Language Update

We recently took Elliott back to the Speech Pathologist for a follow up to our appointment last fall. We aren’t worried about Elliott’s speech development. We know that there are things that ‘most kids’ are doing by now that he isn’t, but we also know that all kids develop language (and everything else for that matter) differently. BUT, given that there are resources at our disposal (that we are already paying for, I might add), we figured that anything we do learn can only help us encourage language use as well as learn more about ourselves as parents through our communication with Elliott.

It took us some time to finally bite the bullet and buy their recommended book, It Takes Two to Talk. But I found a used one through the Amazon marketplace and picked it up for us as a Christmas present. One of the reasons it was so hard to spend the money on this book is that most of the content is available for free online. Unfortunately, it’s not in a very reading-friendly format as we rarely sit for hours on end reading the desktop computer screen and we couldn’t figure out how to otherwise download it. That being said, it has already been worth the purchase price and we have already learned a lot. The main thing we are learning is how to make opportunities for language use and how to let him lead.

As for Elliott? The therapist still feels he is in a good place and ‘just on the verge’ of making up some ground. After going through a review of what (approximately 60 nouns and verbs) and how (mostly single or two word combinations) he spoke, she has placed him at, or slightly above, his age range in comprehension and at about an 18-21 month range for expressive language. This sounds exactly right to me, too. Especially when it sounds like he has a vocabulary on par with our friends’ daughter who is in that range.

However, as is typical, just after our visit, Elliott started doing some of the things that he wasn’t previously, primarily using true 2-3 word sentences (not just 2 word combinations) as well as using language to satisfy need (as in asking for a drink of water – he would previously talk about water or point out water, but not ask for water if he was thirsty). This is really exciting and he seems to either be adding new words to his vocabulary or using language in a new way daily. Just last night he wanted me to sit next to him on the chair and eat Cheerios, so he said ‘sit right there’ and pointed to the spot on the chair next to him :)

The therapist is leaving the next steps up to us. Basically, after reading the book, if we have any questions or want to meet for private classes we can. Otherwise, we can just schedule a follow up meeting in a few months to check back in and see how he’s doing.