walking/talking

[Guest guest]

Hi All-

This one kind of goes back to an OT about speech delay. Our son

david is in the First Steps program in Indiana and has been for a

year now. He just had his one year evaluation where they redetermine

his eligibilty. He was observed by a speech and language pathologist

(I had a speech delay and since it's free, I figured it didn't hurt)

and a physical therapist. Since he isn't walking on his own,

obviously he is still behind in his gross motor skills. It did

surprise us a little to find out he is slightly delayed in speech.

The way the SLP explained it is for the first 18months-the brain is

busy figuring out how the body works, etc. and once it has that

figured out, it begins working on the speech/communication. is

at the 24 month range for non-verbal communication, however, for

verbal he is at 12 month old. He is now eligible for speech therapy

once a week. The SLP says walking/talking tend to go hand in hand

which makes sense especially when she explained the whole brain

being focused on certain tasks. I wanted to share this with the

parents who think there child may have a speech delay-it doesn't

hurt to have your child evaluated and with the Early INtervention

team-they are soooo wonderful and fun to work. We had the same PT do

this year's eval as the initial one last year and she couldn't

believe how well david was doing and what a handsome little guy he

has grown up to be.

On a more exciting note, my little stinker is sneakily walking on

his own. He won't walk to us when we ask but the minute we turn our

backs on him, he will be taking 6 or 7 steps towards something.

Yeah!!

HTH,

Kathleen

mom to 17months bcf fab 12/7