Ot ~ Ds Not Walking!!

[Princessbaby]

I had 2 late walkers. My DS was 18 1/2 months when he walked. My DD started walking at 22 months. She had abdominal surgery at 10 months of age and this set her back several months, but according to her PT and OT she still should have been walking LONG before she did. I could also see that she had the capabilities if she wanted to , but she has always been a child who does things on her own timeline. She was content with her butt-scooting! We all thought she was going to be walking at about 17-18 months because she had the coordination and all, but she wasn't ready. Believe me I thought it would never happen, but once it did, she caught up very quickly and made up for lost times! My DS was the same way, he could have walked had he wanted to, but wasn't ready- he also had his own timeline. They are fine in ther areas- it was just the walking!

 

[mommylicious]

My middle DS was like that. He didn't walk till 19 months. He COULD do it, he just wouldn't. LOL He would hold your finger and barely be holding it and go everywhere but he would not even try without holding on to Mom. He was a chunky monkey too so carrying him around was getting quite old. He is still a little behind on gross motor skills but not dramatically and he does get it so the ped has just said that's not "his thing" and not to worry.

I know it's frustrating and worrisome but know you aren't alone!

 

[Tikicampers]

At 2 years children should be combining word into 2 word phrases and a vocabulary of at least 250 words.

Do you mean right when they turn two? If so, this is not what I was told by our Dr. or the two speech therapists (one primary and one preschool) and one special needs preschool teacher I work with. When DS turned two, he very rarely put two words together, and his vocab. was way under that amount. Everyone said he was fine, and that I shouldn't worry until he was three.
At about 2 and a half years, he started talking. He went from what I just stated to using sentences with 7-8 words in a matter of weeks.
I agree that if someone is at all worried, they should talk to their Dr. or a speech therapist, but I have a feeling that there will be some Moms who will see the criteria I quoted, and start to panic.

 

[Tikicampers]

I hope that will be the case with my son, he is 21 mos. old and isn't really talking. I have been losing sleep about it.....I have a nephew that is three months younger that is already using mostly two word sentences. I am getting to the point of dreading family get togethers because naturally someone always asks if my son is talking yet! Sorry to get so off topic, but if anyone has any advice, it would be much appreciated!

The only advice I can give is to read to your child and have conversations even if they are one sided. I always felt kind of stupid going on and on as DS just looked at me, but now we see that he really was listening and internalizing everything. At 21 months, DS called me and both his Grandmas "Ma." I was so upset. I wanted to hear Mommy so much. When he finally said it, I was overjoyed. As to what to tell your family, I don't know. I had asked our Dr. about it, and he said DS was fine, so I just told them that.

 

[belle&beast]

Do you mean right when they turn two? If so, this is not what I was told by our Dr. or the two speech therapists (one primary and one preschool) and one special needs preschool teacher I work with. When DS turned two, he very rarely put two words together, and his vocab. was way under that amount. Everyone said he was fine, and that I shouldn't worry until he was three.
At about 2 and a half years, he started talking. He went from what I just stated to using sentences with 7-8 words in a matter of weeks.
I agree that if someone is at all worried, they should talk to their Dr. or a speech therapist, but I have a feeling that there will be some Moms who will see the criteria I quoted, and start to panic.

There is always a range of average, but this is the criteria we (my state) uses when assessing children for services for speech and language delay. Comprehension is also assessed and the two are combined to determine whether or not there is a delay.

I am not trying to make anyone panic, the first two years of life are critical for language development and I disagree with waiting until a child is 3 to have them evaluated. I am a firm believer in early intervention, if a delay can be diagnosed early, a child can easily be on track with his peers when he reaches school age. Many kids will be evaluated and will not need therapy- what I'm saying is, it won't hurt to have an evaluation, but if an evaluation is put off and a child needs intervention, the child will become further behind.

I am not trying to debate or argue, this is just my professional experience. And I have seen too many kids get to preschool with delays that could have been worked on earlier.

OP, sorry to hijack the thread.

 

[camouseketeer]

I am not trying to make anyone panic, the first two years of life are critical for language development and I disagree with waiting until a child is 3 to have them evaluated. I am a firm believer in early intervention, if a delay can be diagnosed early, a child can easily be on track with his peers when he reaches school age. Many kids will be evaluated and will not need therapy- what I'm saying is, it won't hurt to have an evaluation, but if an evaluation is put off and a child needs intervention, the child will become further behind.

ITA

Too many times I have read threads like this on these boards.

Too many times I have read about parents saying. "Don't worry. My child developed late and was fine."

My comment is TESTING NOW CAN'T HURT YOUR CHILD. WAITING CAN.

