My son turned 19m but he still doesn't point. He looks at the objects when asked but never points.He has only 5 words. He will b having new words and after a while they disappear. Could be regression.He babbles alot but it is meaningless. He looks at when he wants help. He notices kids of his age but doesn't play much with them.
He does little flapping when excited. He spins wheels for a while but doesn't mind coming out of it. He shows us things but never shares his interests by pointing. He pretend plays phone but it's more repetitive. Whenever someone comes home he doesn't know how to express himself and starts pretending to talk on phone or dancing by looking at them. After a while he is fine and gets close to the people.
Coming to his positives, he smiles when you smile at him. Responds to his name most of the time. Has a good eye contact and joint attention. Very cuddling. enjoys peek-a-boo and initiates. Can clap, wave bye, imitates well, pretends to drink from his cup, combs hair, sweeps with broom, assists when being dressed, sleeps well, feeds me sometimes
His receptive language is still at 15m old level. He will be starting with speech therapy in another two weeks. But no pointing and not sharing interests with pointing really concerns me. He has been evaluated and his doctor doesn't want to label him right now as he has few positives. However he is concerned about his no pointing and sharing things said to start him with speech therapy.
just wanted to know if anyone of you had similar concerns? And any children with no pointing at 19 m ended up fine at later point of time?
My son didn't really have any words when he was at 18 months so I pushed to get him into Birth to Three. He had a fantastic speech therapist. At age three, he is pretty much caught up.
C., the good news is that you have had him evaluated at this point. The bad news is that he is very behind. You will know more once the speech therapist has worked with him for a period of time.
I urge you to observe each and every speech lesson. Take notes on what the teacher does. She will give you a home program and it is essential that you do exactly what she says every single day of the week. I believe she will say twice a day. Her speech therapy sessions with him will NOT help if you don't do the home program faithfully, and I really mean faithfully.
It does sound, from your description, that he may be on the autism spectrum. I hope that he isn't. However, right now, diagnosis or not, you need to seek out as much early intervention as you can find and afford. Without it, he may be very behind by the time he starts school. The earlier the intervention, the more chance of normality and a chance for him to keep up in school.
Five words at 19 months is not normal. Yes, there are children who grunt and point and simply refuse to talk because they don't have to. But that doesn't sound like what you are describing. So no matter what ANYONE says to you to try to placate you, spare your feelings, make you feel better, or tell you that their child didn't talk til he was 3, stick with the plan to get him PLENTY of early intervention. If he isn't on the spectrum and is just a late bloomer, the work will jumpstart him and he'll be ready for kinder. If he IS on the spectrum, you will give him the chance for a more normal life that he will LOSE if you don't start early intervention now. Be strong, be proactive, be vigilant.
Best of luck.
Sounds a lot like my DD who just turned 2. She did not point or grunt until about 23 months. She has some words, and she may use them once and then not again for a month or so. We had our state early intervention program come out and evaluate her. Because she has trouble communicating her behavior is sometimes really bad. The guy that comes out twice a month has me repeat words 3 times before I give her things. That has helped. He explained that language is not always fluid and it is normal for a child to speak a word and then not again for a while. My suggestion is for you to contact your state early intervention program.
Oh- and just to add a few more things- have his hearing evaluated. The other thing- children tend to focus on one side of development at a time. My DD tested out at 2 1/2 years at only 20 months for gross motos skills. Her brain has decided to focus on developing those skills first. My oldest was the opposite- she talked like crazy from an early age but too SO long to learn to walk. Your son may be focused on his gross motor skills and speech is coming later.
Hi C. - good job getting him evaluated.
Don't worry about a label right now, but if you DO get a label, it is a TOOL, and should be used that way. The label does NOT DEFINE your child, it just helps to DESCRIBE your child (like blue-eyed, American, etc.).
My son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (on the autism spectrum) at age 4. He is what I would call "lightly touched" with it, as his symptoms are very subtle, and mostly social. The school district provided pre-school for disabilities and they worked with him on language skills and social behavior skills. He is now 6 years old, in first grade in a regular classroom, and doing very well academically and pretty well socially. He gets some speech/social support for learning and behavior at school.
