So, we just had our 18 month appointment and got an EI referral. We already made our appointments for the evaluation and auditory tests but I’m just curious to hear others experiences with similar children. From my understanding his communication skills are actually pretty good but his speech is definitely behind. I was under the impression though that signs and animal sounds counted but the doctor said at this point he should have more actual verbal words. This last visit was stressful, it was right during nap time and he was scared of the doctor and screamed the whole time so I felt like I didn’t communicate the whole picture. I pretty much said he doesn’t talk and barely says mama lol.
Some background
My guy has been full force with his physical skill development and I feel that talking hasn’t made the priority list. For example, when he was 14 months old a relative who’s an OT said he has a better over hand throw than average 3 year olds, he was kicking balls at 12 months, and now he can use tongs to pick up ice cubes, and unscrew my mascara tube lol.
For language, he can point to over 12 different body parts, we have to spell words like blueberry, park, outside, water, brush teeth, treat, ect. so he doesn’t freak out. He can hum accurately three different so songs. He can hear a bus coming from around the corner and start humming wheels on the bus.
He makes over 10 different anima sounds, he will hear a dog bark a block away and start woofing.
He sign for milk, all done, more, poop, and pee. (We did EC since birth and he’s been out of diapers since 14 months old). Hell even combine signs to say “more poop” or “more milk”.
He recognizes numbers and moves his finger in a counting motion when he hears numbers.
When he screams/ tantrums/ meltdown it’s never for lack of communication, it’s just because we’re enforcing boundaries like no walking with your toothbrush and it’s only for a couple minutes and he calms down fast.
He’s been babbling since 5 months old, non stop. Said “up” and “hot” around that time but stoppe saying that with us. But, with my MIL he spends time with he does say “up” and “hat” (he loves playing with dad’s hat rack).
He started saying “ma ma” finally a couple weeks ago, but uses it as almost a generic help request.
Just today we saw a bunny in the yard and he said “hop” then we saw a bee and he said “beeeee”. We were blowing bubbles and he said “pop”. When he hears a horn beep he says “beep”. These are all really new words that I didn’t even consider until after the referral.
I guess I’m just wondering, for those with toddlers with speech delays. Does this sound like something that actually will benefit from speech therapy?