speech mamas

Mrs.Rose · January 2012

I have some questions. Carson is 17 months and is not really talking. He will mimic the inflection/sound of words, but does not form the actual letter sounds. I hope that makes sense. It is almost like he just "sings" the inflection/tone. So I can tell what he is "saying" but no one else could.

I know he understands, because he will follow some simple directions, waves bye when I ask him to, can find my nose when I ask him, and uses his "words" appropriately (like uh oh when he drops something). He does not say mama, but will say "da doo" for DH.

His pedi said at his 15 month appt (when he had no words) that if he didn't have a few words by 18 months we would refer to speech therapy. I am just wondering if this counts.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks ladies!

bumpuser511563 · January 2012

I don't think it would do any harm to get your DS evaluated to see if he is on track.

I think my DS received speech, physical and occupational therapy after they evaluated around his 1st birthday.

Jcrab · January 2012

I agree with PP, get the referral and have the specialist decide. It can only help your child and sometimes Pedi's are far too lenient.

houndbaby · January 2012

I would get an evaluation done. There is no harm in getting him evaluated and if he is delayed, the sooner you start with speech therapy the better.

mjsweetgirl · January 2012

Like the other PP's said, get him evaluated by a specialist. Talk to you pedi for recommendations or just type into google, "early intervention (city,state)". It will put your mind at ease to hear from a professional and since your LO is under the age of 3, he will qualify for state funded services. It won't hurt to get him evaluated, it will give you peace of mind.

robynlesley · January 2012

My pedi was pretty proactive and said, at my son's 18 month well visit last year, to have him evaluated if his vocabulary wasn't increasing or if he wasn't using 2 words by 21 months. I ended up contacting Early Intervention instead of going privately (as referred) since the eval. was free. DS does have expressive language delays but is much improved since starting speech therapy and DI.

ToastieSimons · January 2012

I would definitely think with Carson's history that a call back to EI would be worth it.

Has he had his hearing checked? I would presume so because our NICU set us up with a mandatory audiology appt about 6 months after dishcharge.

Mrs.Rose · January 2012

He has been in early intervention before, so I know how great they are. I just have no idea what "counts" in the area of speech. We were told to give him some extra development time due to the phenobarb he was on and the time he spent in the NICU, but he has been on time with everything else.

His hearing was checked in the NICU, but not since then. There is noting to make me think that he can't hear, but I guess this is something I should ask about again, just in case.

Just now he pointed at my shoes and said shoooooo. He did it a bunch of times and seemed really proud of himself!

Thanks ladies for all of your suggestions!

gremaud07 · January 2012

That's how my son was but we were already in early intervention for PT.

We had him evaluated and was put in ST right away, his been in speech for a year now. I have seen some improvement but it's slow coming.

kcisthebombdotcom · January 2012

Per my speech therapist, kids who don't have at least 10 words used regularly by 18 months should be evaluated. Close approximation count as words. For example, my son says "at" for hat. She counts that as a word. However, for a while he called plane "dee-dee". Everytime he saw it he used the same approximation, but she didnt count it.

Hope that helps. As the others have already said, I would err on the side of caution and get him evaluated.

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