Toddler, Delays, and Therapists

[jen276here]

What a shock!





Absolutely!

Not that you need my affirmation or that I'm special, lol, but I think you have made some great decisions.

lol - trust me - you are special!!! Thanks!

[taylordvd]

My son has been in speech therapy for almost 1.5 years now. I can not say enough good things about speech therapy. It does sound like your ds needs it from his vocabulary. Hopefully the speech therapist is also teaching him sign language. My ds had a lot of signs before his verbal language took off. He has other issues and at one point Occupation Therapy was recommended. I immediately knew it wasn't helping, but I kept at it for too long. Good for you for speaking up. I will say that Early Intervention is one of the best things you can do for a child. I would encourage you to continue the speech therapy for as long as the therapist recommends and every 6 months or so ask her for her opinion on whether or not your son needs other support services.

I will say that when my son first started getting services all the "advice" I was getting from the therapist was like a kick in the gut. It was this gut reaction that they were telling me they knew more about my child than I did. But then I realized that they went to school for this and their knowledge was far greater than mine in this one little area and I should at least try what they suggested and see if it worked because I had done all I knew how to do. So, maybe try taking a step back and realize that it is not personal and they are just trying to walk beside you and help your ds become the best version of himself.

[jen276here]

My son has been in speech therapy for almost 1.5 years now. I can not say enough good things about speech therapy. It does sound like your ds needs it from his vocabulary. Hopefully the speech therapist is also teaching him sign language. My ds had a lot of signs before his verbal language took off. He has other issues and at one point Occupation Therapy was recommended. I immediately knew it wasn't helping, but I kept at it for too long. Good for you for speaking up. I will say that Early Intervention is one of the best things you can do for a child. I would encourage you to continue the speech therapy for as long as the therapist recommends and every 6 months or so ask her for her opinion on whether or not your son needs other support services.

I will say that when my son first started getting services all the "advice" I was getting from the therapist was like a kick in the gut. It was this gut reaction that they were telling me they knew more about my child than I did. But then I realized that they went to school for this and their knowledge was far greater than mine in this one little area and I should at least try what they suggested and see if it worked because I had done all I knew how to do. So, maybe try taking a step back and realize that it is not personal and they are just trying to walk beside you and help your ds become the best version of himself.

Trust me - I don't take it personally. I don't see speech delays or similar as something 'wrong' or as a judgement against me. In my son's situation though, I feel 100% positive that the OT and DT really are not necessary. I am concerned w/ his speech and that is why I pursued it in the first place.

[gatosqueak]

Cool, hope it works out!

[3timesoccermom]

My middle daughter didn't talk much at all til about 3. This was very strange for me since her older sister spoke, and spoke well, very early.

The non-talker just didn't have much to say then, plus she was extremely shy. She's grown into a very confident, well-spoken honors student who has no trouble communicating at all - would frequently burn through all her minutes on the cell phone plan til we got unlimited talk.

[Spanelli8706]

I had some concerns with my 19-20 month old DD1. The only thing she said was "bobble"... there was no "mama, dada" or any other baby words. And according to books and friends, family, etc. she should have been babbling these things by then. She was very smart at that age. She understood commands and interacted well...but didn't say ANYTHING. And I was like you, very concerned. My husband talked to me about it and kept telling me to just let it play out her way. And about a week before she turned 21 months, she began talking-in SENTENCES. The first thing she ever said was "There she is!" pointing to her doll. And it was like immediately she was just spitting out sentence after sentence. Now at almost 27 months old, she knows her colors, shapes, about 80% of her letters, she sings nursery songs, counts to 15 in english and 10 in Spanish and knows 25 or so words/phrases in Spanish.

I totally know how worried you probably are with the lack of speech. My cousins kids who were 9-12 months were saying mama & dada and my toddler twice their age wasn't. But she just did things her way. I was paranoid too. I hope things go well with the speech therapist and you hear some improvement. And here's a big hug... follow your instinct.

[cintinative]

I got the baby signing time dvd's online. They aren't really cheap...but they are absolutely excellent..and my older kids like watching them as well.

Love love love signing time!!! The regular kid ones would be fine for his age. They might have them at the library too.

On the occupational therapy, I can't tell you anything from personal experience but my niece was in therapy for things that didn't make sense to me, like she took the stairs one at at time (so? They live in a ranch and they don't have stairs. She's not used to them.) They would do all sorts of exercises with her and my SIL said she would basically scream through the whole thing (she was two). However, my observation of her compared to my then three year old (they are 11 months apart) was that she seemed normal. My totally uneducated opinion is to go with your gut and get a second opinion. Or, as others have suggested, focus on one area at a time. Maybe focus on the speech now since that does sound like a delay, and then focus on the motor skills later. One thing you can do in lieu of occupational therapy, assuming he can do basic things (you said he is meeting milestones) is sign him up for a baby gym class. They have one here called Tumblebees. It is very pricey but my ped said it is just as valuable toward building those gross motor skills as therapy. Plus he might actually like it! =)

Anyway, like I said, I'm no expert, but hang in there!!!

[CW&M Mom]

Part of the reasoning with the OT and PT when your trying to get them to do something "correctly" is that all of those skills (like climbing the stairs) wires their brains correctly.

We have OT but for my daughter it is for sensory issues. She has such sensory issues that it has severely restricted her diet....so she can do things like climb the stairs just fine...but needs feedback on her skin that is appropriate so we can get past the eating of 90% cottage cheese that she's been doing since she was 9 months old.

But from what Jen has been saying..it is sounding like a bit of overkill.

[tacatcon]

Jen i'm glad to read you went with your gut. My little one had an OT for a while starting when she was about 9 months because she had some gross motor delays. I can't imagine keeping the OT if she interacted with my daughter the way you described. I think what you described sounds horrible.

I hope things work out with the speech therapist and you see some progress. I don't know if this will make you feel better or worse but my middle child now 13 didn't speak very much at all until he was over 2 (of course my oldest did all the talking so how could he?) and then in grade school he did have a slight speech impedement and worked with a speech therapist and ot in school and is now fine. So maybe working with the speech therapist now will prevent your ds from needing any services later in life when it's probably harder for the kiddos to work on it.

Hang in there! He'll be fine!