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Maybe one difference is in when they reach their maximum potential.With delay I would expect the child to continue developing albeit lagging behind (but not neccessarily catch up completely); with severe learning difficulties I would expect the child to reach a ceiling in certain areas which is well below "normal" and maybe reach it quite early.

thanks kangas.Garden, The Doctor didn't do any tests! he just looked at her! and took information from her records. She is very poorly (not sure how else to describe it, without giving our identity away!), he thinks there may be other causes but we might not find out what. They can't even take her height or weight. Every appointment is a waste unless she is sedated. He seemed more worried about the microcephaly and said there was no room for the brain to grow. Explaining how with autism you have a larger brain. He then went on further about another possible cause but which needs testing for, he's writing to the genetics. So confusing, but obviously serious. thanks for your reply and I hope your daughter settles in her special school.

We were told that global developmental delay was lifelong and our son wouldn't recover.

Our son now has a diagnosis of moderate to severe learning disabilities and Global Developmental Delay. I have never asked, but assumed that with developmental delay there was a possibility of catch-up, but with learning disability it was more permanent.(We were expecting a child of near normal intelligence and mild physical problems.)It was us who pushed for place in special needs school (SLD) and were told he wouldn't always need it. The place was given reluctantly and on a temporary basis. After detailed assessments it turns out we were right. Also MRI scan revealed significant amount of brain damage. (Chromosome tests were negative.) Now the place is permanent, and we're being told to opt for the 'less academic' of the secondary SLD schools in our area..... The worst time is knowing something is wrong and not having any answers. (I felt as if I was living under a slowly falling sledgehammer). Once the answers start to come in and you know what you are dealing with, the picture gets much clearer and you can cope better. I hope you can get some answers very soon. Keep coming on here for support.alison123

Hellosorry to hear that you are in the midst of receiving sad news. I'll try to explain a bit about the terminology:people tend to use the term global developmental delay (i.e. delay in most/all areas of development) when children are still quite young, & when you are still not sure how their development will progress. Unfortunately it can be a misleading term, and many people think that the word 'delay' suggests that the child will eventually 'catch up'. Sadly this is not always the case. It is only by monitoring, observing and assessing children over time that you can be more clear about their developmental progress. The term learning difficulties is usually used once you have been able to do more formal assessment of a child to see their current level of development/learning. Often we are still using the term global delay up until school age at least. Sometimes it is clear with even quite young children that their development is severely delayed, and (usually) therefore likely to remain so - therefore we should perhaps make the slightly clearer diagnosis of learning difficulties earlier. However breaking news such as this to families is never easy, and often people try to soften the blow by using slightly less definite terms (global delay) early on. Hope this makes some sense. ND