Well I haven't had my first baby yet, I don't know if that makes me qualified to comment.

However I was watching a great documentary one day, it went through each stage of life, and it featured, babies, children and adults who had somehow either had an injury or disability or other problem. Throughout and by the end the idea is definitely there's lots of times to catch up on development, including even adults who've had neurological and spinal injuries. However babies and children have the greatest opportunities of all. No one develops like the textbooks, everyone has something they're not good at usually, but anyone can learn things or catch up on things at any stage of life.