Just a few words from my professional experience

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Just a few words from my professional experience - if anyone cares

Hi ladies –

I wanted to out this out there to help ease your minds about behaviors, and speech. I love getting FMs and giving information, but since I get so many, and I’m sure I don’t get some from people who may not feel FMing me out of the blue (which I NEVER mind, by the way!!!)

While I’m not a speech therapist, I do know about certain aspects of speech. Also, please don’t take my word as anything other than my professional opinions based on my research and experience. I am not a doctor.

There are many components to speech. There is “verbal” speech. And “nonverbal” speech.

Nonverbal speech starts waaaay before verbal speech – almost immediately.

Nonverbal speech is the following:

Responding to changes in your tone (mom and dad talking, talking high, talking low, talking while smiling, etc.) these responses to your voice are very important as it shows you that your child “gets” that you are speaking just for them. They will wiggle, kick, flail their arms, and possibly smile or coo back.

Back and forth cooing – you make a noise, she makes a noise – back and forth. This is a conversation! Again, your baby is showing you that she “gets” the dynamics that a conversation is a volley between 2 people.

As your child gets older, he or she will start engaging in other important developmentally appropriate communication strategies:

Joint attention – he sees something cool, or something new and strange, and the 1st thing he does is look at you to see your reaction to that thing. This is a social thing, and a speech thing.

He or she will point to things out of reach – it doesn’t have to be a perfect point, or a point at all. It could be an open handed point, or a few fingers – the important thing is that he or she is looking at YOU during this gesture, to let you know that it is desired.

The “hey look what I just did” smile is very important! I just sneezed – did you see that mommy? Hey, look at me, I’m standing! I’m dancing. I farted! All of these actions are followed with a smile in your direction for your approval. The reason for this is that your child is waiting for you to SAY something in that fun high voice. This is a speech skill, and a social skill.

Babbling is very important – consonants should start to emerge at arooooound 9-10 mts, I think. Consonant sounds – bababababa, mamamama, dadada, etc…. All kids do this at different times. Cailen refused to call me mama until he was about 15 mts old – everything was dada for the longest time. Daddy, his bottle, his toys, etc – he was talking, but only saying one word. This happens and it is fine. He was also doing something called “fronting” where the tip of his tongue was used for every word – for example, “bye bye” was “dye dye”

If I hear that a child has a lot of nonverbal, social communication, and what is called “communicative intent” then that is a great sign that language is there and emerging.

Words - verbal language - will typically start to emerge sometime after your baby’s 1st year, give or take many months! Cailen, who had a greatdeal of nonverbal communication, really did not say a lot of words until quite recently. The explosion didn’t happen until almost 19 mts old. Now at 22 mts, he says sentences and asks questions.

Typically, your toddler will want you to repeat what he or she said to confirm the label. This is ok and totally normal.

As for play – kids learn by repetition. I get a lot of frightened FMs from moms who see their kids engaging in repetitive play – opening and closing farm doors, lining up their blocks and cars, stuff like that. This is how youngsters learn about spatial relationships, texture, cause and effect, and basic play. The thing is, these behaviors are seen in children with autism. HOWEVER, if your child is engaging in appropriate communication as described above, is social, engaging, lets you in on their play, and allows you to engage them in other ways of playing with the toys, then really, things are ok. If your baby likes to vroom and zoom his cars most of the time, but also enjoys lining them up, his play is diverse enough where it’s probably not a problem.

Also, kids like to stare at things that go round and round (think of the swing with the mobile, or a crib mobile) – the movement of objects and patterns are fascinating and help with brain development and growth. Staring at a ceiling fan is inevitable. That is not a sign of autism. All kids do it!

Just a few words on some things I see moms get freaked out about. I hope this helps a little.

Always go with your instinct. If you feel there is something wrong, you can always FM me, although I will always tell you to go for an evaluation, as I am a part of a diagnostic team, and not a stand-alone diagnostician, and it would be unethical for me to say anything without seeing your child or doing some type of evaluation.

I hope this was helpful – and please, always feel free to FM me.

Message edited 2/12/2009 2:59:44 PM.

Posted 2/12/09 2:58 PM