Living in poverty is just one of the many factors that puts children at risk for a wide variety of developmental delays. According to a Feb. 7 Sun Sentinel report, nearly half of children in south Florida live in low-income homes.
One or two developmental risk factors may have little effect on a child's development (physically, socially, emotionally, academically), but having three or more risk factors exponentially increases the potential for developmental problems. Risk factors may be cumulative so that the more risk factors a child or family is exposed to over the course of the child's development, the greater the potential for problems to arise.
Many children have multiple risk factors. Children with risk factors may benefit from preventive measures, which may include high quality preschool programs, additional developmental screening or speech or occupational therapy. Parents and caregivers can help their child by creating a safe and nurturing environment, speaking to the child often, reading together daily and engaging the child in a variety of activities that build skills, such as playing with blocks, painting or listening to music.
Parent/Family factors which place children at risk:
- Being low income (under 200% of the federal poverty level)
- Being a minority
- Single parents
- Teen parents
- Parents with low education levels (not having college degree)
- Lack of access to quality and affordable to medical care, social services and childcare
- Incarcerated parent
- Acceptance of violence in the community
- Lack of emotional and social support
- Marital problems
- Domestic violence
- Financial stress
- Unemployment
- Lack of parenting knowledge
- Multiple young children
- Unwanted pregnancy
- Parent being raised in an at risk environment
- Parent criminal activity
- Parent mental illness (including anxiety, depression, low self esteem)
- Parent drug abuse
- English is not the parent's first language
Child factors for being at risk:
- Being ages 0 - 3
- Being born prematurely
- Being born with a low birth weight
- Being exposed to drugs or alcohol in utero
- Having special needs
- Experiencing childhood trauma
- Having either an irritable or passive temperament
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