2 year old doesn't talk - Is it more than verbal delay?
tamaratoday
member
I posted this on the Toddler board as well...
We took our 2 year old DS in for a verbal evaluation yesterday as he pretty much doesn't talk at all. He has learned words before like eye, cheek, uh-oh, thank you, but he only uses them for a couple weeks before he just doesn't want to say them anymore. He typically makes a lot of grunting noises. Afterwards, we were told that verbally he's at about a 9-12 month level and at about 12-15 months for other fine motor development. They recomended therapy at a local pre-school 1 hour a day and 2 days a week as well as another consultation with a psychologist for a more thorough evaluation. I've always known that DS was a bit behind with his verbal development (especially since our 4 year old DS was really early with all of his milestones) but hearing that he was so far behind rather upset me.The women who evaluated him never mentioned anything like cerebral palsey or any other kind of condition so I'm wondering if perhaps this is something he will simply grow out of with time and/or therapy? Or should I prepare myself for the fact that he might be in Special Education throughout the whole time he's in school? Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Re: 2 year old doesn't talk - Is it more than verbal delay?
I wondered about deafness because my grandfather was deaf, but he tested fine for his hearing. I've read about Apraxia and weak mouth muscles before we had him evaluated and those things were never mentioned throughout the evaluation. Perhaps because they said that it appeared that he had more than just verbal delay. I know I'll have to wait for the next evaluation.
Please forgive me if the Special Education comment came across as crass - I certainly didn't mean it be. Poor wording on my part.
In the process of getting my son evaluated for a speech delay, we found many other issues that have lead to loads of therapy since (fine motor, low tone, apraxia, etc.). I know other kids where a speech delay is just that. I'd suggest following up with the psychologist, or getting a full evaluation through your local early intervention agency. Though, I will say that our EI evaluation TOTALLY missed Z's apraxia, and they assigned us a speech therapist that was woefully underqualified to meet his/our needs. We figured it out on our own by seeking out a private speech evalation -- best $110 we spent.
I know well the feeling of being blind-sided when you are expecting one thing, and loads of others come up. It really stinks.
My daughter is 25 months. She has delays in expressive speech and language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. Her receptive language and cognitive skills are fine. She's been diagnosed with developmental delay, motor hypotonia, and developmental expressive language disorder. She has motor planning difficulties, and her SLP (speech-language pathologist) thinks she has mild or moderate apraxia.
I will request an eval from the school district when DD is closer to 3. She has been making lots of progress, and I'm not sure if she will need additional support (more therapy) after she is 3.
It was definitely a blow to find out that DD was so far behind her peers. I started hating the developmental milestone questionnaires. Does your kid do this? No. Does your kid do that? No. We've had some rough patches. But for the most part, we are doing well. DD likes going to therapy, she has fun playing with her therapists and their toys, and therapy has helped her improve her skills.