When my daughter approached the age of two...I was concerned. She did not talk much. She was able to communicate by pointing or by uttering a few words. I remember calling my sister-in-law and expressing my concern. Shouldn't my daughter be talking more? There were not many kids in my extended family. The few nieces and nephews I did have were older and I was not around them much when they were little. I researched developmental milestones. I was told not to worry. She would talk when she was ready. My daughter was almost two and it was like a switch turned on. She began to talk using complete ideas.
At three years old, my daughter was having foot pain (she has flat feet). We were referred to a specialist. Within five minutes of meeting my daughter, the orthopedic specialist stopped discussing her feet. He was struck by her ability to communicated and suggested I encourage her learning ability. In Kindergarten, one mother would periodically ask me...Has she always talked like that? My daughter's ability to communicate has been noticed by doctors, school nurses, dental assistants, coaches, etc.
To me...it is how she always spoke. She talks from the moment she wakes up until she falls asleep. It is constant. I am surprised she does not get in trouble at school for talking. There have been times I decreed the car as a "no talk zone" so I could focus on my driving not a conversation. She can be engaging and discusses many subjects.
Despite her ability to communicate, my daughter has trouble pronouncing some consonant combinations such as 'sh' and 'th'. My husband wanted to know if she need speech therapy to improve those sounds. She was tested at school by a speech therapist. The test included pronunciation, syntax and language. Many children who have speech problems also have difficulty with language and vocabulary. If they cannot say the word...the often do not understand it. She has some mispronunciations but her speech is readily understandable. She will need to be re-evaluated or we can choose a private speech therapist to correct the sounds.
In the language/vocabulary section, my ten year old daughter tested similar to an eighteen year old at 96%. It is no wonder why it is sometimes easy to forget that you are talking to a ten year old kid.
If her use of language stands out to adults...it makes me wonder what she sounds like to other kids. Maybe the teacher's comment "They'll Catch Up" makes more sense now.
2 comments:
Gosh that sounds familiar.
When my older son was in fourth grade, his teacher commented to me "Robbie is the kid I talk to when I'm sick of talking to kids and I want some adult conversation."
Aaron, my younger son, has some significant speech problems, but a phenomenal vocabulary. The combination of speech that sounds like a 3-4 year old, and words and sentence structures that wouldn't be out of place in a HS kid throws an awful lot of adults for a loop. "What did he just say?" is an almost constant refrain.
PB: Thanks for commenting and sharing your story. It does sound familiar. Adults enjoy having conversations with my daughter. I am not sure what we are going to do about the speech therapy. I know she can make the sound combinations if she speaks slower.
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