Re: Delayed Speech

In article <mdWdnayQfZwbdjbZnZ2dnUVZ_s6dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ericka Kammerer <eek@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jeanne wrote:

Your grand nephew sounds almost exactly like my son who also just turned
three. At his 3 year old check-up, the nurse practitioner talked to him
a bit, couldn't really understand him. DS has some clear words and
talks in short sentences much as you described. He patiently repeats
everything until he is understood. But sometimes when he's excited or
angry, he loses his words and is pretty intelligible. The nurse
recommended that we call "Child Find", the preschool component of the
public school system to have him evaluated. She wasn't sure if he
really was speech delayed and if he would qualify for therapy but she
felt it would be a good idea to at least have him evaluated.

I think every state is supposed to have an early
intervention program like Child Find that will evaluate kids
for free, and many kids have benefited from evaluation.
On the other hand, I'm wondering whether what
Grandma saw was typical of the child's speech. I know that
at that age, my kids tended to clam up a bit when they were
around people they weren't as familiar with--so much so that
people were amazed to overhear them talking when the child
didn't know they were around, because the difference was
so great. Is it possible that the child talks a lot more
when he's just around his immediate family, and perhaps the
impression that Grandma and Great-Aunt had was atypical?

Best wishes,
Ericka

I'm pretty sure Ericka is right, and all states have the free screening
starting at age 3. (The age has to do with the fact that at age 3, the
public schools become responsible for providing educational needs --
before that, it's a different department.) So anyone can call the
school system wherever they live (in the USA) and arrange for a
screening, which might indicate a need for a full evalutaion -- which
they will then also provide.

I did that with all three of mine, though I had no serious concerns. I
just figured an early evaluation would pick up anything I'd missed, or
that the doctor didn't see in our very fast visits -- that's what
they're for, to catch problems early.

It was an interesting process, and my kids seemed to enjoy it. I do
know some folks who ended up getting short-term speech therapy or
occupational therapy as a result of relatively minor problems identified
for their kids when they took them in for this screening.

With my own, the screener thought it was pretty funny that I had some
minor concerns about my son's speech. It turned out that he was on the
high end -- its just that both of his sisters (including his twin
sister) were SO beyond what was "normal" at that age that my
expectations were unrealistic. Mom insists that his sisters never gave
the poor boy a chance to talk... So, if nothing else, the screeners are
a good source of reality testing for anyone, whether or not you have
concerns.

--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care
.

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