speech delays
Gary & Tammy Bangs (gbangs@earthlink.net)
Mon, 04 Mar 1996 18:33:28 -0800
Welcome to Dave!!!
Dave brought up speech delays, I also believe this has been mentioned by some
others too. Taylor has severe speech/oral motor delays. He will be 3 next
month, he is only mimicking. He has trouble with the sounds require the use
of tongue to roof of mouth. His 16 mo old brother is just about at the same
level of speech. Taylor just had a big evaluation, and was given some pretty
depressing labels, most of which I do not agree with.
The tests lasted for 2 weeks and he spent an average of 1 1/2 to 2 hrs at
each test (one a day). Taylor decided very early that he didn't want to be
there and did not respond well. He especially did not respond to the 'verbal
commands' ie.. 'point to the dog, touch your nose, draw a circle.' I do know
that he knows what those things are, he just wouldn't respond. The one
bright spot of the testing came when the child psychologist brought out a
series of tests that are usually used on hearing impaired children.Taylor
does not have a hearing problem, he is just very good at ignoring what he
doesn't want to deal with, something I'm sure he learned in the NICU.
Anyway this test involved matching pictures. It was totaly non-verbal, he was
given no direction from us. He had to figure out what to do completely on
his own. He performed up to a 4 1/2 year level.
This has led me to believe that the 'experts' are not that competant at
dealing with the special lifestyles of preemies. They simply learn in a
different way that full term children. During the time that most infants
are learning to suck and do things with their tongues, ours are dealing with
having plastic tubes shoved down their throats. when most infants are
dicovering how their arms and legs work, ours have to deal with how they are
going to move and breathe at the same time.
The point that I'm trying to make is that not so long ago dyslexics were
given some prettey dismal labels, and given up on. Now the 'experts' have
discovered that they must be tought in a different way. I believe that
preemies are the same. They just need to be taught in a different way. THe
norm just doesn't work for them. THey deal with so many other things than
most kids do.
A friend of mine made this observance of his preemie twins: when asked to
'feed the baby' my son ignored them. Later we asked him to give the baby a
nose canula and he did it in an instant.
Taylor was 22 mo old when he finally walked solo. At the time this was
considered around a 12 mo delay. Three days after he took his first solo
steps he began to run. THat means in 3 days he caught up 12 mo. I fully
expect Taylor to spout sentances soon.
Tammy, mom to Taylor and angel Alex, and Travis, and wife to 'finally home
again' Gary