- A certain somebody is nearly 19 months old, which marks the transition from the infant daycare price to the toddler rate.
- Has his mother filled his baby book with any of the important milestones along the way Sadly, no. She is remiss.
- Because his vocabulary is significantly less than the dozen words that ‘typical’ toddlers have mastered by this age, his pediatrician suggests he see a speech therapist. His mother is not convinced.
- It’s not that she has anything against seeing a speech therapist. It’s just that she has observed that her child is cautious in nature (at times, and in general). His hearing and comprehension are excellent. He babbles with exuberance. He hesitates when asked to repeat words, but his expression shows that he is thinking about it.
- It doesn’t help that the new insurance plan, under which referrals are no longer necessary, doesn’t appear to have any speech therapists on the approved provider list.
August 8th, 2006
4 Responses to “to speak, or not to speak… that is the question”
I know that paediatricians are cautious these days (anything to avoid being sued!) but seriously, a speech therapist Mine spoke a lot, then stopped for a while, and while I was worried a bit at the time, it wore off! It worries me that specialists put the fear of God into us when in fact it’s just an individual quirk of a particular child. This was brought home to me recently when a dietician recommended I feed my non-eating son fish fingers, chicken nuggets and preserved meats “because at least he’s eating something”. He’s never eaten these things in his life…I’m not about to start introducing them now!
[I hasten to add that I’m not opposed to people feeding their children whatever they want but I’ve tried to avoid additional preservatives because my son had very bad eczema for the first 18 months of his life and it was horrible for him. So just want to avoid this experience.]
I can only speak from experience…
but I do have three boys, and only one of them spoke when he was supposed to (as per the data).
The other two had no problem living their lives without so many words and slowly gained speech skills at their own rate.
He’s 19 months old
He’s 19 months old.
He has lots of time before I’d worry – if I were his mum.
So far, everyone I’ve mentioned this to has had the same reaction… …that words come along at different times for different children. He may well break into full sentences when he’s good and ready.
…and oh dear! Myfloat! I wouldn’t want to push the processed foods either, if there were any way around it. Hopefully your little one is soon happily munching away at the wholesome things you want him to be enjoying.
My little brother was still barely speaking at the age of four. By age five he talked aaaall daaaay loooong.
With my own three boys, Son #1 had about 12 words at age 18 months, while Son #2 had about two (mum and NO) at the same age. Son #3 had so many that I stopped recording them and gave up. They all speak when they’re ready to speak.
It’s getting them to shut up occasionally that’s the problem.
