Sonny's Speech

Since Sonny (Thomson) was just a baby I've had a feeling that he would need a little extra help in the speech department. I think I started feeling that way from the time he was a newborn because he couldn't latch on correctly when breastfeeding. He always made a clicking sound due to a short frenulum. Of course it took me months of pain to finally get over my pride as an experienced nurser and ask the doctor about it. It wasn't short enough to be clipped and he grew out of it. It was always there in the back of my mind though. Wondering if it would effect his language skills. As it turns out this wouldn't effect his speech, but it didn't stop me from thinking about it. Then through the first year he wasn't babbling much or saying his first words. So the speech questions started in my head again. I kept telling myself, and everyone else, that I thought he was just more physical. I started teaching him a few simple signs around six months though, just in case. We thought "maybe he's just quiet and doesn't want to speak until he has it just right". I would meet my friends in the park and you would barely notice I had a one year old with me. He would just sit in his stroller quiet and content. By this point Sonny was saying dada, but that's it. Skip to his two year check up and he's saying around 8 words. By 12-18 months a child should have an average of 50-100 expressive words in his vocabulary. So that's when we decided it was time to talk to the pediatrician about it. It's so hard, because I knew he needed it, but I felt silly because he's only two! Plus all we would hear from everyone we expressed concern to is "boys talk later, Einstein didn't talk 'til he was five, I know someone who didn't say a word until three then one day spoke in full sentences". Even after his speech assesments I'm still second guessing myself. He'll say something new and I think "am I crazy and paranoid". Well, I might be crazy, but speech therapy can only help, right? Sonny is now going to MRDD every other Tuesday for therapy and every Tuesday to a pre readiness preschool group. As of this week he will also be having speech therapy through the hospital every Friday. I'm so happy we decided to do this rather than wait. We've been at this for almost two month's now and I think it's clicked. He now knows what we are wanting from him and he's giving it his all! It's such a great feeling every time he says something new! I think I took it for granted when Kennedy and Jonathan talked because it came so easily to them. Along with the speech his therapist talked to me about Sonny possibly having a sensory processing disorder (SPD). That maybe he's a sensory seeker or has a type of hyposensitivity. After she said that it was like an epiphany. "So that's why he does these things." Plays with his food squishing it before eating it. Always has to have a tag in hands. He's started biting and hitting, but not out of anger. Being a dare devil, and too many other signs to list. I think this might be why he developed PICA. Lots of kids have low iron, but it doesn't turn into PICA. The therapist isn't positive he has this sensory disorder, but she thought he sounded like a classic case of it. Obviously after reading more about it I think so too. So we're going to start working with him on the sensory issue as well. Maybe part of me wants this to be true so I don't feel like I've failed him as a mother. I know that sounds extreme, but I can't help but feel that way sometimes. I stay at home with him and until now I've been his only teacher, so I feel like his behavior reflects on me. When we're in public and my kids the one eating dirt and rabbit poo....well you see my point.