Developmental Delay Treatment in Delhi

Developmental delay treatment in Delhi begins with a question the word delay does not answer: delayed by what? The short answer is both our Delhi centres, Vasant Kunj and Malviya Nagar, and which one is a question of your journey rather than of the service. Delay is a description of where a child is now, not a diagnosis and not a prediction, and the useful work is finding out what is making learning harder.

Which of our Delhi centres you would use

We have two centres in Delhi, and which one you use is a question of geography rather than service, because the same pathway runs at both.

eMbrace Vasant Kunj, at C-7, Sector C, Pocket 5, Grand Vasant Kunj, is the larger team and serves south-west Delhi: Vasant Vihar, Munirka, R.K. Puram, Safdarjung Enclave, Anand Niketan, Shanti Niketan, Moti Bagh and Chanakyapuri.

eMbrace at Rainbow, Malviya Nagar, at FC-29, Plot No. 5, Geetanjali, beside Malviya Nagar Metro Station Gate No. 1, serves the Yellow Line corridor through Saket, Hauz Khas and Green Park, and the drive-in catchment of Greater Kailash and Defence Colony. It runs inside Rainbow Children's Hospital, so multidisciplinary therapy sits in the same building as assessment.

If you are in north or west Delhi, either centre is a real journey, and we would usually suggest starting online and coming in only for the parts that have to happen in a room.

Early intervention is time-sensitive in a way that little else we do is. The first three years carry more change than any period after them, so where there is doubt we would rather see a child early and tell you the picture is not yet clear than hold the appointment for a year to be sure.

For parking, the nearest drop-off point and the quickest route at your particular time of day, ask on the intake call. Traffic and parking around every one of these centres change enough through the day that current directions from someone who works there beat anything we could fix on a web page.

What counts as a delay worth acting on

Milestone ranges are wide and children do not develop in straight lines. What matters is the size of the gap, whether it is widening or closing, and whether it affects everyday life. One area behind is a specific delay; two or more is usually described as global.

• No babbling, pointing or waving by twelve months
• Fewer than around six clear words by eighteen months, or no two-word phrases by two years
• Not walking independently by eighteen months, or a marked difference between the two sides
• Loss of a skill your child previously had, at any age, which always warrants a same-month appointment

The full picture is on our developmental delay treatment page.

How treatment is decided

With a developmental assessment across all five areas, because the answer changes the plan completely. Hearing loss, a language disorder, autism, an intellectual disability, a neurological condition and prematurity all present as delay in the early years and none of them want the same programme.

From there therapy is targeted rather than general, and parent coaching is part of the plan rather than an extra, because most of what changes happens in the hours we are not there.

What we see most of

At Malviya Nagar, inside Rainbow, the full early intervention team sits in one building, which matters here more than for any other service because delayed children frequently need two or three disciplines at once. Most referrals come from paediatricians in the first two years, usually about speech and motor milestones together.

Who you would see

Dr Supriya Malik, Founder and CEO, and Head of the Child Development Centre at Rainbow

PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Birmingham, where she was also a postdoctoral researcher, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society in the UK. She designed the assessment and therapy pathways every eMbrace centre runs.

Across our Delhi centres, the clinicians who take this work are:

Cheesha Kanwar, Psychologist

Completing an MSc in Clinical Psychology at Christ (Deemed to be University), with a BA (Hons) in Applied Psychology from the University of Delhi. Behaviour therapy and assessment support using WISC-V, NEPSY-II, Conners-3 and BRIEF-2. Works in English and Hindi.

Dr Agrima Aggarwal, Occupational Therapist

Dr Agrima Aggarwal is a PhD scholar in Occupational Therapy at Mahatma Gandhi University of Medical Sciences and Technology. She holds an MOT in Neurology from SVNIRTAR, Utkal University, where she was gold medallist, and a BOT from PDUNIPPD, University of Delhi. She works in paediatric occupational therapy and early intervention, alongside neurorehabilitation and cognitive rehabilitation.

Upasna, Speech Language Pathologist

Upasna holds a Master and a Bachelor in Speech Language Pathology from the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Speech and Hearing Disability in Kolkata. Her paediatric work covers spoken language disorders, misarticulation, late language emergence, developmental verbal dyspraxia, developmental stuttering and cluttering, cleft lip and palate, cochlear implant support, cerebral palsy and pragmatic language difficulty in autism.

Abha Mattoo, Paediatric Physiotherapist

Abha Mattoo holds an MPT in Neurological Sciences with a paediatrics elective from Sikkim Manipal University and a BPT from H.N.B. Garhwal University. She works in paediatric neurological and cardiothoracic rehabilitation, and previously ran early intervention rehabilitation for children with autism and ADHD at the Sangamitra Centre in Bengaluru.

Which of them you see is decided on the intake call rather than by whoever has the next free slot, and you are told who it will be before you book. Fuller biographies are on our about page.

Schools and services we already work with

Early intervention around Delhi depends on the routes families arrive by, which include:

Our Malviya Nagar centre runs inside Rainbow Children's Hospital, New Delhi, which is why occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, behaviour therapy and special education sit in the same building as assessment.

Through The Medical Travel Company we provide autism and ADHD assessment and therapy for families in the UK, across Africa and elsewhere in India, on hybrid, in-person and online programmes.

Fees and how progress is judged

Fees are quoted upfront on your intake call and depend on which disciplines the plan uses.

Progress is measured against the written baseline from the assessment, not against a milestone chart, because the question is whether your child is moving rather than whether they have caught up with an average. Reviews happen on a set date.

Frequently asked questions