The main symptoms include:

• Early developmental milestones of crawling, walking, self-feeding and dressing may be delayed in young children with DCD.
• Drawing, writing and performance in sports are usually behind what is expected for their age.
• Although signs of the condition are present from an early age, children vary widely in their rate of development.
• DCD is not usually definitely diagnosed until a child with the condition is around five years old or more.

1. Try activities which involve the whole family equally.

2. Encourage each child to develop their own hobbies and interests so that comparisons are irrelevant.

3. Talk to your partner about the problems and be open about how you both feel about them.

4. Try to arrange time each week to concentrate on your child and your partner.

5. Take time for yourself and keep in touch with your friends.

6. Join a local support group.

7. It is really important to recognise that it is nobody’s fault and not to blame yourself!

The main symptoms include:

People with Down's syndrome often have certain physical characteristics. Not everyone will have all of them, but they may include:

• Reduced muscle tone that results in floppiness (Hypotonia).
• A small nose and flat nasal bridge.
• A small mouth with a protruding tongue.
• Eyes that slant upwards and outwards.
• A flat back of the head.
• A big space between the first and second toe (sandal gap).
• Broad hands with short fingers.
• Their palm may have only one crease across it (single transverse palmar crease).
• Below-average weight and length at birth.

All children with Down's syndrome have some degree of learning disability and delayed development, but this varies widely between individual children.

Children with the condition may be slower to learn skills such as:

• Reaching
• Sitting
• Standing
• Walking
• Talking

A child with Down's syndrome will gain these skills eventually – it simply takes more time.

The main symptoms include:

Most young children with Williams syndrome are described as having similar facial features. These features include a small upturned nose, long philtrum (upper lip length), wide mouth, full lips, small chin, and puffiness around the eyes. Blue and green-eyed children with Williams syndrome can have a prominent "starburst" or white lacy pattern on their iris. Facial features become more apparent with age.

The majority of individuals with Williams syndrome have some type of heart or blood vessel problem.

Some young children with Williams syndrome have elevations in their blood calcium level.

Most children with Williams syndrome have a slightly lower birth-weight than their brothers or sisters. Slow weight gain, especially during the first several years of life, is also a common problem and many children are diagnosed as "failure to thrive".

Many infants and young children have feeding problems. These problems have been linked to low muscle tone, severe gag reflex, poor suck/swallow, tactile defensiveness etc.

• Address whatever physical disabilities/problems your child is having.
• If your child has Williams syndrome, it’s easy to get caught up in looking after them. But it’s important to look after your own wellbeing too. If you’re physically and mentally well, you’ll be better able to care for your child.
• Learning as much as possible from your health specialists will help. It’s OK to ask lots of questions.

• For serious vision impairment, attention to the placement of furniture is important.
• Ensure that big or bulky furniture or furniture with sharp edges is not placed near regular walkways.
• Families can develop helpful habits, for example, making sure that doors and drawers are not left open and that kitchen or dining chairs are pushed under tables.
• For children who have low vision, you can make the home safer by checking that lighting is appropriate in every area.
• Depending on the needs of your child, teachers may get extra help in the preschool or classroom. They may also receive advice from visiting specialist teachers. Parents can help teachers by giving them all necessary and up-to-date information about their child's vision. This will aid teachers in choosing appropriate teaching methods.

• Phonics screening check should be administered in a room without distractions and by an adult who the child knows well and can give lots of praise.
• Give as long as necessary for a response
• Give the instructions in short sentences.
• A child with delay in expressive language may lack the ability or confidence to respond accurately and may not have the ability to communicate this to the tester. They may remain silent or give unrelated responses.
• Test results that indicate a need for intense emphasis on development of phonics may mask the need to enrich the child’s language as a priority. The risk of emphasising phonics too much too soon will impact on the development of literacy.

Children with language delay may have difficulties in any or all the previous building blocks. They may need a targeted intervention to support these skills and will certainly need an enriched language environment and opportunities to practice the building blocks of language and literacy, such as:

• Turn taking, attention and listening games.
• Games and opportunities to develop the child’s ability to remember what’s been said and what they want to say.
• Developing the vocabulary the child understands and can use.
• Expanding the sentences the child understands and uses through play, games and ‘talk time’ opportunities.
• Expanding opportunities to develop oral narrative-storytelling and story acting at the child’s own level.
• Building confidence to use language in conversation and interactions with others.
• Enabling small group opportunities to develop any of the areas listed.

Typical symptoms of dyscalculia:

• Has difficulty when counting backwards.
• Has a poor sense of number and estimation.
• Has difficulty in remembering ‘basic’ facts, despite many hours of practice/rote learning.
• Has no strategies to compensate for lack of recall, other than to use counting.
• Has difficulty in understanding place value and the role of zero in the Arabic/Hindu number system.
• Has no sense of whether any answers that are obtained are right or nearly right.
• Tends to be slower to perform calculations. Forgets mathematical procedures, especially as they become more complex, for example ‘long’ division.
• Addition is often the default operation. The other operations are usually very poorly executed (or avoided altogether).
• Avoids tasks that are perceived as difficult and likely to result in a wrong answer.
• Weak mental arithmetic skills.
• High levels of mathematics anxiety.