If he is on the autism spectrum, it is a spectrum. There is a huge range. Trust your mommy gut for things, and one of the best things you can do is be a "detective" about behavior as he gets older. Behaviors that seem "strange" to us actually have a reason (for all kids, but for autistic children the reasons seem different) - they make their own sense if we step outside our perspective. I found this to be hugely true. There is a phrase "Behavior is Communication" - it's part of the detective thing, as SPOKEN language can be a challenge for people on the autism spectrum. Just be open to him and understanding him and how he communicates with you. Keep on using YOUR language too. He'll absorb it, but may just need extra time to do so.
My son does point - he didn't do it as much as other kids and he did it with a different finger. With love, care, understanding, autism will remain a challenge, but the brain grows, changes, learns. I have friends in the blogging community who are autistic adults, so I KNOW this for a fact.
Feel free to PM me if you want more info.
You know you're doing everything you can for your son well done and continue to do so.
I'm going to approach this from a different viewpoint. My son is autistic, in the 1st grade and was, more or less where your son is currently at that age. My son just started verbalizing in June of this year. My son has received speech and other related services since he was 2. My son is very bright. In spite of his lack of verbal communication his receptive language is very high and he can read at a 3rd grade level. My son still has an obsession with and is attuned to all electronics. He's a whiz that way. :) If your son enjoys electronics provided his doctors don't say otherwise let him explore that area.
I'm not telling you this to upset you or make you think your son could go this route but rather to let you know that if your son is on the spectrum that whilst it'll be difficult to manage, life for your son will not be less than. Hope you get the answers you need and they are what you desire them to be.
I think you are doing everything right. My boys are a little slower to develop as well in speech. They turned 20 months on 10/08/13 and I just started noticing pointing, and even now they don't always point at what the see or want, they still just grunt until I figure out what they want.
I'm going through the EI process myself. My son gets more services than your son does, for what seem to me like less severe problems. (He gets OT, PT and a one on one push in instructor in nursery school.) What I've learned is that some parents really push for services. My EI coordinator is a little surprised I don't push more, but I feel uncomfortable about it. But there is a little bit of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" going on. In other words, don't take what you've received so far as the final word. Any service will pretty much benefit any kid, whatever the diagnosis or lack thereof. My son was a chatterbox at nineteen months, so only five words would concern me. Btw, my pediatrician is old school and kind of rolls her eyes at the services my son gets when she has to write an official scrip for them. Sometimes doctors are hyper focused on diseases and diagnoses, and they forget that these services can simply be a valuable enrichment for kids who are a bit behind in something.
I can't remember about pointing but our son wasn't a big talker till after he was 2 yrs old.
I never knew people were concerned about flapping till I read about it on this site.
Before he talked a lot if he wanted me he use to do a little 'come here' wave very quickly and I thought it was just his sign for me.
Anyway a month or so after his 2nd birthday it was non stop chatter chatter chatter and he didn't wave so much anymore since he had words to call me.
Now I miss that little wave!
Our son is perfectly fine (he's 15 now), gets straight A's, has lot's of friends, etc.
Playing with other kids doesn't really start up till between 3 and 4 yrs old - people seem to always expect that to happen earlier than it does.
It's good you had him evaluated but I wouldn't be overly worried yet.
He sounds like a delightful little boy!
Thank you all for your valuable inputs!
I had put him on gfcf diet from two months as proposed by his ped and could see little improvements. His joint attention is really good. For example he looks at us and shouts to see what he is doing. His gestures are very clear in the sense anybody can understand them. But his pointing is no where. He does point a few times but uses his whole hand most of the times and grunts alot. My confusion is if he has a good joint attention unlike autistic kids why can't he just point or is it that kids on spectrum have joint attention but just can't point?
These days when i force him to speak up he just gets frustrated and ends up in tantrums.
