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Speech moms, come in! WWYD

Ash2015Ash2015 member
in Special Needs
We had DS's biannual eval for therapy a couple weeks back and his one-year doctor visit yesterday and something was brought up during both: speech concerns. His eval was for gross/fine motor mostly since he gets PT and OT, but they also did some basic cognitive/speech/etc. stuff to rule out other delays. His gross motor is delayed, but not significantly, basically he has the skills of a 10-month-old, which is only 2 months behind (he's 13 months now, but was 12 months when they did the eval) and his fine motor is pretty delayed in his left hand but right on point in his right hand (expected, that's what his therapy is for).

Now the thing that really surprised me is the talk of possible speech issues. The stroke that is responsible for his fine motor and slight gross motor delay didn't affect the speech/language areas of his brain at all. However, right now at 13 months old, he hasn't said any "words" besides "mama" and "dada", which he's only used in reference to us maybe twice and he responds correctly maybe one time out of 10 when asked "Where's mama?" or "Where's dada?". The only thing he consistently responds to is the word "dog", which he recognizes but can't say. 

After the same things were brought up by his doctor yesterday, I called his EI caseworker and expressed my concerns. She said she didn't think speech therapy was necessary or would be helpful quite yet, as his delay wasn't extreme and might correct itself over the next few months, which is exactly what the doctor said as well. The caseworker said that if I reaaallly pushed for it, I could probably get him into speech therapy within the next few weeks but she didn't recommend it. 

So what would you do in this situation? Push for speech therapy ASAP or wait it out for 3 or 4 months and see if we start seeing an improvement? TIA!
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Re: Speech moms, come in! WWYD

  • oandmplus1oandmplus1 member
    That's a tough call, and maybe others might have a different opinion. My DD had global developmental delays and babbled at that age, but thats it. At the time the therapists said we really needed to pick a couple areas to focus on and not overwhelm her too much at once. They recommended holding off on the speech since she was still so young and needed more help with other areas first.

    They also had told me that if my DD really had to put a lot of energy into developing a new physical skill, speech may take a back seat.
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  • Assembly_ReqdAssembly_Reqd member
    At his age, it is possible he won't qualify. I agree with the PP. If you are working on other skills, I would wait until 18 months and see where he stands. He could just be a 'late side of normal' talker. Focus your time, money and energy on the delays you are sure of.
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  • Assembly_ReqdAssembly_Reqd member
    If you feel the need to 'do something' you can get his hearing checked.

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  • EandIMommy86 EandIMommy86 member
    I actually did speech therapy as soon it was recommended thinking that my child was behind. It has been going on since November or so. It turns out had I waited, it would probably be okay. My pedi said at her 15 month appointment that she should be at 10 words which I thought was a lot. Now at 18 months shes at about 8 words. What is interesting is the lady through "Babies Can't Wait" always says she doesn't really know why she is needed because my daughter is not behind based on what she has seen.

    So, to answer your question, I agree with the McRib poster. Wait and see approach the child could get behind. You can do what I did and find out it is not needed and then go from there. I would rather push for it and find out it is not needed, than wait it out and find out I should have done it months ago. Good Luck
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  • bumpuser511563bumpuser511563 member
    You could get your DS evaluated by a speech therapist and take it from there.

    I don't like the wait and see approach.

    In my experience, DS was about 1 year old when he started ST, OT and PT through EI and that was 3 hours per week.
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  • mommytoconnormommytoconnor member
    honestly, at 13 months old a lot of children aren't speaking yet, so at this age is isn't truly a speech delay. If he were 18 months and not speaking then I would push but 13 months is too early to even consider it a delay. I would wait a few more months and see what happens and then is around 18 months it isn't better then I would push for eval.
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  • lemen99lemen99 member
    We waited to have our kids evaluated at 18 months. I'm not sure if all states work the same way, but my understanding is that a true speech delay cannot be diagnosed until 18 mo and if you qualify for services prior, you'll have a DT not an ST.  Then, you have to wait a set amount of time to actually get an ST.  

    I would keep it on your radar for sure.  At 13 months I knew my son was struggling.  (he is 5 years old and still in ST) I'd do a lot of silly play with him, do a lot of songs, a lot of simple word repetition!  Hopefully you'll see some changes soon, it's a tough age at 13 months because a lot of typical kids aren't really talking much yet. 
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  • mightmom13mightmom13 member
    DD had one word that only she understood  (until we figured it out) at 13-14 months; her pedi did recommend EI, we had the eval and she got that then soon followed with OT and PT, finally behavioral therapy.

    I do know that I can put down her goals "globally" (for all therapists to work on) on her IFSP, so could you maybe talk to your case worker about that if you decide not to get the eval?


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  • Assembly_ReqdAssembly_Reqd member
    edited February 2014
    lemen99 said:
    We waited to have our kids evaluated at 18 months. I'm not sure if all states work the same way, but my understanding is that a true speech delay cannot be diagnosed until 18 mo and if you qualify for services prior, you'll have a DT not an ST.  Then, you have to wait a set amount of time to actually get an ST.  

    I would keep it on your radar for sure.  At 13 months I knew my son was struggling.  (he is 5 years old and still in ST) I'd do a lot of silly play with him, do a lot of songs, a lot of simple word repetition!  Hopefully you'll see some changes soon, it's a tough age at 13 months because a lot of typical kids aren't really talking much yet. 
    I waited too because we were globally delayed in all areas and my EI service coordinator said the same thing about him needing to be 18 months. We started speech at 22 months after he started using a walker. He had a ton of signs (100-ish) and maybe three spoken words at the time. He also has mild-moderate hearing loss, but this does not contribute a bunch to his speech delay IMHO.

    I am glad I didn't start any younger for him since he is a slow learner. :) His speech really started developing a better pace at 3y5m when we added a third weekly30min private speech session..(We added a second 30m speech session via EI at 2y10m). Damn, if we had started speech at 13 months that would have been a lot of months of speech with no progress. (He has mid-face paralysis and motor planning issues) Yikes.
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  • lemen99lemen99 member
    Assembly_Reqd said:
    lemen99 said:
    We waited to have our kids evaluated at 18 months. I'm not sure if all states work the same way, but my understanding is that a true speech delay cannot be diagnosed until 18 mo and if you qualify for services prior, you'll have a DT not an ST.  Then, you have to wait a set amount of time to actually get an ST.  

    I would keep it on your radar for sure.  At 13 months I knew my son was struggling.  (he is 5 years old and still in ST) I'd do a lot of silly play with him, do a lot of songs, a lot of simple word repetition!  Hopefully you'll see some changes soon, it's a tough age at 13 months because a lot of typical kids aren't really talking much yet. 
    I waited too because we were globally delayed in all areas and my EI service coordinator said the same thing about him needing to be 18 months. We started speech at 22 months after he started using a walker. He had a ton of signs (100-ish) and maybe three spoken words at the time.

    I am glad I didn't start any younger for him since he is a slow learner. :) His speech really started developing a better pace at 3y5m when we added a third weekly30min private speech session..(We added a second 30m speech session via EI at 2y10m). Damn that would have been a lot of months of speech with no progress. (He has mid-face paralysis and motor planning issues) Yikes.
    We were in a similar position and I agree.  My son started at 19 months weekly and had 2 words, at 2 yr 3 mo we added a 2nd session (outpatient) and put him in school.  He didn't really start making new sounds until 2 yr 3 months but so very slowly.  At the time he was globally delayed and I'm not sure the extra time would have mattered, but even so, it's SO young - hindsight is 20/20!
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