My son Camden, recently celebrated his 2nd birthday, and we all know that means a yearly check-up gets added to the calendar.
There are the common questions, about how they are eating, gross motor skills development and speech. When we talked about Camden’s speech we mentioned that he can get through the alphabet and count to 20 with prompting and say his colors and a ton of words, but the doctor was concerned that he’s not putting 2 words together.
My mind immediately goes into mama-bear mode, that my son is fine and it’ll happen when he’s ready. I mean he has an older sister, who won’t let him get a word in so he’s just taking his time and when he’s ready then he’ll start talking more, but there’s also the other side that maybe we’re not doing all we should, and we’re failing him as parents. (Harsh i know, but we all know this feeling)
The doctor said that if by 2 1/2 if he isn’t talking in 2-3 word sentences then we should call a speech therapist and this is where I start to worry. Do I follow my doctors advice or go with my maternal instinct? I feel some children progress differently and that we have to give them the chance to learn. Don’t get me wrong Mike and I are actively working on making 2 word sentences for him to repeat. He has no problem saying hot dog, I love you and nite nite, so I know it’s not impossible, but I can see that he has a difficult time putting sentences together.
I truly feel that with us working with a focus on putting words together it will come, but all I want is for him to learn organically and through experiences. He’s a smart kid and I feel very lucky that he’s healthy and active, but communicating is a huge part of life and I want to be encouraging and supportive of whatever he may need, after all that’s my job as a Mom.
I’m still debating on calling the speech therapist right away, but know that in the end I will do what I feel is best for him, because that’s what a Mom does.
This is me Destiny! I'm a content creator that covers DIY, Cricut, Travel, National Parks, Disney, Games and Family. I’m navigating life with my husband Mike, 2 kids and live in the suburbs of Maplewood, New Jersey.
We had Bo's 18 mo checkup yesterday and went through something similar. I also said the same thing, Carolyn talks a lot for him. I definitely had those same feelings of "he's fine, he'll pick up on it". I'm not too worried right now b/c I see him progressing every day. You are a great mama and you and Mike will know what is best. 🙂
We had the same experience with Branden…you are not alone in this. Branden walked really early, but was a little late on the speaking part. They will talk when they are ready, I know as a mom that it's hard not to stress about something like this, but it will happen. You have a healthy baby boy and if you need to set an appointment with a speech therapist, so what?
Every child is SO different. There is a not a cookie cutter mold that they should all fit in and that is what the doctors like to measure against our kids. Go with your maternal instinct and tell the doc to go fly a kite…is what I say:)
My kid was in speech therapy starting at 18 months. Most of it was pretty useless. I was worried too, but then wasn’t. I was going to pull him out of it, when I was told that by federal law all kids in early intervention were entitled to free preschool starting at age three. So… We stuck with it. Great school and when he was 3-6 he really did need the speech therapy to catch up with his articulation. And now, bragging mom here… He talks fine, gets straight A’s and is in an advanced program. So — do look into early intervention if you can.
I love reading stories like this, thanks for sharing. My son started the pre-school and it’s been amazing, and he’s doing great! thanks for stopping by.