A Late Talker

Hello M. G :) (I like the screen name!)

Just a little background info - before starting a business with my husband, I was a speech-language pathologist and worked with the early childhood population (birth - preschool), so this does concern me a little. Without more information, I would hesitate to get too worried, but I would follow the other recommendations to have him evaluated by the school district as a first step to getting help.

Here are some considerations in the meantime and questions that a speech pathologist will want to know:
1.) Is he making eye contact, playing with peers, and engaging in tasks with you/peers?
2.) Does he understand instructions and follow them? What about two-step requests (pick up the book and hand it to me)?
3.) Does he answer yes/no questions? Questions where he's offered choices? He can answer nonverbally (by shaking/nodding head or pointing when you ask a question) or verbally with words.

These are just some basic skills he should be doing at this stage. Although there is a huge variation in children's language development (especially if he comes from a large family and is kiddo number 3 or 4), you should be able to answer 'yes' to the above questions. Even still - please get in touch with your local school district for an evaluation. It's free and does not guarantee he will or will not need services - but if he does - the beginning of the school year is the best time to start.

In the meantime, here are a few suggestions to help him:
* Narrate what you are doing and what he does when playing, shopping, cleaning, etc. - but don't be a broken record. Leave pauses for him to interject a word or sound too.
* Encourage him to make choices verbally, but if he won't - at least encourage him to point first. Then say what he chose. For example: "Do you want a pear or banana?" (point) "Ok, banana. You want banana".
* Once he masters this, you can request he says 'banana'. Example: "Do you want a banana or an apple" (point) "Ok, banana. Use your words - say 'banana'". As much as you may want him to say 'please' and 'thank you' - skip the manners for now unless he easily says one or two words on his own.
* Play with books that he finds engaging, but instead of reading them - look at the pictures. You can point to something and look at him to see if he labels it on his own - this works especially well with a book he's familiar with and that have a predictable outcome.

These are just a few suggestions, but I hope it helps. After a speech person evaluates him, s/he'll have many more 'at-home' suggestions for you to try, which are important to do because that is where he does the most learning - at home or at school - not in an isolated therapy room. :)

Good luck!
J

Encourage the parents to talk to their peditrician, see if the school district tests and if none of that works, seek out a licensed speech therapist to do an in-depth testing. I did not get anywhere with the peditrician or the school district (not "worse" enough to qualify for free testing) so I went to a speechtherapist on my own for my 4 year old and now, only 3 months later, it is like night and day! A speech therapist knows how to teach a child to make the sounds they are not making and motivate them to do it. It's been financially challenging, but worth it for us!

First of all, all kids learn at their own pace. My daughter is 2 and didn't talk at all, turned out she needed tubes in her ears. She wasn't talking because she couldn't hear to learn how. No less than a week after she got the tubes she started saying new things, and hasn't stopped. My other daughter didn't talk for quite some time because she was spoiled and she did the pointing and hand pulling, and we let it go on too long. Once we put our foot down and started telling her to use her words..she started to. Good luck!!

I would agree that you might want to get his ears checked, but go to an ENT. Our first son was a little bit of a late talker and when he did, it was not clear. Being the first child and taking him for regular checkups, the ped said he was fine. However when he had a bad ear infection and the ped suggested having an ENT look at him, we did and discovered he had fluid behind his ears and needed tubes. He was not talking much or clearly because he was not hearing the sounds properly. Made all the difference in the world. I read an article once that said an ENT looks and sees things differently than a regular doctor when they check the ears. After dealing with three more children, and still dealing with it, I firmly believe that. Good luck.

Before looking into anything surgical, you may want to learn about therapies that are not as well known, but are often very effective. I would definately talk to the child's local school district and look into speach therapy options that should be provided. Schools are very interested in helping children with speech delays before they start kindergarten.

The less known therapies, one of which I now practice, aid the child in developing patterns of brain function with physical movements or acupressure. You can learn more about these by looking into Brain Gym, Educational Kinesiology, or Crossinology's Brain Integration Technique. These are options that are completely non-invasive and drug-free.

The Brain Gym exercises have been so well recognized that many local schools are now using them with the children on a daily basis.

Good Luck!

Since he is over three, try and contact the school district to have him tested. They will have a diagnostic team meet with him. The test takes a couple of hours, but are well worth it. The team can help to provide you what you need to do for him. Both of my sons had this and were diagnosed with autism. I got both into the special school district at three and through speech and language therapy they made hugh improvements. My oldest even out grew the autism. He is now 8 and in the third grade.