There aren’t specific therapies for kids with dyscalculia. But you may want to explore educational therapy . This type of therapy helps kids with different kinds of learning and attention issues develop strategies for working around their issues and dealing with frustration. An educational therapist may be able to help your child get better at working with numbers.

The more you and your child’s teachers work together to provide support and accommodations , the better the odds that your child will work through his challenges and succeed in math.

Talk with your child about their learning differences. Discuss ways they can ask for help for their dyscalculia in grade school or middle school . Learning to self-advocate is a skill that can offer benefits throughout their lifetime.

The symptoms of MS vary widely from person to person and can affect any part of the body.
The main symptoms include:

• Fatigue.
• Difficulty walking
• Vision problems, such as blurred vision
• Problems controlling the bladder
• Numbness or tingling in different parts of the body
• Muscle stiffness and spasms
• Problems with balance and co-ordination
• Problems with thinking, learning and planning

Depending on the type of MS you have,  your symptoms may come and go in phases, or get steadily worse over time (progress).

Having MS doesn't necessarily mean you will need to make any changes to your home, but sometimes the right adaptations can ensure it continues to suit your day-to-day life.

Whether you have MS yourself or you’re close to someone who does, it can throw a lot at you, often without warning.

You don’t have to face it on your own. The MS Society can help you get the right support.
Respite care and short breaks are a valuable opportunity for you and your child to recharge your batteries.

Open discussion of the family’s concerns is important. Having some basic information about MS and how it might affect someone can help.

Cystic Fibrosis can cause sticky mucus to clog the lungs and airways. This can cause:

• Recurring chest infections – these occur because mucus in the lungs is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria.
• Persistent inflammation of the airways, which can cause them to become abnormally widened (bronchiectasis).
• Increased coughing.
• Occasional wheezing and shortness of breath.

The mucus can also block parts of the digestive system, which can affect how food travels through the gut and how it's broken down or absorbed.

This can cause:

• A serious bowel obstruction in the first few days of life (meconium ileus) – this will often need an operation to remove the blockage.
• Jaundice.
• Diarrhoea or large, smelly stools.
• Problems putting on weight and growing – this can occur because the body struggles to digest and absorb nutrients (malnutrition).
• Diabetes from late childhood or early adulthood – this can develop if the pancreas becomes severely damaged.

Cystic fibrosis should not be a barrier that stops you from living the life you want - including going on holidays. Use free translation service for medication letters when you go on holiday, to explain your medication requirements in any of our supported languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish.

You can share your experiences and concerns with other members of the CF community by joining our social network on Twitter and Facebook, or we can put you in touch with a trained volunteer who can share their experience of living with CF.

There are many different signs of Intellectual Disability in children. Signs may appear during infancy, or they may not be noticeable until a child reaches school age. It often depends on the severity of the disability. Some of the most common signs of Intellectual Disability are:

• Rolling over, sitting up, crawling, or walking late.
• Talking late or having trouble with talking.
• Slow to master things like potty training, dressing, and feeding himself or herself.
• Difficulty remembering things.
• Inability to connect actions with consequences.
• Behavior problems such as explosive tantrums.
• Difficulty with problem-solving or logical thinking.

In children with severe or profound Intellectual Disability, there may be other health problems as well. These problems may include seizures, mood disorders (anxiety, autism, etc.), motor skills impairment, vision problems, or hearing problems.

Community supports: Within each person's community, there are a variety of programs and services. Many of these services are designed to assist people with disabilities. Some of these services are specifically intended for families and other caregivers.

Family Therapy and Support Groups: Parents of children with intellectual disabilities face many losses. The loss of their dreams, hopes, and aspirations for their child can cause great sorrow.

Support for siblings of intellectually disabled: Siblings of children with intellectual disabilities need their own support.

Individuals with SMS are characterised by a short flat head, prominent forehead, broad square face, deep-set eyes and a broad nasal bridge. The facial differences may become more distinctive with age.

Feeding problems, failure to thrive, weak muscle tone, prolonged napping and lethargy are all common during infancy. Later in childhood and adulthood, sleep disturbances may develop, as well as behavioural problems. These may be exhibited in the form of frequent temper, anxiety or self-injurious tendencies.

There are other stereotypical behaviours including ‘self-hugging’, hand-licking, teeth grinding and body rocking.
 

Input from professionals is vital as SMS is a complex disability, and each individual will exhibit different aspects of the characteristics.

Many families have found that having safe activities in the bedroom to keep the child engaged during their wake time is helpful, and to secure the rooms to prevent the child from injury if they wander about the house.

Keeping schedules is important, and use visual cues to show what is happening next. Emotionally neutral environments are useful as individuals with SMS can be very sensitive and anxious of feelings of others.