he’s clearly a genius

Aiden was evaluated by Early Intervention today for a speech delay. YES I know he’s not quite 13 months old. YES I know that it is awfully early to establish that there is a speech delay. YES I know this might make me look like some compulsive neurotic freak. That’s why I haven’t written about this until now, until I had some cold, hard facts to talk about.

It all started at Aiden’s 12 month well-child checkup. The pediatrician asked a bajillion questions about his development, from social skills to motor skills to how much food he is flinging from his high chair (ANSWER: MOST OF IT, much to his mother’s chagrin). Then she came to the question I’d been waiting for. “How many words does he say?” she asked, pencil poised over Aiden’s chart.

My answer: “Um. None.”

Her eyebrows drew together in mild concern. “None at all?”

Truthfully, none. No words. There is much babbling and grunting and endless finger pointing and expressive noises, but no words. The child says “MaMa” and “BaBa” and “DaDa” all the time, but never in reference to anything specific. No brilliant smile at his mother while proclaiming “Mama!” He’ll run to the door to greet his father when he gets home, squealing and waving hello, but no “Dada!” or “Hi.”

My confession basically led to this… the doctor said the “medical community” prefers for kids his age to say 3-5 words. Worst case, at least ONE word. And Aiden’s not saying any. While we had the option of waiting a few months before getting him evaluated, her opinion was that the speech delay would still be there in a few months, and it wouldn’t hurt to have him evaluated now. Since it’s free and the people come to your home to do the evaluation and any subsequent therapy, I figured, why not?

So today was the evaluation. The evaluator arrived with a bag of toys and promptly settled down on the floor to play with Aiden. He was in full-on charmer mode: lots of smiles and giggles. He mimicked all of her actions and played with all the toys. When we’d name an object, like “ball” or “dog,” he’d proudly point at the correct item. He ran around the room and climbed all over everything. He belly laughed with glee when she told him how handsome he was. He even demonstrated his attempts at talking… lots of babbles and grunts.

In the end, we were told that there is a minor speech delay… Aiden’s at a 9 month old’s level. That’s a 25% delay, which just barely qualifies him for speech therapy in our county. Since it is a free service, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to let someone come to our house every other week and teach me new ways to encourage his language development.

The fun part, though, was finding out his developmental levels in all areas. I was pretty impressed when she told me that Aiden’s actually at the level of an 18 month old in pretty much every other area… social skills, gross and fine motor skills, cognitive skills, etc. EIGHTEEN months! I think this is why he doesn’t really talk much, because he is focused on other areas of achievement, and so good at making his needs known to us through gestures and other noises.

The evaluator even told us that she has never seen another kid his age who is so developmentally advanced (save for the talking). Even better than that, she told us he shows absolutely no signs of autism or other similar disorders. Though his only issue is speaking, I think it is normal for parents to fear autism, thanks to the never-ending news coverage and paranoia related to the issue, especially with the increase in diagnoses and the higher rate of autism in boys. Aiden’s always been lovable, extremely social, and has fantastic eye contact, but still, the fear had crossed my mind. That’s why it was so good to hear a professional with 20 years of experience reassure me that he is just fine.  It was also Proud Parent Moment #1654 when she said that she rarely sees children who are so social, bright, and advanced at this age. I’m so thankful.

So, my little grunter/pointer will soon be getting a bit of help in the talking department. I have a feeling one day he will just open his mouth and start talking in complete sentences. And one day later on, I’ll be wishing he would STOP WITH THE NON-STOP TALKING ALREADY, and reminisce upon these early days where he wasn’t nearly so damn chatty and loud.