Speech Therapy Evaluation

Today we had our evaluation with the speech pathologist. My first thought upon opening the door and meeting her? She looks a lot like me! Probably just a weird coincidence (I seriously doubt "Kerri look-alike" was a qualification to evaluate Camden's speech) but I was hoping it would work in our favor to make Camden feel more comfortable. And it seemed to! Within a couple of minutes, he had warmed up to the pathologist and was laughing and playing cars with her.

The evaluation was pretty similar to Camden's developmental assessment a few weeks back: she played toys with him, asked him to perform certain tasks, listened as he "spoke", and asked me questions. At the conclusion of the evaluation, here are the things we discussed:

• Children who aren't speaking by Camden's age typically fall into two categories: those that have excellent receptive language and imitation skills (and these kids will almost always start talking on their own without intervention) and those who truly are in need of intervention to help push them along.
• Camden, however, doesn't fall neatly into either of those categories. Camden's receptive language skills are excellent-- well above average for his age. But he does not imitate. Correction: he will imitate any physical activity without hesitation (he copied the therapist when she knocked on a door, drank out of a cup, clapped, etc.) but he won't attempt to imitate any sound approximations (animal noises, "uh oh" sounds, etc.).
• Camden is, however, a great non-verbal communicator. She was impressed with his ability to sign, point, and use other gestures to get his point across. She also felt good about the fact that he is very vocal and has a decent variety of consonant sounds he can make and that he attemps to communicate with sounds when he looks at or points to something.
• Our family history is a red flag for speech concerns. My oldest nephew was previousy involved in speech therapy and another one of my nephews will be starting speech therapy in the fall. Neither of them were late talkers; their issues were/are related to pronounciation. Also, my grandfather had a very pronounced stutter. Obviously these speech issues are different from Camden's. However, according to the therapist, speech problems can have a strong genetic component, regardless of the particular way they present themselves.
• We scheduled a hearing test to rule out any hearing loss due to ear infections (he's only had two ear infections; I don't suspect any hearing loss) OR any difficulty hearing due to ear wax build up (Camden almost always has quite a bit of visible ear wax, regardless of how often I clean it out). 

Also? I finally spoke up about something that had been nagging me in the back of my mind for months. It's hard to ignore the fact that anytime you consult Dr. Google about late talkers, you'll find 50 pages devoted to autism. So, of course that worry crossed my mind from time to time, though I knew it wasn't entirely rational (me, worry?! How very unusual, I know!). Today, I decided to ask the speech pathologist about the connection between late talking and autism. She said that she looks for three things when considering whether a child might be autistic: delayed speech (duh), social skills, and repetitive play or behavior. She then reassured me that autism was not a concern at all in Camden's case. (Insert big sigh of relief from Crazy Mama here). (Sometimes I wish Dr. Google didn't exist.)

She then said that she was a little unsure how to proceed with Camden. He's at the very youngest age that they'd typically start speech therapy and some kids (particularly boys) do have their language explosions between 20-24 months old. But because of his lack of ability to imitate speech sounds coupled with our family history, she really felt like intervention would be a good idea before he's 2 years old. We ended up concluding that she'd give me a bunch of activities to work on with him at home (mostly focusing on imitation games rather than trying to get him to say words) and we'll complete the hearing test on July 29th. If, in 4 weeks, we don't feel that he's made any progress in imitating sounds (or adding words), we'll begin weekly speech therapy with a pathologist. I feel good about this plan because it gives me the tools I need to work with Camden and it gives Camden some more time to "bloom" if he is simply a natural late talker. But we also have the back-up plan of speech therapy that will definitely start before he's 2 years old (something I feel strongly about!) if we decide he still needs it in a month.

Have I mentioned how fabulous I think this program is lately? Seriously, they should pay me to be a spokeswoman.