Saturday, February 26, 2011

Language Delay

For the past 2 years we have been waiting for Max to talk.  He started small with words like Mom, Dad, Hey, baby and for a long time we were okay with that.  We didn't know a lot of other kids exactly his age so we didn't think to much of him only saying a few words.  We have friends with girls right around his age that could talk circles around him but I had been told by several people that girls talk sooner then boys.  Well time keep ticking by and I kept waiting for Max to start really talking.  His friends can sing, say the alphabet and tell you how their day went and Max still had trouble saying truck.  When I took him to his pediatrician for his 2 year check up and the doctor said he had a 4-6 month language delay but that he should out grow it.  Well the problem with this is that as he continued to maybe learn a few new words a week his peers are not only learning up to 6 words a day but also can answer much more complex questions simply because they had been talking and using more words for a longer time.  So after much thought on my part and my husbands we decided to seek some help for our son.  After many phone calls we found a program called Early On which is a program for any sort of developmental delay be it speech, motor, or other wise.  So far I can't say enough positive about the program.  They have been very prompt in all that they have done, not made me wait 6 weeks for an appointment or anything.  We had our evaluation which is was free as is most of their services and it was an in home eval so that the kid can be comfortable and act as he normally would.  Max had a complete evaluation meaning not only did they test his speech but also gross and fine motor skills as well as social skills.  I am happy to say that he did well with his social and motor skills.  His language at this point is that of a 2 year old.  They actually have a really interesting system in which for every major skill they have a task and depending on what they do they get a score which correlates to an age.  One thing that I noticed in watching him answer questions is that if for instance he saw a picture of a wet dog he would say "uh oh"  but when asked what to dry the dog with he couldn't come up with towel, or when there was a child in a car but he couldn't say car when asked what the child was ridding in.  They call this skill expressive language .  I have to admit I found the whole process fascinating.  Now we are on our way to some speech therapy.  A lady is going to come to our home twice a month and teach us how to teach Max to talk.  Lets pray it works for him.  The only regret I have is that I didn't do this sooner.