At two and a half years, Enzo stopped talking.
Months later he began to hum and flap his hands, the words he was saying dripping away.
Laiz Moreno, his mother, thought that “it was something normal” given her situation: she is Brazilian, so her son received stimuli in Portuguese and Spanish and barely interacted with other children, since they lived in La Victoria de Acentejo, a small town rural in the north of Tenerife.
"I was a new mother, I imagined that it took time to speak because of bilingualism or because I did not have more babies around," she explains.
After much observation by Moreno and several specialists, Enzo, who is now five years old, was diagnosed with a Generalized Developmental Disorder.
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Idaira Herrera also noticed that Eizan took longer than his colleagues to speak and "seemed not to understand what we were saying to him."
Currently, with three years, although he has no diagnosis, he is already being treated by experts.
Ana Olmeda had premature twins: Claudia and Carmen.
“Having two, it was easy to realize that something was wrong with Carmen”.
Claudia's achievements were reached weeks later by Carmen.
"Balance, coordination, weight and height ... everything came later," he recalls.
The stories of families who detect problems in the development of their children are many.
All different, but, deep down, the same.
The desire to detect as soon as possible what is wrong is the thread that connects them all.
And it is that the first three years are decisive to detect an alteration in development or the risk of suffering it.
Inexperience, not wanting to worry excessively, and lack of observation are behind the "insurance that is nothing", which all mothers admit to having ever thought.
These are some of the key points to look for during the child's early years:
He is too attached and afraid to explore.
Care and observation start from delivery.
This is what Gloria González, psychologist and co-author of the book
The Challenge of Growing Up.
How to accompany child development and prevent attention and learning problems
.
Skin-to-skin contact and that the child feels protected from birth is key for them to grow and confidently explore their surroundings.
"If the parents do not achieve the balance between caring and letting him observe, play, fall ... the little one will not dare to know and it can lead to problems in his development," he explains.
Psychology and understanding the signals that the little ones provide is important to accompany their growth.
He does not keep his eyes and changes toys without hardly appreciating them.
It is normal that the attention of a child is not equivalent to that of an adult.
However, one of the most obvious indicators for Lucila To, an optician-optometrist specialized in Behavioral and Developmental Optometry and co-author of the same book, is precisely whether or not she keeps her gaze.
“At two months, attention should be about three seconds in a row.
In a few weeks of 10 seconds ”, he says.
"The fact that a minor does not fix his gaze may indicate that he has focus or vision problems and, even, that it is a symptom of some neurological pathology", reveals the expert.
To insists that the seconds are not exact, but that if there were a pattern of behavior in which the baby went from one toy to another without hardly looking at it, it would be advisable to take him to a specialist.
“People tend to think that if the child sees well, that is enough.
But eye contact is the first milestone in development and is the domain of optometry, "he adds.
You don't want to get on slides or swings.
"The normal thing for a child," continues To, "is that he wants to move and play."
According to him, when he systematically refuses to do so, it may be because he does not calculate distances well and that he has fallen several times because of it.
“Sometimes we tend to think that they are clumsy and that's it.
But it is important to investigate, because being so young they cannot explain what is happening to them ”, he says.
In the world, more than a billion people live with visual impairment because they do not receive the care they need for conditions such as myopia, hyperopia, glaucoma and cataracts, according to the first World Vision Report published last year by the World Health Organization.
"It is very important to pay attention to your child's eyes to prevent future pathologies," says To.
It takes
more than nine months to crawl
and more than a year to walk.
Iñaki Pastor, doctor in physiotherapy and director of the Institute of Integrative Therapies of Zaragoza, recommends paying special attention to the movement of babies.
A minor begins to crawl between eight and nine months and to walk with supports after one year, although this is not always the case.
“Some start walking very fast and others later.
If we notice that they are a little slower, even if it is not a pathology, we must be vigilant.
Because it is likely that they have a higher risk of developing a problem than those who have achieved these objectives on time ”, explains the third author of the manual published in June.
If the child takes a few more months to move, Pastor recommends stimulating their development with a physiotherapist, even if they have not diagnosed any disease.
Just attend the screens.
Pastor at this point is blunt: "No screens until three years."
These are one of the main causes of attention problems in children, which become somatized years later.
According to the physiotherapist, the nervous system of a child is not prepared for the constant and exaggerated stimuli of the television, the
tablet
or the mobile phone and, therefore, the attention systems "are exhausted in a kind of hypnosis".
“After prolonged exposure to the screens, it is very difficult that later he is interested in picking up a book or looking at a bird or painting on paper.
This is a very big problem ”, he laments.
Although the future of the minors of this generation is digital, Pastor insists: “We must restrict the screens only for learning.
Not for entertainment ”.
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