Speech Delay

Yesterday, we had our appointment with ECI, which stands for the Early Childhood Intervention Program, which is a state agency that helps children with disabilities and developmental delays. The speech therapist from TCH suggested we contact them to determine whether Andrew might be eligible for their program. If he was, then they would provide speech therapy at a much lower cost than private sessions with speech therapy facilities.

They evaluated Andrew's speech and assessed that Andrew has a three-month delay, which unfortunately does not meet their six-month standard for eligibility. However, they said they would come back later in the future and conduct another speech assessment to see if Andrew qualified at that time.

One reassuring thing is that they also assessed Andrew's cognitive/comprehension at almost a year ahead of his age. Crazy!? We have always known he's a smart boy! But I have to say that the score was skewed because he got major points for knowing where his chin and eye brows are and for being able to follow a three step command that was unrelated (such as put so and so in the trash, get so and so from the fridge, and go read a book versus go get your shoes, sit down, and put your shoes on). But seriously, we have always known that Andrew's knowledge and understanding of things was pretty good. That's one of the reasons we are so worried that his speech isn't nearly as progressed seeing how he can't express himself fully.

Since Andrew isn't eligible for their services, James and I are going to look into privatized therapy hoping that our insurance will cover some of the expenses. We know that a three-month delay isn't huge, but we just want to get him any help we can give him in hopes of accelerating his talking. We really would like Andrew to say more complex words and sentences.

Here is a video of Andrew saying a few additions to his vocabulary (not too shabby of talking, but it's just not where we know it could be) along with some answers to some hard-nosed questions (i just like to see who he says). But it's funny (and a little sad for me) because he never answers Mama to either of the two questions. it's always someone else...Daddy, Nonna, Papa, and Ngoai are the typical responses.