Let's Talk About ... Speech Delay

I haven't forgotten to write about our experience with a speech delay. I apologize for not getting this up sooner, but I have a lot to share, and I wasn't sure where to start. To begin, I thought I would give you a brief background ...

As you know, Kate was diagnosed with a speech delay at her 18-month appointment. We started speech therapy in mid-January--two appointments a week, which also included a co-treatment with an occupational therapist once a week. She has progressed TREMENDOUSLY and already has about 10 words. We are thrilled and so thankful! When she first started speech therapy, she did not have any words. She had a few signs, but she rarely initiated those signs--she would sign them after we said the word or did the sign first. Her improvement in such a short amount of time has been really remarkable.

Back in January, we noticed that Kate had some other delays that were concerning as well. My sister Robin very lovingly brought these to our attention, and we are *very* thankful for her care and concern--because, as a first-time mom, I had no idea these were things Kate was behind on. At that time, in addition to her speech delay, she did not point, follow our point, or respond to her name, among other things. These are all red flags for autism. Needless to say, I spent a lot of sleepless nights praying and on the computer reading everything I could about autism and developmental delays, etc., etc.

To make a long story short (believe me, this is the short version), we were advised by our pediatrician and several others to see a developmental pediatrician. Developmental pediatricians are not all that common, and getting an appointment takes MONTHS. There are only a handful in the state of Georgia--but fortunately for us, I think most (if not all) of them are in the metro-Atlanta area. The first DP I called was taking appointments for September--and this was back in January. I found another DP who was taking appointments for the summer, so that is who we went with. Plus, she specializes in autism in younger children. In the meantime--in addition to filling out lots of paperwork--we started our speech therapy and worked with Kate on her delays a lot. We had an evaluation with the state's "Babies Can't Wait" program (for speech delay) and also had an informational meeting at the Emory Autism Center. Both said the same thing--she was showing some red flags, but they really couldn't say for sure whether she would be on the autism spectrum.

Then--thank the Lord--we got a call from our developmental pediatrician's office. There was a cancellation, and we had an appointment for March! YAY! This is HUGE that we were able to be seen so quickly, and we are thankful. Well, our appointment was week before last at the Marcus Autism Center here in Atlanta. Our DP spent about an hour with us and Kate--and at the end of our time together, she said that she really wasn't seeing autism. Praise God! She wants to see us back in July (after Kate is 2) for a follow-up visit.

Kate has made wonderful progress since we first became concerned. She certainly had some significant delays and is still catching up. In addition to her language, she now initiates signs and speech, points, follows our point, and responds to her name (when she feels like it--LOL!). She also started preschool two days a week, which was recommended to us to help with her speech and social skills. We are very thankful for her improvement. We love our little girl so much, and we thank God for her.