My Picky Eater: Speech Delay and Early Intervention Assessment

Around 18 months old, my husband became concerned with our son's speech development. I thought he was doing okay though. But, a little over a month ago when we decided to take action with his eating habits, we read about the average speech development for a 2 year-old and I had to admit he seemed behind. Thankfully, the Your Kid's Table blog I had been reading about picky eating had a link to a mom/speech therapist blog called Playing with Words 365. I sent my husband there to do some research about how we could do more to help our son's speech development. Here are some things we learned:

• Noisy toys aren't helpful for speech development. These toys create all the sound for a child so they don't have to do the work. This limits their creativity and imagination. Thus, the first things we tossed or removed batteries from were all those toys, except for a couple that come out on rare occasions, like his favorite buddy, Scout.

  

  My son with his buddy, Scout, who reads and sings to him.

• Open-ended toys are the best for promoting speech development, such as ones where a child needs to engage his imagination. This could include blocks, dolls, kitchen sets, etc.
• Narrate your life. This is a hard one for me and does feel awkward, but I do have moments I remember to do this. This exposes him to more words about everyday life, the ones he really needs to know. And helps him understand what's going on around him!
• Teaching kids shapes, colors and numbers as toddlers isn't as important as teaching him basic names for everyday items. We have a big picture book given to our son on his first birthday that has tons of pictures grouped by categories of everyday things, like: family, clothes, food, bath time, things that go, and animals. He LOVES this book. He points to things on each page, asking about them, identifying items and jabbering about them.

What did we do next?
As mentioned, we cleaned out the toy bins of noisy toys. We got a table and chairs set, put out fewer toys, and included more open-ended toys. We got some wooden blocks and a shopping cart. I'm looking into a kitchen set next, as our son has been spending more time in the kitchen with me, he's more interested in that room. Check out my son enjoying his shopping cart:


He runs around with his shopping cart multiple times a day, all over the house. He's starting to put items in it more now, too.

We set up an Early Intervention Assessment in our town and took him to it this past week.

The Early Intervention Assessment
Early Intervention is a FREE program funded by the government for children up to 3 years old. If you suspect that your child is behind in ANY area of development (e.g., speech, eating, motor skills, etc.), you can call your local office and request an assessment. Getting the assessment was very easy. They asked why I wanted one and basic info about my son's age and such. The assessment itself was a pleasant experience. We spent nearly an hour in an office while I answered questions about my son and he played with cars, his favorite toy.

After that, we went to a play room where four sweet and adoring women watched my son play and talk, interacted with him, and asked me a billion more questions about him. I was a bit mentally exhausted afterward and the headache I had going into the appointment blossomed by the time we were finished, but not because it was a bad experience. My head was swimming in everything they told me! I was doing my best to absorb what I could, thankful that he did qualify for services and I would be receiving more help soon!

The initial assessment:

• He's a slow eater and doesn't seem to use his back molars when chewing. His eating issues could be linked to his lack of speech development.
• He's about 50% behind in speech and fine motor skill development; although he was showing more skill by the end of the assessment, so he may be re-assessed.
• He should be checked by a pediatric eye doctor. His lack of fine motor skills and some gross motor skills (e.g., jumping, climbing late) could be linked to poor vision. This is very likely since almost every family member on both sides of our family wears or needs to wear glasses!
• He understands and responds to speech and commands very well; no problem with his hearing or mental responsiveness.
• He throws really well! He was flinging balls and rings all over the room!
• He's obviously trying to say stuff, but seems to shorten words.

Within two weeks, someone will be arranging the next appointment (at our house) to discuss a plan with us. After that, therapists will be coming to our home to work with our son. We're eager for the next steps, and even doing a few things ourselves that are already helping! More on that another time though.