Speech "delays"

(This post is mostly for me as I try to work though Jake's speech[or lack thereof] issues, so it's ok if you don't read it.  But if you have issues with or are curious about speech development in toddlers, you might want to read it.)

So I Googled "toddler speech delay" because I was curious on just where Jake sits on the spectrum (because he is approaching two and a half and I want to know if I'm being dramatic or impractical in worrying, OR if I'm being too laid-back about it and should possibly be worrying more.)

The first thing I looked at was two books by Thomas Sowell, Late Talking Children and The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late.  Reading through the reviews, I found some interesting things that may apply to the Jake-man.  I've bolded the parts that I found relevant.

The basic conclusion of (Late Talking Children) is that there is some unnamed, unstudied disorder which seems to make children who are very very left brained talk late. These same kids seem to excel at math, logic and computers. It is possible that the late talking is just a function of the analytical part of the brain talking all the new cells for a while and "robbing" the speech center. This is not the case with all children who talk late, just those who are perfectly normal in every other way (can understand and perform other functions normally or at an accelerated rate).

(The Einstein Syndrome) is the Follow-up book to Sowell's "Late Talking Children". The first book was mostly anecdotal evidence, but this book includes far more data, from more scientific research. He worked with Dr Camarata, a speech and language pathologist from Vanderbilt university for the research of this book.
Yes, as before, many people will criticize this book, as they did the first. The people who will criticize this book are either the para-professionals that stand to lose money from unnecessary therapies, or the parents of children with serious issues who read no further than the dust jacket, and don't read the book with a critical enough eye to realize whether or not their child actually fits this special sub-set of late speakers. We have a strong family history of speech delays, and math intensive careers. Both my husband and father in law fit the profile, as engineers, both late speakers. I am such a strong advocate of this book, as I am a mother of 3 late speakers who fit the profile so closely it is almost scary to see it in print. It is as if they have been watching my household. All 3 of my late speakers are now speaking, and all share the extremely advanced mechanical and spatial perception skills addressed in the profile.

If you have a child that is late with speech development, seems frustrated with communications, strong willed & defiant, prone to tantrums, good at solving puzzles, loving but sometimes aloof, concentrates on some tasks, ignores requests to perform other tasks, not the least interested in potty training, exhibiting some autistic or PDD tendencies but having exceptional memory and surprising intelligence, then you need to get this book. Don't be put off by reviews of the professionals, the book has some information that will help concerned parents bypass those professional egos and cut to the main issue, how to best understand and help your child.

I've suspected for a while now that this may be the cause of his speech delay -- that kids can only really move forward in one thing at a time.  At first he was an early walker, then he started getting really good at puzzles.  I can't tell you how many people have told me after watching Jake for just an hour that they think he'll be an engineer .  Almost everyone who watches him during church services (we take turns) has made that comment, as well as random friends who observe him while we hang out.  And not that I CARE what Jake does when he grows up (as long as it's respectable and legal), but I think it's interesting that his actions strike so many people in the same way.  It's really reassuring to see someone saying that his tendencies may be normal, or at least other kids are like that, too.  I'm not going to run out and buy the book (because I'm reading like 6 right now as it is), but I'm glad I came across these reviews.

At http://www.speechdelay.com I looked at the milestones for every 6 months . . . generally Jake hits all but 1 or 2 for each category.  I really like that they include things like understanding what others are saying and reacting to them, and not just what a child IS able to say.  The points Jake misses are mostly putting words together on a regular basis (instead of using one word statements to communicate like he does all the time.)

