Talk to me
by Cheryl, posted on January 18th, 2011 in Parenting
I look at his face, red, now, with snot and tears and drool all mixing in to one big frustrated mess.
He wants so much to tell me.
Even more, he wants me to understand.
Why aren’t I helping him?
Why?
This motherhood thing, when it comes down to the core of it, is pretty simple.
You take care of your child.
You are made expressively for this purpose.
And yet.
I look at that face, at the brown eyes so much like his big brother’s, and I know I’ve failed.
Because I have no idea what he wants.
“Dis.”
It could be anything.
And if I can’t figure it out, then I watch my baby tantrum.
It hurts.
Speech delay.
I know it could be so much worse. So much.
I know there are kids who, at age 22 months, have not yet made a sound.
We have sounds.
We just often don’t know what they mean.
So, since I am not one of those “Well, let’s see what happens, I’m sure he’ll catch up eventually, boys will be boys,” types of moms, I had him evaluated for speech therapy.
We’ve been down this road before. Sage had the verbal skills of a nine-month old when she was evaluated at 20 months. Six months later, she was speaking in complete, complex sentences.
Now there’s X.
He’s not as delayed as she was. But he still – thankfully – qualifies.
I will take him to his sessions and I will worry and hope they find the magic that connects the wires between his mind and his thoughts.
And beautiful words will spill out into the air.
I will miss how he calls me “Baba” and Thomas the Train “Ditdis” and trucks “guck guck.”
But not the way he looks at me when he’s desperately trying to tell me something.
No.
He will instead smile, all dimples and teeth, because finally, he’ll be heard.
And understood.
Tags: he does really have cute dimples, speech delay, speech therapy, this kid can tantrum like a professional if there was such a profession







Cheryl Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 1:38 am
X’s words, for the most part, are only understandable by me. There are some that are clear, like “up,” for instance, but most need the X Whisperer. A lot of things he just calls “dis” and if he wants something he will take us by the hand and show us. That being said, he understands EVERYTHING we say and can follow complex directions.
I’m hoping six months will make a world of difference. if you have ANY concerns, get him evaluated ASAP. Not only does early intervention help, but at least in The OC, once they pass age two they have to be 50 percent delayed to qualify.
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joann Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Now I’m thinking I should have Shel evaluated. He has lots of words, but only we know what he’s saying…and he gets pretty P.O’ed when we don’t.
joann recently posted..A Time For Frozen Treats in January
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