Early childhood - Speech Delay

At 2 years, 2 months V hardly had any language. He said about 40 words and hardy ever put two words together. I remember thinking how our older son BJ had a burst of words at 18 months. At our 2 year well visit our Pediatrician did not think we needed to pursue anything. It was my mom who finally said we should get him checked out.

We had his hearing tested at an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat Specialist). It was normal.

We had him evaluated by early childhood services. The results said he was mid-to-average behind in speech. (Someone observing him wondered if he had Apraxia but it was never officially diagnosed.) Because of his age he qualified for someone to come to our home once a week for an hour. I think these times were more helpful for me than him.

Here's what I learned
(This should be common information passed onto all new parents, but its not):

1. Kids learn speech by watching you form letters on your own lips. V never makes eye contact so he doesn't do that. We would take toys/objects to our lips and get him to pay attention as we said a word. Now with my two kids that have followed V I see them look at my lips as we are working on a tough sound. I see them try what my lips are doing. V rarely did this.

2. We learned there is an amazing connection in the brain that actually helps kids say and remember a word if they do sign language to it. To me seems like one more complicated thing to have do as they struggle for a word. Doing sign language really helped V.

3. We worked really hard on just getting the first sound. We would say, "ba ba ba" and get him to watch the lips.

As his birthday approached in April we were working on an IEP (whats that? -see my next post) and the speech specialist said that when they turn three they no longer get in home care but they have to go to a school. She thought he'd qualify 1/2 day of school everyday Monday through Friday, that was in March when she said that. But about six weeks later when he went in for an evaluation something had happened. He went from a few words to a ton of words and he ended up only qualifying for 1/2 day 1x a week at school.

Now four years later my husband and I laugh, since his speech took off we haven't been able to unplug him. He talks your head off and never stops to listen to you.