Speech delay ?

papagena

Last week we had the ECFE teacher meeting and they suggested DS get checked out by a speech therapist (although they said he's great in all other areas).  He is a bit behind his verbal milestones - we talked about it with the pedi, and had been in the process of filling out a form (which we still haven't finished) to see what she thought - back at his 2 year she said it could go either way, that if he seemed fine elsewhere it might just be he was focusing on other aspects and the speech would come in time.

He's still not doing any really good two word phrases (the biggest being 'tea pot' and 'oh boy, oh dear, oh man, all riiight') and while we understand and he communicates with signs/pointing, etc, a lot of his words sound very similar.  DH had a speech issue growing up, and so he's actually a bit reluctant to get DS evaluated, because he hates the process.  I figure it'd be better to figure it out soon and, if needs be, start working on it now when we can get free help at our house rather than going somewhere, and ideally not wait for school like DH had to, etc.  

Thoughts?  Experiences?  

ETA: not sure if I'm being overly concerned or not...  his receptive language/hearing skills all look to be very good. 

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sapphyr

Since we're in the process of doing it through the school district I'd say do it now.  I don't mind the school district but if we hadn't lived with family for the past 2.5 years I'd have done everything I could have in the comfort of home for DS and had it work around his schedule more than what some secretary gives me because she's just filling in time slots at the school.  So far the testing process is fine but if I could have it done at home I would.  It's a fight here to get him dressed to go to the school and he clams up when we go somewhere whereas at home he is more comfortable for everything.

papagena

InternetExplorer:

ECFE is that your state's Early Intervention?  I'd start there and have them do an eval if that's not what you're already talking about.  My DS has speech evals every six months.   

 Usually a 3 month "delay" is enough to warrant initiating services/therapy. 

ECFE is Early Childhood Family Education - they referred to somewhere in the school district that does basically EI evals & early/free therapy.

Interesting on the 3 month delay... 

blissfully_caffeinated

There's no harm in getting an eval. It might be as simple as just getting some tips on working on things at home. You could also post this on the Special Needs board.

babyluv617

 I had concerns at D's 2 yr appt and the Dr. said they don't worry until they are closer to 3.

All of the sudden he's now picking up/repeating words, pointing out numbers and letters (not necessarily recognizing/saying the right ones) & while some of his phrases are difficult to understand he's coming along. 

He's a very, VERY busy & active child so we've always assumed that he's working more on his motor skills. He's above & beyond those milestones.

I've increased the amount of time we spend reading and talking and we're already seeing results.

eta - But if you're really concerned, I'd get in contact with someone about it. For now I'm going on the Pedi's rec. 

Joes_love

no harm in calling and going for the evals.  i remember speech therapists coming out to work with my oldest younger brother.

danaann78

Definitely get the eval.  I'd be willing to bet your H's bad experiences are because he was older and already in school.  If you get him evaluated now, you could potentially nip any problems in the bud long before he starts school.  I've always recommended to the parents of children in my daycare (and previously in my preschool classes) to have their children evaluated even if they don't think there's a problem.  Evaluations are free (in NY anyway) and most services are either covered by Early Intervention or by the school district depending on the child's age.  Evaluations never hurt, and could most certainly help if there is a problem.

MarknCalsMommy

Sooner is better.  We had DS#1 evaluated just before 3 (while he could still do it with EI -Birth-3) and I'm glad I did.  He came out on the low end of average and they didn't recommend any intervention, they thought that it would just come sooner than later.  By the end of preschool last year, he was just as verbal as any other kid at school (though I do have to remind him from time to time to answer in words, not excited squals or grumpy grunts.)  But if they do see a problem that they feel is worth
working on, the sooner they start,the sooner your LO has a chance to "catch up" to his peers.

