We started H in speech at 20 months, the process took forever and there was a long waiting list for a speech therapist unfortunately but with that said we have loved our SLP and so very thankful for her and her hard work. As of late H has displayed some sensory issues and they have really started to affect speech sessions. He avoids things he doesn’t want to do and often times has extreme meltdowns. Not just you’re typical 2 year old meltdowns either, these are exhausting, not just me but him.
H will be 3 at the end of July and for expressive speech he is about 8-10 months behind. His receptive is on par for his age. Many people will say it’s due to a paci but even our speech therapist said this is NOT true, not for us anyhow. He doesn’t use it all day, just naps and bedtime and occasionally he finds one and will use it but that’s all. He has been going to The Little Gym since he was 6 months old and has also done swimming and music classes, so he has been socialized with children his age. He also started a little day school in August that he loves, he’s there 2 days a week for 3 hours. He has probably 30-40 words which is amazing considering we started therapy with maybe 3 or 4. He has a few signs but he isn’t really interested in using them often, except for please and sometimes more.
This journey has been difficult, his peers all have a much better developed speech and it’s been hard for him to tell us what he wants or needs. It’s exhausting for us both! He has a cousin who is 7 months younger and a second cousin who is about 8 months younger and they talk. I feel judged by people or they feel pity for him and I HATE that. He’s not broken or for lack of a better word dumb. I also hate comparing kids because it isn’t fair but people do it. I feel like a failure a lot because I do SO many activities that give speech opportunities but some days I’m worn out and we do watch a lot of TV, if you say you’re kid doesn’t watch TV, you’re a liar lol.
I hope and pray speech picks up everyday and that this will be a blur one day when he doesn’t stop talking but I’m prepared for this to be an issue well into elementary school, which is ok, I just hope God brings me patience and he’s not made fun of for it or that he ever feels ashamed.
As for his recent sensory issues, shew they came out of no where. Sometime in December things started to overstimulate H and his avoidance behaviors increased. Normal things we’ve always done all the sudden can be too much for him and/or he will have a meltdown. We can’t start therapy for these until next week, we hope. We came up with 3 goals to be simple and hope with those we can get back on track, especially with speech. I’ll do more of an update when things start rolling there in a different post.
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