In a few days my son will be 17 months old. He has done almost everything on time or early, right down to having multiple consonant sounds at around 9 months old. We were sure he would be speaking in no time as he was babbling, using m, d, b, g....However, as more time passed, he didn't continue to use the consanants at all. At his 1 year check up, our doctor said he should speak soon, just keep talking and repeating things for him. Knowing we have a lot of speech issues in my husband's family, I didn't want to wait. I had him evaluated by our local EI group. At the time, many things he was too young to be doing so he only scored low on speech. We started speech therapy through them once every other week.
At his 15 month check up, he still had 0 words. Within minutes of the doctor coming in, she brought up his lack of speech. First question was his hearing, which was evaluated at 1. We had it evaluated after my mom noticed he doesn't always (almost never) respond to his name. He was also not always reacting to loud noises right behind him. She did have the report, but was filed in the wrong place on his chart. His hearing is perfect. She then said we should have a full speech evaluation done and see if it would be possible to get him into speech at least once a week. As she was discussing this with me, she mentioned at his age it was impossible to tell if he has a normal speech delay or if it is autism. Autism is something I hadn't brought up, or really even thought of until she mentioned it. We did as she said, and he is currently in the 1st percentile for expressive language in his age group. We have speech 6 times a month right now, from two different locations. At almost 17 months old his communication is pointing if he can see it, signing more, eat, drink and if all else fails, throwing himself down and screaming until we figure out what he wants.
Aside from the speech issues, which are obvious and easy to see, I wonder about some of the other things he does and has been doing more of as he gets older. Diaper changes for him are usually a huge issue- screaming, running away, kicking, screaming more and I have to pin him down on the floor to get him changed. Bath time is the same way. Water is not an issue, but baths are. If he is in the tub, he is clawing at me to get him out. However, he will play with water in the tub from the outside of it.
He has always been very attached to me. Usually to the point he will want nothing to do with anyone else. However it can also be, he wants to sit on my lap, but will scream if I touch him or move my hands close to him. He has started, in the past few months collecting things and putting them places. For example, at the gym we go to, he will gather and stack hula hoops and get very upset if someone moves what he has done. Same thing with books if he has a lot in reach. He also has a habit of bringing shoes to people all the time. If you leave your shoes in his reach, he thinks you need to wear them now! He has also very recently started spinning himself in circles until he is so dizzy he falls over.
I guess at this point I am not sure what to make of any of this. I am not sure what to expect moving forward or what I should really be looking out for if anything.
At his 15 month check up, he still had 0 words. Within minutes of the doctor coming in, she brought up his lack of speech. First question was his hearing, which was evaluated at 1. We had it evaluated after my mom noticed he doesn't always (almost never) respond to his name. He was also not always reacting to loud noises right behind him. She did have the report, but was filed in the wrong place on his chart. His hearing is perfect. She then said we should have a full speech evaluation done and see if it would be possible to get him into speech at least once a week. As she was discussing this with me, she mentioned at his age it was impossible to tell if he has a normal speech delay or if it is autism. Autism is something I hadn't brought up, or really even thought of until she mentioned it. We did as she said, and he is currently in the 1st percentile for expressive language in his age group. We have speech 6 times a month right now, from two different locations. At almost 17 months old his communication is pointing if he can see it, signing more, eat, drink and if all else fails, throwing himself down and screaming until we figure out what he wants.
Aside from the speech issues, which are obvious and easy to see, I wonder about some of the other things he does and has been doing more of as he gets older. Diaper changes for him are usually a huge issue- screaming, running away, kicking, screaming more and I have to pin him down on the floor to get him changed. Bath time is the same way. Water is not an issue, but baths are. If he is in the tub, he is clawing at me to get him out. However, he will play with water in the tub from the outside of it.
He has always been very attached to me. Usually to the point he will want nothing to do with anyone else. However it can also be, he wants to sit on my lap, but will scream if I touch him or move my hands close to him. He has started, in the past few months collecting things and putting them places. For example, at the gym we go to, he will gather and stack hula hoops and get very upset if someone moves what he has done. Same thing with books if he has a lot in reach. He also has a habit of bringing shoes to people all the time. If you leave your shoes in his reach, he thinks you need to wear them now! He has also very recently started spinning himself in circles until he is so dizzy he falls over.
I guess at this point I am not sure what to make of any of this. I am not sure what to expect moving forward or what I should really be looking out for if anything.