Comments on: Mommy angst

By: Cat

Cat — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:12:50 +0000

Patrick and Ian both go to ‘integrated’ preschools – They have a mix of physical / mental disabled kids & peer models. [autism, cerebral palsy, kids who had a stoke in-utero, hearing problems, blindness, etc.] Teachers at these places tend to have enough experience to sort out actual problems from differences in personality. Also, they make ‘therapy’ time fun. Kindering Center in Bellevue is where Ian’s going, and takes kids as young as 22 months in their stepping stones preschool. I know the Redmond & Bellevue School Districts have free evaluations for pre-school kids if you request one. Renton might too. Also, no one said you have to act on their recommendations. Here [BSD], a determination of two areas that need work results in free preschool. Bottom line, if you continue to worry at age 3, get an evaluation – you don’t have to agree with their diagnoses or follow their reccomendations.

By: Lucian Smith

Lucian Smith — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:33:49 +0000

Hi! I’m from the internet. I’m here to tell you to trust your instincts. Milestone lists are great for feeding people’s neuroses, but they don’t really hold up the same as paying attention. You sound like you’re doing a great job!

By: melinda

melinda — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:48:26 +0000

oh dear… worry is a life sucking thing. again, his grandfather babbled unintelligble speech until age 2..there after spoke perfectly. robin knows how to walk so i wouldn’t worry on that score one little bit. the only thing you may want to check into is his hearing. chris’ daughter delaney spoke not a single word anyone could understand until nearly age 4. she did require a speech therapist and i think part of it was a hearing issue. but you should know that delaney is in the gifted and talented group in school.
btw, is the internet telling you to be worried because he’s not talking?

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:05:46 +0000

I can ask my mom but I’m fairly sure my nephew Joseph didn’t speak much until he was almost 3. Or rather, he didn’t use words that were recognizable but instead babbled a lot. Much like Robin does only louder.

He could do the pointing at things too that Robin seems to excel at.

Frankly, I think you should give it a while and try not to stress about it too much. I’m with Christy on this one. Keep exposing him to new things, make sure he’s still learning/interested in things and maybe get him some more time around other people/children to see if that helps his communication skills.

Though I don’t think that last one really helped Joseph until he was really ready to do stuff, it may help Robin a little. And he did have his shy moments, so don’t worry too much if Robin has a little of that too when you first start taking him out.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:50:30 +0000

Robin is going to be 2 in August, right?

I think it’s awesome that you’re trying Gymboree. Asher loved it. Lots of opportunities for physical activity, and the songs will be great for his verbal skills. Wanting to put balls into little basketball hoops might give him more incentive to walk.

Personally, I think it’s a little early to drag him to experts. Rember that right now, you are the expert on Robin. It sounds like he has some words, so it may very well be perfectionism rather than some speech therapy problem that needs corrected. I remember that Jacob talked late, too —- Amy says his first words were, “Jacob going down the stairs.” Yup, he said very little until he could speak in complete sentences.

Hang in there. Remember that the kids in the Gymboree class will be within a certain age range, and will vary greatly in their physical and verbal dexterity.

You might want to also look into a Mommy & Me playtime or preschool class for this fall. Park & Rec departments or co-op preschools (Asher’s preschool is one of the latter) are both good places to look. I think your instincts are right that being around other kids will help Robin’s development — this was certainly true for every single one of the kids in Asher’s class, no matter what their starting point.