August 30, 2011

Say What?

My darling girl has started speech therapy. I know lots of people think it's unnecessary this young. For her it's not.

At our 18 month well check, our pediatrician suggested we get Pie evaluated. She doesn't have many words and a handful of the words she did have are now gone. Luckily Middle Sister has a friend whose a speech therapist, and an amazing one at that.

We had Pie checked out and she has a pretty significant expressive delay. Her receptive language* is advanced and is somewhere around that of a 2 year old, but her expressive language** is similar to that of a one year old. Because there is such a disparity she is getting therapy. She's already made some advances thanks to the wonderful therapist, and can now tell you what a kitty cat says. It is the single cutest thing you've ever heard. I'll do my best to get it on tape.

So while we wait for her language skills to catch up to what's going on in her little head, I guess we'll just have to make do with facial expressions...


* Receptive language is the comprehension of language - listening and understanding what is communicated. Another way to view it is as the receiving aspect of language. {source}

** Expressive language is the ability to produce language in any of a number of different modalities such as speech, sign or writing. {source}


Comments (7)

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what beautiful little expressions they are!
Oh my gosh I cannot believe she is 18 months already. She's so big and SO DARN CUTE!!!! It sounds like things are going good so far with her therapy. My stepmom is a speech therapist and it's just amazing what they can do to help. I hope she continues to improve by leaps and bounds! :)
Sounds a lot like my little boy. He completely understands us and will do what we ask him to do, but he doesn't talk a whole lot. He's starting to talk more now, but really, it gave me a complex worrying about whether or not he was ever going to talk. I hope Pie starts talking non-stop soon!
This is the age where Speech/Language therapy will work the best to close any gap that she might have. The earlier the better! Plus, she's cute as a button to boot.
My youngest had the same issues, she used signs and gestures to get what she wanted ….while some think speech therapy is unnecessary, I believe it can’t hurt. Mine is now 3 and while she still has some issues, she can hold her own in most conversations.
My second child started speech at 20 months and my third at 2. It's such a great thing and I'm glad you didn't listen to anything but your gut and your ped. I cannot tell you how many times people said, "Well my friend's brother's friend's son didn't say a word til he was three and then he talked in complete sentences!"

My kids also were fine in cognition and receptive speech, so they became incredibly frustrated by their inability to communicate and, with my daughter, led to her being a little socially withdrawn. She went six months and went from saying maybe 10 words to speaking in complete, complex sentences at 26 months. My son (who is just finishing up his first six months) is now speaking in small sentences and was approved for at least two more months.

It works. And it's important. I truly do not understand why someone wouldn't get their child evaluated if they had any concerns. I cannot wait for you to post about the progress she's making!!
I'm sure little Pie will make excellent progress! She's so adorable! Hang in there, I know you're dealing with a lot right now. Hugs!

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