We have been concerned for a while about Ace’s lack of speech. He can talk…it’s not like he can’t talk…he just chooses not to most of the time.
Most parents tell us to count our blessings that he is so quiet, but they don’t see how frustrated he gets because he can not communicate his wants and needs.
So, we took him to a speech therapy evaluation, and they told us pretty much what we thought they would say. He is very smart, understands and can follow instructions, but has the speaking skills of an 18-24 month old…and he is 3 1/2.
While we were expecting these results, it is still hard to accept that your son, who is perfect in your eyes, is not quite perfect.
Ace will be going to speech therapy once a week for a while. They told us it will probably take at least 6 months to get him up to speed. Way faster than I expected…
He is so far behind in his speech skills that it is officially considered a learning disability, and so he qualifies to go to pre-school a year early…part of the “No Child Left Behind Act”.
So, wish us luck!
And to offset all of the bad news I figured I should give you all some good news…we are expecting again! 😉
We are at about 18-19 weeks…almost half way there! Ace we be a big brother in a few more months!
Congrats on the pregnancy. I have a similar speech issue with my 2 year old. We feel like he should be talking more than he does, but the doc isn’t concerned just yet. He is starting to come around, but I think we expect more because his sister was talking fully by now. I hear boys and girls are different though. Good luck with both issues.
Dennis, if you have doubts about your son’s speech I would recommend getting him evaluated. Our doctor kept saying that he would come around, and then at his 3rd birthday she was all of a sudden very concerned.
I wish we would have took Ace for his evaluation when we first suspected it! He could have had normal speech by now…
Love you guys. Hang in there, his speech WILL get better!! Glad to hear that “mama” is doing well. Let us know if there is anything you need or if you need to chat!
Amber, thanks! I know it will get better, but it is just frustrating sometimes… I am trying to be patient and supportive. I think that is what he needs the most…
I am getting less concerned about my son every day. He is at least trying now. He at least makes the sounds or sylabels of the words. He’s getting better, but I still might get the eval on it. Thanks for the advise.
Ace is making improvements now too. We stopped asking him questions, as the therapist requested, and started just talking around him more. Also reading books at bed time seems to be helping a lot too…
Wonderful wonderful news on the pregnancy, all the best for the months ahead.
Martin, thanks! Three years worth of trying finally paid off! 😀 How is your little girl doing these days?
[…] I mention that we were expecting again? I did, but if you didn’t read closely you would have missed […]
Jared-
What you’re experiencing is the exact same thing we went through with our youngest child.
At one point the doctor suggested we teach him sign language. Which we did, and found that it probably actually delayed things even further. I recommend that you not go down that path!
We had speech therapy for about a year, and it worked great. He’s right on track at this point, and is doing well in pre-school.
One thing we did as well was to force him to communicate when we knew he had the words. For example, if we knew he was able to ask for a cup of milk, we wouldn’t give it to him until he asked with words, instead of gestures/sounds/etc.
At this point, we’d like him to STOP talking from time to time!
So as someone who went through the exact same thing, don’t sweat it, stick with the speech therapy, and work on him yourself!
Rudy
Hi Rudy, thanks for the advice! Ace starts speech therapy this week, so I’m hoping things work out as well for us as they did for you. 🙂 We’ve been trying to make him talk more by forcing him to ask for things, but we are a couple softies and eventually give in…but my skin is getting thicker every day. 😀 He has already shown a bit of improvement just from taking the speech therapists advice after his evaluation to quit asking him questions and only use statements. He can answer any question you ask him, but for him to initiate a conversation or ask a question on his own is where he needs improvement. I think the speech therapy will be more to train us as parents on what to do rather than it is to train Ace to talk.
Well, the therapy helps you for sure, but it’s also very important for him!
Sit in with the therapists at least some of the time so you can see how they interact with him, and how they communicate. They have the coolest tricks 🙂
As far as being softies, well, it’s part of all of us as parents. One thing I’ve learned after six kids is that you have to pick and choose when to give in, and sometimes it’s just important to buckle down, be a man, and stand your ground!
And yes, I intentionally used ‘be a man’ because this is something that we as dads have to do. Moms find it much harder, but if we can lead through our actions and be firm, Mom finds it much easier to deal with. If that makes sense….