to Abby

[Guest guest]

I really related to what you said about how you felt when you first read " The

Late Talker. " It was some of the symptoms beyond the speech delay itself that

really grabbed me.

I noticed that you said your child is 2-1/2 and is going to a speech therapist.

May I ask at what age you decided to look into your child's speech issues? I'm

worried about my 20-month-old granddaughter, but the pediatrician is telling her

mom to " wait and see. "

What a blessing to have this group!

[Guest guest]

Hi Barbara,

I would say that my concern for my daughter's lack of speech really grew just

before she was 18 months old. Up until that point, I knew that she wasn't

talking as much as other kids, but I was hoping she was just a little " slower "

in that area than my first child, for instance, who had a very large vocabulary

by his 18-month birthday.

At her 18-month checkup, when the ped. was asking about language milestones, I

could only report that she did little babbling (mama, babababa, etc) and only

one meaningful word (mama) that she first said at 12 months and not much since

then. No jargon (more complicated sounds, not repetitive simple consonant-vowel

sounds like baba, mama, etc). She said that I should read intensely to her for

several weeks and see if that increased her language. At that time, she had very

little attention-span for much reading together. I tried that, and took her back

after a couple weeks at which point the ped. gave me a number for early

intervention. She said my daughter could merely be delayed, but I could check

this out in the meantime. I hopped right on it and she had an eval done when she

was 20 months old. She qualified for services and we got started right away.

At some point after I contacted early intervention, but before the scheduled

evaluations were actually done, I read a Parents magazine article that

highlighted several speech disorders and encouraged parents to try and screen or

test for these. What jumped out at me, even back then, was the description and

red flags for apraxia.

Children qualify for evaluations from birth, so I don't see why anyone would not

take advantage of this. Whether she's delayed or has a disorder, I feel you

cannot go wrong and your child (or grandchild) will benefit. My daughter's

language did explode after we began this process, although some apraxic

characteristics are becoming more defined now that she speaks. She says a lot

now, but most people still have no idea what she's saying.

What I know, from my background in learning ASL, studying (a little)

linguistics, and human development for my nursing program; and most importantly,

by looking into the issues that touch my children--the earlier the intervention,

the better the outcome! Go! Call! Find out! I would not wait on a pediatrician's

inkling. Most pediatricans are unfamiliar with speech disorders. I found that

the recommendation to look into services through EI or specialists was about the

end of the road as far as my ped's advice goes.

I would strongly encourage your daughter to look into this for your little

grandbaby. I think the " wait and see " approach is only appropriate with real

professional oversight of the progress of your child, as in by a speech

pathologist or others, if she qualifies for services.

I would be happy to answer any more questions, if you'd like to email me.

fab4jc@...

Take care!!

-abby

>

> I really related to what you said about how you felt when you first read " The

Late Talker. " It was some of the symptoms beyond the speech delay itself that

really grabbed me.

>

> I noticed that you said your child is 2-1/2 and is going to a speech

therapist. May I ask at what age you decided to look into your child's speech

issues? I'm worried about my 20-month-old granddaughter, but the pediatrician is

telling her mom to " wait and see. "

>

> What a blessing to have this group!

>