24 months
Child understands simple questions and commands -- yes
Identifies familiar actions/activities in pictures (i.e. "sleeping, eating") -- yes
Follows directions to put objects "on, off, in" -- does this a lot; with lights and when I take my glasses off he tells me to put them on!
Puts two words together on average -- umm . . . not a lot.  Getting better lately.
Sentence length of up to three words -- yeah, that doesn't happen much, UNLESS he's repeating a phrase we use a lot "where'd he go," "what'd you do?"
Child will refer to self by name -- yup
Labels pictures -- all the time
Start to use the negative "not go" -- he doesn't do this.  Instead, he uses the opposite.  If I tell him he's going to bed, he says "awake."  If I say we're going inside, he says "outside" (ok, he says ah-hide, but close enough.)
Final "s" is used for plurals -- umm . . . not much
Vocabulary jumps to 300 words during the year!  In fact between the ages of 2 and 4, kids may increase their vocabulary to 2 words per day -- haven't counted lately, but sound about right
Children will stay with one activity about 6-7 minutes -- yup

30 months [where we should be, he's 3 weeks from 30 months]
Child has about 450 word vocabulary -- again, haven't counted, but sure
Child is able to give his/her first name -- yup
Child uses past tense, plurals, and combines nouns and verbs -- I don't know that he understands past tense or plurals for speaking, but he does combine nouns and verbs
Begin to identify objects from a group by their function and parts (ie. "which one has wheels?", "which one can we eat?") -- yes, very well
Begin to use verbs with "ing" endings (i.e. "eating") -- doesn't do this at all!
Early concepts such as "big, little" are identified -- is OBSESSED with big and little
Child will use "no, not" and answer "where" questions -- yes

Now for 3 years old:
Child will name at least one color -- Jake knows ALL the major colors and tells me them from memory.
Child will often talk during play, or when alone -- he does this!
Child can tell a basic story or idea -- yeah, that's not gonna happen
Child can use 3-4 word sentences -- not so much
Begins to understand "not" -- he understands it if I SAY it, but not how to use it
Can identify items in a familiar category or group (i.e. "show me the animal") -- he sorts very well, gets upset when a block is in the car bucket and will pick it up and put it where it actually goes
Child can have a vocabulary of up to 1000 words -- I don't think so.  ;o)
Children are often able to tell their name and street -- I'm just happy that when we turn into our street he says "home."

from http://www.drgreene.com/21_785.html
There may be no problem at all, but a child should definitely get a hearing and speech evaluation if any of the following applies (Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, Saunders 2000):
12 months no babbling or jargon
18 months no single words
24 months vocabulary of 10 words or less
30 months vocabulary of less than 100 words or no 2 word phrases
36 months vocabulary of less than 200 words, no sentences, clarity less than 50%
48 months vocabulary of less than 600 words, no complete sentences, clarity less than 80%

We don't have ANY of those problems so far!

"A child may not have all the sounds, however he/she should be intelligible by age 3."  So ok, now I feel much better about it.  So basically I CAN wait and see if he's doing and then re-evaluate with the pediatrician at his 3 year check-up.  Problem solved (for now.)

Comments

[Jen A]

That was all really interesting, Jen! When (notice I didn't say "if!") I hit my first "Is she developing ok?" feakout, I'll call upon you and your newly acquired expertise! :-)

[Jen_Jake'smom (FOR JEN A)]

girl, I'm here for ya!!! (it's amazing what you can find with good ole Google!!!)

jen

[Sue]

Wow, that really is interesting stuff - thanks, Jen! I was seriously worried about Ryan's lack of speech, as you know, and a lot of what I've just read in your post is amazingly accurate for my little late talker. I'm sure you'll find that between 30 & 36 months, Jake's speech and comprehension will REALLY take off, just like Ryan's did. Jake is doing VERY well already and seems to show an amazing understanding of concepts. His speech will catch up and then you will yearn for a moment of peace and quiet LOL.

[Rana]

Thanks for the info! I have a 20 month old daughter that has a lot of "boy" tedencies. She was a very early walker, understands everything we say to her and is much more interested in building things and figuring stuff out on her own. A lot of people are pressuring me to put her into speech therapy (not my ped), but I feel she is simply a late talker.
Thanks so much for making me feel a lot better tonight.