Language question

[Guest guest]

Sorry for the cross post. My son is 4.5 and did ABA for a while which

morphed into VB which is now morphing into NET (very little use of

flashcards now). His language has improved dramatically, from about 35

nouns at age 3 to testing as age appropriate in receptive language and mild

delays in expressive language. He can ask questions (who, what, where,

working on when and why and how) and is on the cusp of being conversational.

My question is this. I had another little 4 year old over for a playdate, a

girl, who is a few months younger than my son. She was talking about how

she would be turning 5 and be going to kindergarten next year, and taking

the bus, and riding with her friends, etc...

And it occurred to me, that my own son HAS NO CLUE about something like

that. I'm holding him back a year and he just has no idea, no clue that

when kids turn 5 most kids do go to kindergarten and to the big school,

etc...

I talked to the little girl's mother, and she said that she hadn't mentioned

kindergarten at all to her daughter, because she is considering holding her

back a year to give her the " gift of time " , but that her daughter is picking

it up from her friends at preschool and her friends around the neighborhood.

So my question is this, what skill/skills is my son lacking that he can't

pick up this kind of stuff from his peers, whereas the little girl CAN? I

can't even put my finger on it. I've asked several friends, and my child's

resource teacher, and I've gotten responses ranging from:

1. Some kids are just more clueless longer. They'll get it eventually.

2. Its because your son is a visual learner. Other kids can pick this

stuff up by language ALONE, but your son needs to see and experience

something for it to have meaning for him.

3. Your son is still a fairly new language user, and once he gets

experience with language, he'll improve his ability to comprehend.

4. Your son has auditory processing delays. He can't yet follow the rapid

fire pace of children's conversations, let alone convert their words into

anything meaningful.

5. Your son just isn't listening to the other children, maybe because the

preschool environment is distracting and very stimulating.

I guess of all of these make sense in a way. But how do I convert this into

a plan of action??

2 seems to make the most sense, and to me, this means that I need to GIVE

him as many experiences as possible, or teach him things in a visual way,

with pictures in a book or a video.

But I guess what I'm getting at is that I'd love my son to learn stuff where

I don't specifically have to teach him all the time.

Any ideas or insights?? Any success stories out there? THanks -

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