I have been reluctant to share Will's complete story, as he seems to be a bit unique in his LT history, but then again all of our LTs develop differently and I guess Will is no exception. So here we go.....
As a baby Will was completely "normal" so to speak. He was always on the end of normal time lines to reach milestones, sitting, crawling, walking. Now talking came right along when it should, Mommy, Daddy, etc. at about 12 months. After 14 months Will was walking, talking and perfectly "normal".
By 18 months we thought we may have a little genius on our hands. Will had taught himself his colors from his Eric Carle book. By 20 months he counted to 20 in the car by himself. Right around two he also showed he knew his letters (upper and lower) and their phonetic sounds. By 2.5 he would spell words with his magnets on the fridge.
What we didn't see at 2 was the combination of two words together. My friends kids were starting with simple sentences and mine, well we thought he was concentrating on learning other things. It should be noted that we moved when Will was 18months and at that check-up his doctor commented on what a delightful baby Will was and how he'd miss him at his practice.
At bit concerned at this point we took Will to the local college to have him evaluated by their speech department. I wasn't sure how Will would do he was starting to show his preference to do things his own way right about then. Will did great on the tests, could label and point to things requested. They told me he didn't qualify for services, but if he still wasn't combining 2 words in 6 months to have him reevaluated.
So by 2.8 months when he was still only using one word we found out we missed the boat on EI and to go to the local school district for an eval. Funny how 6-7 months can change everything. Now Will was "really" behind not saying 2-3 word sentences and he needed speech therapy and OT since he couldn't string beads on a string.....OK.
Now I will say at this point 2-2.5 Will was demonstrating some sensory issues. He loved to put water, rocks, mulch over his head. It was a bit strange, but we figured it wasn't hurting anything and maybe he'd grow out of it --he did, by about 3.5.
We moved again right before Will's third birthday and started his first therapies at this time too. I could sense the judgment from Will's SP and was getting worried about exactly what was going on with his language development. We could always understand Will his pronunciation was perfect or at least as perfect as any kids his age.
This is about the time I figured I would try to get an appointment with the C's. Then a really wonderful thing happened a light switched on and Will could suddenly put 2, 3, 4 words together to make very simple sentences. We were thrilled and had more hope for the future. Will also demonstrated that he had taught himself to read and would read simple story books to us.
On the downside this was also when Will was able to start scripting. His amazing memory allowed him to recite his favorite TV shows over and over and over again. From encouragement from the school district I enrolled Will in preschool. Of course he didn't comply with circle time, crafts, etc and preferred to play with letters on the easel. He was the weird kid in class, not able to sit still for family day, fieldtrips etc. Preschool to me was just stress, but Will did like it so we went along for the ride.
Then we made the trip to the C's. I was told unequivocally that Will was not autistic, that he may be gifted, and had an IQ of 126. The news was good, start saving for college because he WILL go and will have a bright future. On the downside for a few years Will would struggle and we would have all sorts of issues with his school district until he "catches up". Third to forth grade would be the catch up years for Will, but until then he had to overcome a pretty bad language disorder.
So here we are a little over a year later (took another trip to the C's - good progress- slow but good) and we are still super scripting. One great thing, I was able to get Will into a wonderful integrated speech and language preschool. He has shown increased interest in his peers, but his lack of language and scripting has kept him still isolated from others. His sentences are still 3-5 words, but he is sharing with us what he sees/hears/wants and sometimes will tell us what he did that day.
He is still a bit left of center on things (PICKY PICKY eater, scripter, super shy with new people/kids, could play with letters and spell 10 hours a day) and that alone can keep me up nights, but I do have lots of hope for the future. In general Will is an easy going happy kid, who has dealt with his lack of speech with grace and happiness. He always seems to have a smile on his face and is pretty happy to go with the flow.
Next year we start our first of two years of Kindergarten (I made the principal agree to letting Will repeat before I enrolled him). I hope to have lots of positive things to report during and after year 5.
If you read all of this, thanks! It felt good to get it all out and down on "paper".
Reposted from Natural Late Talkers forums.
