DUNFERMLINE mum is calling on West Fifers to wear yellow to raise awareness of an invisible disability.

Chantel Fox’s four-year-old son, Oliver, was found last year to suffer from Global Developmental Delay (GDD), which affects children who have not reached two or more milestones in all areas of development, such as motor skills, speech and language, social and emotional skills and cognitive skills; the ability to learn new things, process information, organise their thoughts and remember things.

Oliver attends playgroup instead of nursery as despite his age, he has the mentality of an 18-24-month-old and has hypermobility and sensory processing issues.

Many children who have GDD also suffer from other disabilities and Chantel, of St John’s Drive, admits that it can be hard work.

A support group for parents around the UK has been set up and they are encouraging people to wear yellow on 1st May in a bid to highlight the disability.

Chantel said, “It is not as common as ADHD or autism and is like an invisible disability because the children look normal.

“I always thought that Oliver was a normal three-year-old but when he started nursery, he wasn’t at the same level as other three-year-olds. He does talk but it is at the level of an 18-24-month old and every day is a struggle.

“He attends different therapies and we have to speak to him a certain way but he comes on a little every day, reaching little milestones that some parents take for granted that are now big for us.

“They can come and go – he was using the toilet but suddenly stopped and now won’t do it. It is hard work but we just have to take each day as it comes.” Chantel continued, “Everybody develops at a different pace and there are different severities. There is a boy who attends nursery with Oliver who is non-verbal but we all give each other support.

“It is really tough but if I can help one parent not go through what I have, then it’ll be worth it.

“We get a lot of judgement from people but this will hopefully make other people aware that some children could have issues not visible on the inside.” For more information on GDD, visit: www.globaldevelopmentaldelay.co.uk.