Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Stealing Nancy's Photo


Brenden & Dad, originally uploaded by nheiges.

My friend Nancy has written on her blog about her son's reluctance to be adventurous while Brenden seems to be fearless. Her son, though, has remarkable language skills while Brenden's skills are starting to lag. I'll trade you a little adventure for language, Nancy.

Seriously, Brenden's babysitter has talked me into getting in touch with ChildFind, a state sponsored program that helps screen for and correct possible deficiencies in toddlers. I know, he's only 2 for Pete's sake, but he doesn't have the same language skills most children his age have. He seems to not want to learn new words and is extremely stubborn about it. For instance, we have been working with him to get him to call me "mama", but usually he ignores us, or says, "No, Dada!"

2 speech pathologists are coming out this afternoon to evaluate Brenden. If nothing else, maybe they can give me tips on how to get him to start saying things. If they find a problem, well... I'll deal with that when I get to that point.

7 comments:

Anonymous Me said...

It never hurts to get information, but from working at Even Start for nine years and listening to parents and teachers talk about children's development I certainly got the impression that there's a wide range of normal. I remember reading, too, that when kids are really working on one area of development another may lag for a bit. It all evens out in the end. Brenden's physical dexterity was pretty amazing - that may be what his brain is concentrating on these days rather than language. I'll be interested to hear what the experts say.

That is a pretty awesome picture if I do say so myself. The ones I took of you were in too much shadow.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the pic Nancy, looks great. As for Brendens development, I think it is spot on and there is no problem. I agree doesnt hurt to check though. They stopped out yesterday and I think they were impressed.

Helly said...

As someone with no children and zero experience, I can categorically state that the problem lies intrinsically with the words you are trying to teach. Mama = not interesting. Booger = interesting. Pool = meh. Poop = not meh. Give me two hours, I'll have him cursing like a sailor in proper tenses. Promise.

Helly said...

Alan, reading over my shoulder: fartknocker! Turdburglar! Assgoblin! Now THOSE are good words. Cookie, not so much.

Anonymous Me said...

Y'all are hilarious!

Topcat said...

I tried some of those Helly & Alan words yesterday & he ignored me. I did, however, after a futile attempt to teach him 'fart', start making farting noises which he imitated instantly.

-Sandy

Alan Bowman said...

Ha!! My work here is done...