Speech (or lack thereof)

When I took Graham in for his two year old well child visit, as expected, the doctor asked, "do you have any questions or concerns about Graham?"

"Not really," I answered, "My only slight concern is his speech.  I know he's delayed, but I think he's still on the low end of normal."

The doctor asked a couple follow up questions, then surprised me by saying, "Well, I'll give you the phone number for a speech assessment.  If he doesn't improve, you might consider giving them a call."

I still wasn't too worried, because I remembered Bryce and Thane being likewise delayed in their speech at that age, and they're both doing great now.  

Except... I looked up blog posts I wrote about those boys when they turned two, and realized they were both far ahead of Graham at the same age.  Oops.

So, I called the number and scheduled an assessment.  I was so sure that he wouldn't qualify (and so worried about looking like an over-concerned parents), that I almost called back and cancelled the appointment at least five times.  

The assessment was wonderful.  Graham absolutely loved the whole process. And really, what's not to love?  He had the complete and total attention of two adults (in addition to me), and all they wanted to do was play with him!  New toys, fun puzzles, opportunities to show off = this 2 year olds version of heaven!

When we got to the end of the assessment, my previous worries bubbled up again.  "I know he probably won't qualify," I explained, "but I just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything."

"Actually," they countered, "we'd like to recommend that he does participate in speech services."

I almost fell off my chair (good thing I was sitting on the ground).

They continued to explain that though Graham's expressive language score didn't officially qualify him for services (he scored 85 and needed to be at or below 78), his specific speech delays were concerning enough that in their professional opinion he needed services.  

More specifically, like many youngsters, Graham leaves off the endings of his words.  Unlike most youngsters, he also leaves off the beginnings of words.  So, for example, when he wants to say "sheep," he says "eee."  When he wants to say "daddy," he says, "aaa-eee." Apparently, this is a big concern.

A related concern is that he mostly communicates using vowels.  He only uses a few consonants consistently (m, n, b).  His receptive language skills are fabulous, and he's pretty clever at making his needs known (sometimes using cadence and intonation to "speak" phrases completely made up of vowels).  

But.  

He's also getting super frustrated.  He know what he wants to say, but can't get it out.  He wants us to understand, but it's not working.  His go-to phrases are "ee-ee" and "ee-uh," which basically mean nothing except, "I don't know how to say the real words."

Graham started receiving weekly, in-home speech therapy sessions three weeks ago.  The therapist has given us some suggestions that seem to be helping a little bit.  I'll admit, though, that when I first heard that he qualified, I figured he'd get services for a couple months and catch right up.  Now I'm realizing that this might be a longer road for us.  

I'm super glad he qualified and is getting help!  Graham loves his speech teacher and looks forward to her coming to play with him.  He gets excited when he correctly makes a sound which she/we have been working.  I get excited at the prospect of understanding what he's trying to tell me!