You might recall that I've posted here there that Anderson doesn't seem to talk too much. Don't get me wrong - he has a lot to say, but doesn't seem to form actual words. He didn't say mama until December, maybe. He really tries to tell you things and the poor guy gets understandably frustrated with you. It's been on our radar since his 18 month appointment and we were told that he would most likely just start talking one day out of the blue. Well it hasn't happened yet.
Per Anderson's pediatrician we applied to the Early Intervention program in our county and waited to hear back from them. In the past week we have had approximately 3 hours of evaluations. Because we went through EI, Anderson was evaluated on all aspects of development, not just speech. Today was our last appointment and it was with a developmental pediatrician who made the final assessment.
It turns out that Anderson does have trouble talking. No issues with his receptive language - he just can't get words out. At 23 months he is about equal to a 15 month old. Not bad, but 2nd percentile in speech - which qualifies him for some free speech. The programs that contract with EI are very good and if we were to pay out of pocket would be a pretty penny.
She was also able check out the dude's toe-walking. It's something he has done since he started walking. There are many reasons why a child could do this so we thought while we have a dev pediatrician's ear we might as well have it checked out since Anderson walks on his toes about 90% of the time. The last thing we want is for his tendon to become too tight or shortened and then require surgery because we ignored it. Interestingly we've been referred to another evaluation with a Physical Therapist. It turns out that while Anderson is very quick on his feet and well balanced his gait is a bit off. I've noticed when he runs he swings his one leg out but didn't think much. It could be normal for him or it could mean he might need some PT for a bit and possibly some further evaluation on the size of his legs - he could have one leg that is a bit shorter and he's compensating by toe-walking. I'm intrigued. Long term it shouldn't mean much but anything to help him out and make him more comfortable would be great. Agian, all of this would be paid for by the state because it's part of the "First 5" years program.
So Bri and I get to check out two programs in the area - one that is strictly speech and another that has PT in the same location. We get to decide which program we want him in and then he starts his weekly sessions for speech. PT would be a possibility after he get s another eval. Speech therapy coupled with him starting preschool in the fall should really help out. Anderson rocked all the other developmental milestones, as we expected. Now we knew he was smart but in one area he actually is on par developmentally with a child who is 41 months in age - that's a 3 1/2 yr old and he's not even 2.