No words - 18 months

takmjs

I'm also posting this on the March 2012 and Preemies boards. I apologize that this is very long...

My daughter was born at 30 weeks. She passed her infant hearing test with no problems. She has not said a single word, and she's now 18+ months (16 months adjusted, but our speech therapist said they don't adjust age for speech beyond a year)....so that makes her 18 months in the speech world. Anyway, we had her in the county's birth to 3 intervention program last summer just to see if she was on track. She was, and they released her at about 9 months actual age.

Since she hadn't said a word, I asked them to come back and do another eval on her, which they did a few weeks ago. She's also not walking yet (she's starting to stand on her own in the middle of the room for a second or two, so I think she's close), and she qualified for speech every 2 weeks and physical therapy every month. She tested at a 20 month range for comprehension, but an 11 month age for expressive language. They'll be doing our first speech visit next week.

We had our 18 month check-up with the pediatrician, and she suggested we get a hearing test done. I agreed, even though to me, if she has comprehension at a 20-month level, she must be able to hear us, right?! We just got back from the hearing test today, and they said she could hear the medium range, but didn't seem to hear the low or high range sounds. She was antsy and not wanting to sit after a while and was distracted by the moving animals they wanted her to hear/look at, so the tester said it could be that, or there could be an issue. She wants us back for a retest in a month.

When I'm talking to someone new and mention I have a daughter, their first question: "how old is she?" Almost everyone's first comment when they hear how old she is, is "oh, that's a fun age. She must be walking and talking all over the place, huh?" I'm starting to feel like I've failed her, and I feel embarrassed to have to say "no" all the time, but I don't know what else to do.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had children with any hearing issues or speech issues similar to ours (NO words at 18 months), and what you did about it, and what worked well. Should I push for her to be seen again sooner than a month? Or am I just being a paranoid mom?

lp0

I have no idea about delays for preemies so unfortunately I can't offer any advice there but there are quite a few moms on here that have lo's not talking yet. DS just started saying Daddy maybe about two weeks ago. I talked to the dr about it last week at his 18 month check up and he was not concerned at all because DS can understand what your saying and complete tasks when you ask him to.
DS also just started repeating words in the past couple of weeks.

My cousin's DS didn't say a word until he was almost 2 1/2. They checked his hearing and he met with a speech therapist but everything was normal. Then one day his language exploded and now at four you can't get him to be quiet lol.

Klawre05

I don't know about the preemie world, ds walked around 1516 month, he just decided it was time I guess. As for speaking, he has about 56 words, mainly mama, dada, uh oh, and no. He does point, nod yes, shake head no, grab our hand and lead us. Idk if that helps. On second thought however, he has really started picking up words after his ear tubes were put in in march, before that it was only mama and dada sometimes..

Erinvp120

My son was a late walker too, and although I don't have much advice on the speech aspect, I definitely know how horrible it feels when people asked me "oh he must be running all over the place" and in my head I was saying actually, no he's not. I found that saying to people "yup, he's getting there!" Would make it easier and less complicated. My son would walk holding our hand for months! But would never do it on his own. So I feel like I said this forever to people, but it worked for me. Good luck! Rememebr, as frustrating as it is, they all work at their own pace