions.

Signs of emotional delays:

• Having difficulty understanding social cues.
• Experiencing difficulty socialising.
• Struggling to initiate two-way communication.
• Difficulty adapting to change.
• Trouble regulating their emotions.

Behavioural developmental delays.

While most kids will have tantrums or experience intense feelings every now and then, especially while learning to manage their emotions, too regular may indicate a developmental delay. They may be experiencing social and emotional issues, which can be worked on to help progress any behavioural problems.

Rosemary Beecher explained how Busy Books helped her two children improve their mood and behaviour by boosting their speech development:

I have two boys with global development delay and currently their speech is affecting their mood since noticing other kids their age and size can communicate more fluently. This has been affecting their enjoyment and enthusiasm about going to kindergarten.

Signs of behavioural delays:

• Not obeying rules.
• Severe mood swings.
• Regular tantrums.
• Concentration problems.
• Destructive behaviour.
• Self-harming behaviour.
• Intense feelings.

Frequently Asked Questions About Developmental Delays in Children

What is a developmental delay?

A developmental delay is when a child is experiencing slower, stopped or reversing skill progression. This may include learning delays, communication delays, physical delays, like walking and more. It’s important you speak to your doctor if you believe your child is experiencing a developmental delay as early intervention can be beneficial for your child’s progress and skill development.

Can a child with developmental delays catch up?

Children with developmental delays can catch up. However, it depends case-to-case on what that looks like. For example, some delays may be minor, such as a child who learns to walk slower than others, and can be caught up and don’t cause further delays. Other delays may be more major, but early intervention and treatment can help give your child every chance of progressing and catching up.

How can I tell if my child has developmental delays?

Telling if your child has developmental delays depends on their age and progress. For example, some developmental delays may be detected during pregnancy, while delays in language, motor skills, social skills, vision or hearing may not be apparent until they are 2 years or older. If you believe your child is experiencing a delay, it’s important to speak with your doctor about their progress and potential treatments.