3 year old with only 2 words

[Guest guest]

Hello!

I've been so frustrated with professionals doing developmental and speech

assessments on my 3 year old son without having any idea what his diagnosis is,

I thought I would post here and see if anyone has a similar experience.

Elias babbled like crazy as a baby, and even said " cat " (gat) and " light "

(ight) when he was one year old. He waved and pointed right at the average age.

Around 18 months he regressed and stopped waving, pointing, and using his two

words. His pediatrician was concerned at his 18 mo appt and had us see a

developmental specialist for evaluation. Elias was up to speed on all of his

physical and social milestones (great interaction, showing, and eye contact) but

had a receptive and expressive delay; they said he was more like 13 months in

language.

Since then he slowly picked up waving and pointing again and he has gone

through stages where he can make some sounds of the alphabet like if I say " The

C says? " he would say " kuh! " but he has also lost those. The only consistent

sounds right now are " What does the dinosaur say? " " Rahhh! " and " What does the

snake say? " " Sssss " as well as " Uh-oh! " when he is hurt or sees someone else get

hurt. He shakes his head NO only, but we suspect it means Yes OR No, not just

no.

He has never tried to imitate a sound or a face before until this week. We have

been working on " The cow says moooo! " because a goal in our speech therapy right

now is to get him saying Mama. I see him trying to say Mooo, he presses his lips

together in exactly the right way, but then he just blows air and can't really

make the Mmmm sound. However! When he eats something he likes or sees someone

eating he will at times say Mmmmmm, so I know he CAN make that sound!

Is there anyone at all who has ANY idea what this might be? We've had 4

different speech/development evaluations and everyone says " I just have no

idea! " We are so frustrated because we want to be following the correct path in

treatment as soon as possible.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

-Hillary (Austin Texas)

[Guest guest]

Your child definitely has apraxia. Early intervention and the school system

will be no help diagnosing this. Take him to a children's hospital to be

diagnosed. If you are unable to get him to a good private therapist for a

diagnosis, go to the CHERAB website and print out info and tell the therapists

your child is obviously apraxic and needs to get speech therapy geared towards

that diagnosis. Also, go online to Communicating Partners website w/Dr

Mac. This site is geared towards late talkers and helped me more with my

severely apraxic child than any other site as far as the day to day with him and

helping him to communicate.

Colleen