March 8, 2008 
Toddler speech development….. With this, and all parenting issues, there are always people on both sides of the fence: if your child doesn’t seem to have as expansive a vocabulary or isn’t as verbally communicative as it seems other children his or her age are, some people will say, “eh, wait it out…” and others will say, “Go go go get some help NOW!”
If you’ve had to or are dealing with this, how did you or are you dealing with it?
littleQ, at just one month past his 2nd birthday, has a vocabulary which isn’t quite as extensive as it should be, with the bigger issue being that he hasn’t really begun to speak in short sentences or phrases (with the exception of “thank you”) yet, and so his pediatrician recommended having him evaluated for speech therapy. His sessions should be beginning within the next few weeks, and to supplement the speech therapy, we’ll also be attending a class which is almost like a mommy and me separation class, but specifically geared towards developing cognitive, speech and social skills.
Call me silly, but I’m convinced that part of the issue may be that he just doesn’t want to talk, or just doesn’t feel like it. I feel this way because with a word definitely in his vocabulary, sometimes he’ll say it and other times he’ll just outright refuse to say anything. He may instead just smile and shake his head “no” when we ask him a question that requires a one word answer that we know he knows the meaning of. Instead, he’ll bring the object to us, or bring us to the object. He follows directions pretty well, and he definitely understands us when we ask him to do something, get a toy or go somewhere. He knows. And…the words he does say are pretty clear. It’s not like he’s mumbling them or barely getting them out… and although he’s had a few ear infections we already know there’s nothing wrong with his hearing. Hmm.. do I have a stubborn tot on my hands?
We’ll see how the speech therapy goes. The goal is 6 months to have him at his age level completely, so we’ll be working hard here at home to make that happen. The worst effect this is having on littleQ is that he gets completely and totally frustrated when he’s unable to verbalize what he wants and is unable to get his message across by “showing” us, so I’m definitely looking forward to eradicating that stress from his life, not to mention from mine and mrQ’s.. have you ever been in the presence of an angry tot in the midst of his terrible twos who isn’t getting what he wants.. and to top it all off, can’t even let you know what it is he wants?
A few days ago, I posted about Baby Einstein DVDs. Honestly, I was floored by the positive effect the First Signs DVD had on him a few months ago. As I’ve stated in previous posts, dvds, television shows and toys are by no means suitable replacements for parental interaction and instruction, but that DVD definitely helped us… I think there was just something about the way the words and information was presented that triggered a sort of “wow I can do that too!” mind set in littleQ. I’m also going to look into any other class we can do outside of this particular program, and we’ll take it from there.
Well, just like we go to the doctor at least once a year for a checkup and to take preventative measures, with speech delay, it’s much better to tackle the issue as soon as it even looks like it might be an issue, than to have to deal with bigger problems later on that could have been prevented or mitigated if treated earlier.
For further reading:
- Speech development: what’s normal for your child might not be normal for mine – Brief Article
- Why isn’t my toddler learning to talk?
- Milestone charts: What you can expect from birth to age 3
- Speech and Language: Developmental Milestones
Technorati Tags: speech development, parenting, toddler, development, cognitive, baby, speech
