Speech and other things...

Kale was a bit behind in speech. He was a busy kid moving around quickly as a baby and walking by eight and a half months. By the time he was two he finally started talking and we had him assessed and he worked with a speech pathologist when they came to town and a worker through the Child Development Center on a weekly basis. We dabbled in sign language and he moved one. He still have some articulation problems when he went into school and he worked with someone in the school. Now he has pretty good speech, mumbles sometimes and is pretty quiet.

Mickey was a late talker. I remember him having some words when he turned 1 but I'm not sure what happened. Because by the time he was 3 he still wasn't talking. It was a constant struggle for him and he would get frustrated rather easily and scream. He was still pretty cute though! So that's a plus! I'm a pretty easy going parent, I was willing to wait and see if anything changed and when it didn't I sought help. So he began working with another worker through CDC on a daily basis. He was severely behind. He quickly caught on to sign language have up to a hundred signs that they used daily at daycare and at home. He had his own support worker for communication and to work with him on things that he needed help with.
They said he had apraxia but I'm not sure exactly if that was it. But he got help that he very badly needed.
When he started school he was still behind but went in with a great transition report. Only problem was that he didn't get the help he needed. I worked with someone for awhile until she went on maternity leave but it's been up in the air since. He was worked with a couple of different people in grade one with no headway. I received a referral from the speech pathologist but there is no one in town who does it. I'm looking into how I can help him now.He struggles with words at times and gets very angry when not understood. I feel helpless sometimes but he has come a long way in only 3 years.

Mica was referred early, he showed some early signs of sounding like Mickey and we got the help early enough that he doesn't seem to have too many issues right now. He talks well and has great articulation, there are some sounds he still can't do but he's at the right spot developmentally, so I have feel good about his progress.

I would recommend sign language as an alternative. They naturally seem to drop signs as they pick up words and can fall back on signs if they are not getting the word across correctly to be understood. Early intervention is necessary if you don't want to see your children struggle and for them to make a natural progress in development.