Can Cognitive Development Delays be overcome?

Well, I think it depends on what it is. I hope you got more specifics than "cognitive delays" so you can research specifics. I had one little boy come who was 3 years 10 months. No one could understand his speech, I mean, you could get 1 word in 10. The SW said "he needs speech therapy". I thought, bosh on that, he needs to learn to talk so one person can understand him, then everyone will be able to understand him. No one had ever bothered to teach him to talk. Geez. I figured he'd been told to shut up - a lot. He came with one of those goofy plastic talking machines, push the picture it talks. That went in the attic! He needed human interaction to learn.I told him, "Sorry, I *care* what you're saying, but I don't understand you, can you try again?" I let him talk as much as he wanted once he started, and he would say the same word 3-10 times, obviously listening to himself and trying to improve. I listened for places where he thought 2 words were one word, and showed him that they were separate. I taught him to say bigger words, by getting him to say one half, then the other half. At first he didn't want to try, eventually he got excited about it. I *never* criticized anything he said specifically, as, w's for r's, etc. I read a lot to him, got him books on CD from library, played kid songs for him to sing along to (a jillion repetitions, eek). In 4 months, pretty much everyone could understand him.Now was that a cognitive delay? I don't know, I'm not trained to know, maybe it's not. Mentioned as an example of the kind of thing that might seem a big deal, but isn't.I would expect every foster child to be delayed... in one form or another. Did you ask the professional if she'd expect the child to catch up?