Note: this post is a follow-up to Stunted, where I express my fears about Aerin’s developmental delays.
We had our appointment with the pediatrician yesterday.
And after listening to my concerns, examining her, and observing her interact with me and others…
The doctor said, “Let’s wait and see.”
He agreed that she is definitely slow for her age. But because she wasn’t exhibiting some of the more common signs of autism, and because she comes from a multi-lingual household, he wanted to give her a few more months to see if she’ll catch up on her own.
Fooling around with with front camera on my phone. The doc told me
her mimicking my facial expressions is a very good sign.
But then he went on to say that parents know their children the best, so if I’m that concerned, it wouldn’t hurt to have her evaluated.
So I contacted our local early intervention program and left a message. (Their number defaulted to a voicemail system which told me that I should expect a return call within 2 business day.) I imagine that from here on in, there will be a lot of waiting.
Despite our decision to have Aerin tested, I was greatly encouraged after our visit to the doctor. I love our pediatrician and I trust him — I know I’m not the only one, because he’s received all sorts of awards, both from the medical community and from his patients. He obviously has more experience with children than I do, and assured me that he has seen children less advanced than Aerin at her age who managed to catch up with some extra work and dedication from the parents. He encouraged me to continue to talk, read, and sing to her, and told me that it’s not unusual for second, and subsequent, children to talk less in the beginning. (I later found an article which indicates that first-born children tend to reach the 50-word milestone earlier than later-born children.)
I’m not sure how fast we can get an appointment with the early intervention program with the holiday coming up, but I’m hoping for the best and will definitely keep you updated. Thank you for all your well wishes and advice!
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Sending good thoughts your way!
That is such a cute picture of the two of you! I hope you find a good fit with your early childhood interventionist; we have one for our son, and she comes once a month and just plays with him and talks to us and our three year old. She’s very laidback and sweet.
And the idea that second horns take longer to acquire verbal skills makes perfect sense to me… both of my younger brothers spoke toddlerese (grunts and half words) for the longest time because I (as a three and seven year old) understood them ans translated for my mom. Does Claire seem to communicate with Aerin well? I remember you mentioning that their age difference was tricky for a while for getting along.
Second borns, that is. At least I caught the autocorrect from Aerin to aeronautics!
I think “wait and see” is good advice. One of my friends daughters was put into special education classes for kindergarten because she was behind developmentally than other kids her age. Within 18 months, she’s now ahead of her class and won an award for reading. Kids are pretty resilient either way.
i’m glad the appointment with the pediatrician was reassuring. hope you are able to get an appointment with early intervention soon and that you get some more helpful information!
Its always good to be proactive. I am a special education teacher (birth-grade 2). If you feel like something is wrong, go with your feelings. My first son was a slow talker, got him evaluated and they said his receptive skills were advanced and that his expressive skills would soon follow. Now he sings and talks non-stop. Be ahead of things and seek help early rather than later. But I’m sure everything will be okay~ Good thoughts!!!
Just catching up on your posts now.
Big hugs to the bit of stress and uncertainty that you’re likely feeling. No fun.
The “wait and see” approach likely makes the most sense as Aerin is still so young…but I know early intervention etc is key too. It is so great that you have a doc that you like and trust.
My friend and fellow preschool Mommy at Clara’s school was told early in the new year by the teachers that they might want to have her daughter’s hearing testing. That she seems outgoing (very silly and playful), but not very verbal. They were concerned that she might have some hearing/speech issues.
This was very upsetting to hear for my friend. It was hard on her. Until you get to know her, she’s very introverted herself and she worried that her daughter would struggle with this. It looks like she is a bit, which was hard on her Mama.
They speak both Polish and English in their home.
So, off they went to a speech therapy appointment. Turns out her hearing was just fund and though she was a bit behind verbally. (I could blame this on my daughter though, they are BFFs – called PB and J by their teachers and Clara talks everyone’s ear off…which comes with a few challenges ie listening). They figured the slight delay was due to the two languages being spoken in the home and suggested they only speak English to help things along. But honestly, isn’t that how most children learn languages best, by having them spoken in the home? It doesn’t mean they don’t understand what they are hearing. Her daughter is also a typically 3 year old…bouncing off the walls and such at times. I honestly don’t think it’s because she can’t hear or understand, but she is in her own little preschooler world.
Keep us updated! 🙂
Also, she is adorable! Both of your girls are.
I’m just catching up on your blog. I’m glad that you decided to get A. tested. I wish that we’d gotten our son tested earlier when I was starting to worry but I was told to “wait and see” by our otherwise very competent pediatrician. He ended up being autistic and if we had started earlier, he would have received an extra year of therapy. Good luck!
Also wanted to add what you described earlier sounds like Sensory Processing Disorder. My daughter has this (I’ve had her formally tested for autism) and a lot of the symptoms overlap.
Hi Jenny, reading your post touches something close to my heart because my twins share the same birthday as Aerin and they have development delays too. They are not very verbal (10-15 words tops) and will not point to body parts period. We do try to read to them nightly but are probably lacking on the talking and singing front. No an excuse but with an active 4 year old to deal with as well, we are too exhausted for anything else. We and my PD agree that the twins are making progress, albeit slowly but as they are now 20 months old, I am starting to wonder if we need EI as well. They were 7 weeks early with low birth weight, my oldest was 6 weeks early and had zero delays. I am not measuring them against big sis but I wish there was more progress.