Speech Delay & Speech Therapy

Hi all,
I am writing this to let more parents know about my experience with speech delay of my child.

I have a son who is 4 years old now. He was born in US and we lived there till he was 1 1/2 and came back to India after that.we were moving here and there till he was 3 and settled in chennai after that.He didnt have any other delays except for his speech. Till he was 3, we just left it as such as some kids take more time to talk than others. After, that we put him in a nursery school and, after 3-4 months they said my son is not able to follow things in class, so its better to put him in play group, as for some kids its easier to develop their vocabulary than others. We said ok and then this year, he went to pre-kg/ nursery.He still had problems with his speech and he used to repeat things we told him or answer back in one word or 2 word sentance.I was starting to get a bit scared as well but my husband said im being paranoid.Then, once in PTA, the teacher said my son is not listening and please make sure he doesnt repeat it.After 2-3 weeks, while getting my son from school, I asked the teacher if he is listening now. Then she said no, he is not.She asked what his age is and I said he is 4. She said ok..ok.. and asked me" is he normal?".I was shocked and thought maybe I got it wrong and from prior talking with her knows that her command over English language is not good, so I asked her what she meant. She continued," I asked Is he normal? I thought he is having some problem and is abnormal and thats why he is still in pre-kg". My heart shattered for a second there.I said her he is a normal kid as far as I know and just have problems with speech..I came back, and was thinking and going through all the scenarios, what if he has autism or ADHD or some other neurological problem? why would the teacher brand him as 'not normal kid'? Did we miss to look at something?As far as I have seen, he loves playing alone aswell as with children, loves to sing rhymes,movie songs,loves puzzles, knows ABC's even words, numbers, and if he wants something, ask for it in one word or 2 word sentence.So when, she asked me directly to my face if he is normal, it felt like I failed as a mother. I was crying the whole day.When my husband called me from office, I cried and told him whatever the teacher said and he called the school.they told us to come meet us next day.that day, we didnt sleep anticipating what the school people will say and what will be wrong with our son.We went to school next day, and the school coordinator said that the teacher was saying something was wrong with our son as he was not listening and apologized for the choice of words that teacher used to describe our son.they said to take our son for an evaluation and see if there is anything wrong with him. We went to a child psychology/speech therapy specialist and got him evaluated.they reviewed and said, he doesnt have any problem like Autism,ADHD or the like we feared but have only speech delay which he will overcome with speech and language therapy. She said that, as we were travelling here and there, our son doesnt have a proper grasp over mother tongue or any language and that is what causing the delay.He wants to convey but doesnt know the word he has to use. We told her the concern raised at his school of him not listening. For that she told us, " if you are in a place where you dont know the language, will you really listen to what others say? thats what happening to him.When analysing problems of children, try to understand it from the childs perspective, then you will understand where the problem lies". her words were like rain to our worried hearts.She said our sons language will only develop in next 2-3 years by which time he will start proper schooling, when it might be difficult for him to interact with other children and so to go for speech therapy for 6 months to make his talking process faster and easier interaction for him. So now we are going for speech therapy (st)and since he is developing normally in all other aspects, is listening if the things are interesting, he is not going for occupational therapy(ot), but just for st for 2 days a week.Its been just 5-6 classes and already we are seeing changes in his speech. So parents, dont believe what others say about your child but follow your instinct about your child.

 

[QUOTE="Sauravmou, post: 3965999, member: 46933
The first thing you have to do is stop judging your own child. Unless until you take him to a speech therapist |pediatrician specialised in these, you cant conclude your child has this and this problem.
You can get your child evaluated at Sri Ramachandra University, or at Stepping Stones Center, Vyasarapadi. Both these are good.For more info about these places, just google it.You can check in practo app or website too for speech therapists and even can see reviews about them.
Even when you take your child to get assessed, keep in mind that they will asses child based on his behaviour there.If any of the observations made by them is wrong, please correct it, since you have been seeing your child from the moment he was born, and the therapist who assess have seen him 15 - 30 mins. So you be the better judge.Why i am saying this is because,
After, my sons initial review and assesment , and after 2 months since we started speech therapy, one of the senior speech pathologists there reviewed him again. My son, i dont know what made him, started behaving oddly.he started screaming, closing his eyes wlith his hands, running around and not answering her questions.
She concluded that he is having PDD(PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENT DISORDER) which is now considered as on the autism spectrum. It is the mildest form of autism.she said its easier to push him to normal as his is mildest and I was having my doubts.Then as we were talking, my son started to play alone sitting quietly...He asked me something for which I said no and later when I asked if he wants sometging, he replied . All this conversation between me and my son happened in English while the therapist asked him fully in Tamil.Thats when she asked me what language I use to talk to him for which I said English, since he seems to understand it more.

Thats when it clicked for her. He was not understanding her or listening since h3 doesnt know Tamil. What happened with him wad, I conceived him when I was in US, all our friends were tamilians, and andhraites,and since I didnt know either language, they used to talk to me in English.And in Us, their language is English. Till he was almost 2 we were there.So , a child retains the language that he hears through pregnancy and till he/she is 2-3 years.in our case, our son heard English only and after he was almost 2, we came to India.Since his mothertonge is English, whatever language other than that, he was not able to understand. Me and my husband also stopped talking fully English to him since we came to India as we were here.That was the root cause for his delay.If we had stayed in US, he wouldnt have had this problem.For kids with speech delay, since they cant express through language peoperly, they start to show more actions which might seem awkward.If we had waited till he was 5 or 6 , by which time a childs language will be fully developed, he would have shown more actions which might look like actions done by a child with autism and would have resulted in wrong diagnosis.So, she finally understood whats wrong and now we are giving him speech therapy in english and he is showing tremendous development in just 3 months.
Since speech delay, autusm etc cannot be diagnosed by any medical tests as eg blood tests, but by evaluating a childs behaviour, it depends in how child behaves the in front of therapist, if you find the parts of diagnosis wrong, talk up. Eg, if your child holds his fingers close to his eyes, but doesnt do that or you havent seen him doing before, speak up as its a behaviour of an auristic child.

 

Get him evaluated at 2 different therapists for avoiding the same reason of mis diagnosis. When initially she said, he is mildly autistic, we were sad.,since the first therapist said he doesnt have autism and only speech delay. Then, later, when my son got comfortable and started talking and interacting with her,and talking properly with me, only did she understood whatever actions he was showing was just actions and he is fully normal except for speexh delay.She have told us that he will take max 6 months to get to the speech level of kids his age and try to go back to US as it will be easier for him there.

 

He was not listening, if he got bored, he used to sing rhymes, he never replied to teachers questions(which were in tamil+ english).The speech therapist when told about teachers concerns told, if the child is not listening, the problem is with teachers teaching, not childs. .And if you talk to anyone in a language he or she doesnt understand, will he listen or reply to you??Therapist said, put yourself in your childs shoes. Someone is telling him somethig in a language he doesnt understand, will a child who is less than 5 listen??Even adults wont listen nah??