My DD had normal gross motor development (crawling, walking, etc.) but was far behind in speech development. At 18 months she had ONE word: duck. She should have had, minimally, 6 words NOT including mama and dada.

My Dr. had her ears tested (came out fine) and had a speech pathologist come assess her. My DD was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder and we now know, at age 5, that she is on the autistic spectrum.

She has been receiving speech and other therapies since age 18 months, and at age 5, no one can tell that she is "different."

Bottom line, insist on a speech eval and an occupational therapy eval. WHAT CAN IT HURT?

If you find out everything is fine, then great. But if you find out that your child needs intervention, you've done it at an early age and that is the key to overcoming any issues.

In many states, help for your child is FREE before age 3. That's why I recommend you have it done before age 3. After age 3, the school district takes over, and, while therapy is still free, it's, IMO, much harder to get qualified for.

I am not trying to scare or panic anyone, but instead relay my passion for early intervention.

 

[wdw71]

My daughter did not crawl until 10 months and walked at about 14 months. All kids are different. Talk to your Pediatrician at his 2 year check up and see what they say.

 

[KirstenB]

ITA

Too many times I have read threads like this on these boards.

Too many times I have read about parents saying. "Don't worry. My child developed late and was fine."

My comment is TESTING NOW CAN'T HURT YOUR CHILD. WAITING CAN.

My DD had normal gross motor development (crawling, walking, etc.) but was far behind in speech development. At 18 months she had ONE word: duck. She should have had, minimally, 6 words NOT including mama and dada.

My Dr. had her ears tested (came out fine) and had a speech pathologist come assess her. My DD was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder and we now know, at age 5, that she is on the autistic spectrum.

She has been receiving speech and other therapies since age 18 months, and at age 5, no one can tell that she is "different."

Bottom line, insist on a speech eval and an occupational therapy eval. WHAT CAN IT HURT?

If you find out everything is fine, then great. But if you find out that your child needs intervention, you've done it at an early age and that is the key to overcoming any issues.

In many states, help for your child is FREE before age 3. That's why I recommend you have it done before age 3. After age 3, the school district takes over, and, while therapy is still free, it's, IMO, much harder to get qualified for.

I am not trying to scare or panic anyone, but instead relay my passion for early intervention.

I couldn't agree more. Also, someone may have already mentioned this, but....Early Intervention will come to your home and do a FREE assessment of your child's development. You DO not need any type of referral. If anyone here is on the fence about what to do....please pursue this. Call them. Early Intervention should be in the phone book, it's a "family services" type agency. I'm very much a wait and see parent. Thank God our pediatrician isn't. She caught dd's hypotonia, speech delays and social delays. Early Intervention has been such a blessing!

 

[camouseketeer]

My best friends DS did not walk until 17 months. But he was extremely verbal and she was told that sometimes motor skills can be delayed if a child is focused on other learning other skills, like talking.

With the OP's child, the combination of later than average walking and talking could raise some concerns.

Yes, he probably will be just fine, but an eval by professionals can't hurt.

 

[Mkrop]

ITA

Too many times I have read threads like this on these boards.

Too many times I have read about parents saying. "Don't worry. My child developed late and was fine."

My comment is TESTING NOW CAN'T HURT YOUR CHILD. WAITING CAN.

My DD had normal gross motor development (crawling, walking, etc.) but was far behind in speech development. At 18 months she had ONE word: duck. She should have had, minimally, 6 words NOT including mama and dada.

My Dr. had her ears tested (came out fine) and had a speech pathologist come assess her. My DD was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder and we now know, at age 5, that she is on the autistic spectrum.

She has been receiving speech and other therapies since age 18 months, and at age 5, no one can tell that she is "different."

Bottom line, insist on a speech eval and an occupational therapy eval. WHAT CAN IT HURT?

If you find out everything is fine, then great. But if you find out that your child needs intervention, you've done it at an early age and that is the key to overcoming any issues.

In many states, help for your child is FREE before age 3. That's why I recommend you have it done before age 3. After age 3, the school district takes over, and, while therapy is still free, it's, IMO, much harder to get qualified for.

I am not trying to scare or panic anyone, but instead relay my passion for early intervention.

I couldn't agree more. Also, someone may have already mentioned this, but....Early Intervention will come to your home and do a FREE assessment of your child's development. You DO not need any type of referral. If anyone here is on the fence about what to do....please pursue this. Call them. Early Intervention should be in the phone book, it's a "family services" type agency. I'm very much a wait and see parent. Thank God our pediatrician isn't. She caught dd's hypotonia, speech delays and social delays. Early Intervention has been such a blessing!

