Watching Ryan grow and develop in a typical way has been nothing short of amazing. I took all the little milestones for granted with my older kids, but after working so hard for every single accomplishment with Ellie, I am in complete awe each time that Ryan just naturally figures out what to do next. I guess I did a pretty good job wiping my slate of expectations clean with Ellie and just celebrating each success as it came rather than worrying about what she should be doing at certain ages. Now I don't have the slightest idea what a baby should be doing developmentally at each age. Often times Ryan will completely blow me away by doing something new that I'm not expecting for a long time only to realize that he actually reached that milestone much later than any of my other kids. I guess that is why I didn't realize he was falling behind on speech until I was filling out the questionnaire at his 1 year check up and realized that he should be babbling more, making consonant noises like mamama, bababa, dadada, and mimicking our noises. But he wasn't doing any of that. He did a great job communicating his wants and needs with his go to sounds of "pthhhhh" and "oooo ooooo" with an accompanying pointing finger. The doctor told me that while Ryan was a little behind in his speech he was doing so great in every other area that there was no need to worry. Some kids just take a little bit longer to talk and he would probably be back on track by his 15 month checkup. I agreed that Ryan was doing great and while I was still aware over the coming months that he was behind on speech, I didn't worry about it. At his 15 month check up (that actually happened closer to 16 months) Ryan had made very little, if any, progress with his verbal speech. This time the doctor expressed concern over how far behind Ryan was. So after that appointment we had Ryan evaluated by Kids on the Move for early intervention. At his evaluation Ryan blew them away with how smart he is and how much he understands. They use an evaluation tool where anything less than 16 is below normal and 20-30 is the typical range. Ryan was right on if not a little high in every area but communication. Communication is divided into two categories - expressive and receptive communication. Ryan's receptive communication was off the charts at 50 while his expressive communication was way below at 6. This qualified him for early intervention for his speech.
For the last two months we have been working with an early childhood development specialist on skills that will help teach and encourage him to communicate verbally. I love working with these specialist who break down each skill into little micro-steps that have to be taken to reach the bigger goal. There is so much that goes into learning how to talk that I never would have realized. With their guidance we have been able to help Ryan develop the skills he was lacking. We started seeing little bits of progress from day 1 but just the last couple weeks his speech has really taken off. He is now able to sign basic daily needs like more, again, drink, food, all done, please, want. He has started mimicking noises and will tell you a dog says "woo woo", a chicken says "bababa", a cow says "mmooooo" and a car says "brrrrrrr". He says Mama, Dada, and Baba in reference to me, Scott, and his bottle. He says BA! for ball. "Hiiiii" with the cutest little wave and a similar but slightly different sounding "iiiiii" for Bye with the same darling wave. He asks for a treat by saying "Mmmmm" and "a" to be lifted up. He tells us he's done eating by signing all done while saying, "aahhhhh". And those are just the things he is saying consistently. There have been many other words he has mimicked a time or two like kiss, mess, eyes, poke, and many more.
We are all obsessed with his new found talking and it isn't uncommon for us all to erupt in applause whenever Ryan says something we ask him to. He loves the attention and will often start clapping excitedly for himself when he says something. I can't wait to hear all that Ryan has to tell us in the coming weeks and months.
I am so grateful for early intervention and how it has blessed our lives with two of our five kids.