Good luck!

susangilchrist

I'm a special education preschool teacher and have worked very closely with EI speech therapists.  PLEASE go and at least get an eval done.  If not, I'm afraid you'd be wasting precious time.  It could be that he could have services for a few months to catch up and be fine, but left untreated, it could take longer to correct.  And it's much easier to do now than to wait until he's in the school system - trust me!

luvlieK

We did the evaluation back when C turned 2.  He had picked up a lot in that 1 month after 2 so we did not qualify for help.  However, I would definitely do the evaluation.  It can't hurt.  He probably wouldn't really notice/care.  Its more like playing games.

In our county it is based on a percentage on what your actual age is and where you test at.  If your program is anything like ours, they will test every area, even if there is no concern.

The funny thing is he used to barely speak.  Now he gets comments on how talkative he is and how people think he is older because of his speech.  I think with him, he was concentrating on other things first.  But it didn't hurt any to check. 

julygal

First, I'll admit I haven't read any of the responses.  I am just jumping in with our experience.

At DD's 3 year appt we were recommended to see a speech therapist for an evaluation.  She was determined to have an articulation delay.  Receptive language, her ability to construct sentences and communicate, and hearing were all fine.  However, she  is just unintelligible to others (and at times to us).

We began speech which consisted of them playing a lot of games, blowing bubbles, making faces, and homework of saying words.  A month or so after beginning it was also determined that her articulation delay was due to a weak lower jaw in that her saw slips side to side when chewing not up and down, she can't drink from a straw without using her tongue to form a seal, and ultimately that fact that she had difficulty with nursing the first few weeks of life.  At that point we began introducing jaw strengthening exercise such as using a "chewy tube."  Our initial eval and treatment has been through a private therapist (despite insurance not covering it), so we could bridge the 4 month wait that our state early intervention had (the school's system's summer break was thrown in there which delayed us longer than normal).  We recently began going twice a week to our local school.   I have noticed a big improvement in her speech.  I didn't realize how frustrated she was with communication until she all of a sudden could more clearly communicate.  

We ultimately decided to start now rather than wait and see, because we felt it was just beginning to affect her ability to play with peers.  We felt kids her age were moving into verbal communication and she was still stuck using non-verbal ways to engage.  She was starting to get a lot of her friends turning to me and saying, "what did she say?"  Also, when family visited she was getting upset that she was talking about animals and everyone kept talking back to her about Elmo, which at the time sounded very similar in her speech or some other mis-understanding.

 DD has loved going and I am glad we are doing it now, because I am hopeful we can get it solved before she is at school age and having to be pulled out of class, before peers tease not just ask her to repeat, etc. 

smurfetteinred

Go with mommy gut on this one. I had concerns about Noel starting a little after a year and brought it up at his 18 month appt. The pedi there said to wait until he was two and reevaluate. I've regretted it ever since. Once we switched pedi's and he strongly recommended getting him evaluated at two, it took months before we ever got him any help (it can be hard to get in with private speech therapy and ei evals take awhile to get scheduled on the books and completed, etc) and he's still ridiculously behind despite 9 months of help at this point. It really affects his socialization with other children and while we generally understand his needs, sometimes we still have a lot of trouble with more complex things like why he's up and upset in the middle of the night.

I say get it done if you're concerned. There's really no downfall to having him looked at, you know.

CABunny

smurfetteinred:

Go with mommy gut on this one. I had concerns about Noel starting a little after a year and brought it up at his 18 month appt. The pedi there said to wait until he was two and reevaluate. I've regretted it ever since. Once we switched pedi's and he strongly recommended getting him evaluated at two, it took months before we ever got him any help (it can be hard to get in with private speech therapy and ei evals take awhile to get scheduled on the books and completed, etc) and he's still ridiculously behind despite 9 months of help at this point. It really affects his socialization with other children and while we generally understand his needs, sometimes we still have a lot of trouble with more complex things like why he's up and upset in the middle of the night.

I say get it done if you're concerned. There's really no downfall to having him looked at, you know.

Right there with you, Smurfette.