Both of these posts is EXACTLY what I was going to say. If there is a problem, the evaluation is a godsend and you can get started with help, if there is no issue, then you wasted a couple of hours of time and you can say you child is at the end of the developmental spectrum.

 

[Merriwind]

ITA

Too many times I have read threads like this on these boards.

Too many times I have read about parents saying. "Don't worry. My child developed late and was fine."

My comment is TESTING NOW CAN'T HURT YOUR CHILD. WAITING CAN.

My DD had normal gross motor development (crawling, walking, etc.) but was far behind in speech development. At 18 months she had ONE word: duck. She should have had, minimally, 6 words NOT including mama and dada.

My Dr. had her ears tested (came out fine) and had a speech pathologist come assess her. My DD was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder and we now know, at age 5, that she is on the autistic spectrum.

She has been receiving speech and other therapies since age 18 months, and at age 5, no one can tell that she is "different."

Bottom line, insist on a speech eval and an occupational therapy eval. WHAT CAN IT HURT?

If you find out everything is fine, then great. But if you find out that your child needs intervention, you've done it at an early age and that is the key to overcoming any issues.

In many states, help for your child is FREE before age 3. That's why I recommend you have it done before age 3. After age 3, the school district takes over, and, while therapy is still free, it's, IMO, much harder to get qualified for.

I am not trying to scare or panic anyone, but instead relay my passion for early intervention.

Absolutely. So you might lose an afternoon while gaining a lot of peace of mind. If there is any question/concern about your child's developmental progress, please have him/her evaluated!

 

[lulu71]

I know people mention Early Intervention a lot, but also our health insurance covered DD's PT services. I wanted to get the ball rolling and at the time she needed services, the wait for EE was crazy here (post-Katrina). So there might be another route if you prefer to see a private therapist (and I mean private as in not state run).

 

[Mkrop]

I know people mention Early Intervention a lot, but also our health insurance covered DD's PT services. I wanted to get the ball rolling and at the time she needed services, the wait for EE was crazy here (post-Katrina). So there might be another route if you prefer to see a private therapist (and I mean private as in not state run).

We went the private route too at first unitl our coverage ran out for visits, then we had to switch to EI. PT coverage for inusrance usually is not that great

 

[lulu71]

We went the private route too at first unitl our coverage ran out for visits, then we had to switch to EI. PT coverage for inusrance usually is not that great

We got lucky in that DD was released right at the time when her coverage ran out for the year. If she were to have to have continued, we would have had to wait like 3 weeks for the next year's to kick in, but we didn't need it. For ours, we had to pay just a co-pay for the visit and I understand that EI (at least in LA) is a sliding scale rate anyway.

 

[Mkrop]

We got lucky in that DD was released right at the time when her coverage ran out for the year. If she were to have to have continued, we would have had to wait like 3 weeks for the next year's to kick in, but we didn't need it. For ours, we had to pay just a co-pay for the visit and I understand that EI (at least in LA) is a sliding scale rate anyway.

I forget the number but you get so many visits a year and the PT place was very good about trying to keep track but then we added on Ot as well and he was going twice a week by then, making great progress, but we ran out of visits and they adviced us to conatct EI or pay out of pocket for 5 months until the new year and our visits would back again. I ws already paying a $40 copay for each visit so that was $80 a week with insurance. EI is free in our state, it took awhile to get him evaluated, then they did a complete soup to nuts, OT< PT< ST and developmental, then after all the testing we he started once a week PT and once a week OT and we still do that. Luckily we timed it well so that as one ran out the toher kicked in.

 

[nemonoah]

Do you mean right when they turn two? If so, this is not what I was told by our Dr. or the two speech therapists (one primary and one preschool) and one special needs preschool teacher I work with. When DS turned two, he very rarely put two words together, and his vocab. was way under that amount. Everyone said he was fine, and that I shouldn't worry until he was three.
At about 2 and a half years, he started talking. He went from what I just stated to using sentences with 7-8 words in a matter of weeks.
I agree that if someone is at all worried, they should talk to their Dr. or a speech therapist, but I have a feeling that there will be some Moms who will see the criteria I quoted, and start to panic.

My DS is the same way, he'll be 2.5 tommorrow, and he has a vocab. of about 50-60 words and can say a few 3-4 word sentences, when just about 2 or 3 months ago all he could really say was "mama" and "dada" so he is making progress. I used to be a pre-school teacher of kids in the same age group as DS and out of all 14 of them there were only 3 that could talk to where you could understand them, so I guess thats why I'm not too concerned. But when he turns 3 if he is still talking the way he is now, I will definetly insist on seeing a speech therapist.