My Newphew Is Almost 3 Years Old and I Am Worried About Him!

If the pediatrician isn't worried about his speech, then you shouldn't be either. He'll start preschool soon and they will tell her if he's behind.

Textbook "average" for learning to walk is 15 months, even though people will tell you that "NO ONE" is that old before they learn. My sisters in law were just frantic because my 4 kids walked at anywhere from 15 to 19 months. They're all strong, healthy kids who went on to play Little League, dance, play tennis, take karate lessons, take fencing lessons and so on. (They're aged 24 to 12.)

At 3, I said about 4 words. I understood everyone perfectly; I just didn't feel the need to speak. By 4, I was saying complete, complex sentences, and I was annoyed when everyone was surprized that I could.

Yelling "Mama" over and over is generally a bid for attention, not a sign that he can't speak. He obviously hates bedtime - most kids do.

I wouldn't worry too much. Every child is different.

Well, the best thing to do is love your nephew and let your sister deal with this with the child's pediatrician.
I know plenty of kids who walked late and talked late and are "normal" productive adults now.
If something truly is wrong, it won't go away without some type of help or intervention, but you have to let your sister make that call, assuming you trust her as a loving and attentive mother.
We moms tend to worry about things not being right enough as it is without someone else doing it for us.
Love your sister and nephew and be there for support.
Don't try diagnosing your nephew with things, It might make her defensive.
If she confides in you about certain things, you can suggest her asking the pediatrician to look into it more just to be on the safe side and leave it at that for now.
That's what I would do anyway.
I am speaking as someone with a sister and a nephew so like I said, I'm just saying what I would do.

Best wishes.

I wouldn't worry too much. If she's taking him to the pediatrician regularly, his health and progress is being monitored.

There is no good way to bring up your concerns to her. If you do, you strongly imply she's a lousy mom who isn't on top of her child's development and health. I'm the parent of a child with special needs (ADHD/OCD) and can tell you I don't take it well when family members question whether we're doing all we can ... it irks me. They have no clue how many hours we do spend researching everything, talking it over and meeting with doctors.

If she's not concerned, trust her as a parent (unless she seems incompetent, such as having drug or alcohol problems leading her to make bad decisions?). Be supportive of what she says as a parent.

PURELY from what you shared, I wouldn't be concerned at all.

- Normal for walking is 9-18 months. So he wasn't even late... just on the upper end of normal

- Walking funny 1 time thing is usually a cramp, bruise, or just because it feels fun and gets boring.

- Whining... many kids are just whiners. It's usually a parenting thing. It CAN be a sign of a problem with the physological structure of the throat, ears, or brain... but it usually isn't.

I wouldn't automatically suspect aspergers... in large part because most aspies have *highly* developed speech as toddlers (little professors). Not all, but the vast majority. *However* many non-aspie kids have highly developed speech as well as most gifted kids. Most of the kids in my family are super verbal (but late-ish... because we're multilingual), but it is more a product of environment. My family talks a lot. Adhd and giftedness (the 2 usually go together, just like aspies + gifted usually runs together), run in my family... but even the non-adhd'ers tend to be super verbal.

THAT said... there's rarely ever a reason NOT to seek an evaluation. Worst case scenario with evals is that your kid is perfectly normal. Best case, they get early intervention and the parent gets educated as to how to help their child.

One reason NOT to seek an eval, however, is the parents being perfectly happy with their child and none of the quirks causing "problems". The whole "if it isn't broken... don't fix it" kind of thing. There's actually a delightful little snippet a mom wrote abotu her aspie child on the homepage currently. The way their family worked, his disorder didn't create any problems for YEARS. She was perfectly suited for her child and the child's school was perfectly suited for him. It wasn't until problems started creeping up that she got an evaluation... at which point she found out about his disorder. But far more parents just have perfectly typical children that just happen to develop differently than their friends and they are put through the wringer by well intentioned people who just don't see that their child IS normal.

So for me... the things you mention don't bother me... because they fall in the normal range AND because mum & dad are obviously on top of things as far as having regular doctor visits, talking things over with their ped. There may be other things that you didn't mention which are also pinging... but for myself I would let their parents handle things.

To me, it sounds like it is something to look into. My cousins son was diagnosed with Autism at 3yrs old. He still doesn't talk, hes not potty trained, hes not 100% stable on his feet. If he cannot watch his movies, he throws tantrums and acts out.

If your sisters ped says nothing is wrong, I would get a 2nd opinion. Have them do the testing that needs to be done.

His walking sounds within the range of normal. you dont describe his talking. Is he putting words together to make sentences? He should be making 2 and 3 word sentences. "Mommy go car." me want cookie" If not he should have a speech evaluation, Pronunciation is not that important at this age, its more about how much he is takling and how many words and is he putting together two or three words not just saying "cookie" There are lots of charts online describing what they should do at what age and how much of their speech should be understandable by a stranger at each age.Look it up so you can either reassure yourself or let your sister read it and make her own opinions from that. it is much much easier (here ) to get services for a two year old then a three year old.so she shouldnt wait. and for a two year old a speech consultant will come to your house, for a three year old they will recommend a preschool setting .

Asperger kids love to talk and have high verbal skills. He may be on the autism spectrum but it is too early. my son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at the fourth grade which is on the autism spectrum. At age three it was just speech delay and then a little later expressive/receptive language disorder. A pediatric neurologist would be the one to diagnose. Also usually the pediatrican will send the child for a hearing test to rule out any hearing problems. We had an assessment at the hearing and speech center that's where it was identified the language and speech issues. If your sister has any concerns she needs to talk to her child's doctor. Every child learns differently. There are many kids who walk later that are totally normal. Boys also develop verbal skills later than girls so I hope you are not comparing him to any children around you.

In my opinion, you need to just not say anything. Although difficult, he is not your child and you need to keep you opinions and judgments to yourself or risk problems arising between your sister and yourself. It is not worth it. When he goes to preschool or grade school, if there are concerns, the teachers and other professionals will address it. Additionally, if the child's medical doctor is not concerned then you should not be either. And from the little you say, Aspergers would be the furthest thought from my mind. I would first consider the fact that this child is a boy and trying to control his mother. Finally, I think you are comparing him to your own child. I feel confident in saying all of this because I am an educator and I would love to tell my own sister all of the problems I think her children have when compared to my own. The reality of it remains that we are two entirely different types of parents with children of the opposite sex who clearly perform at different levels.

Sounds like my three year old. She is a BIG whiner, and is almost a year behind in her speech. We have worked with her endlessly, but she is just not ready. We have her working with Help Me Grow, and they are now getting her into an intervention speech therapy program that she will attend three times a week for four hours a day. Her bio sister (I did not give birth to my 3 year old) did not speak until she was five, so we really want to make sure that we can do whatever we can to help! Good luck!

I have 4 children. My girls were big talkers, my boys, delayed. The boys didn't speak well until they were 3 in preschool around other children. I got my older son involved with speech therapy through First Steps. They worked with him, but told me things would improve once he got to school with kids his own age. Sure enough, within weeks of going to preschool his speech took off! Same with my younger son. Now you would never guess they had speech delays!
If your sister isn't worried, I wouldn't worry her. You aren't with her son all the time, you are just going on the info she provided about one event. Just continue to monitor the situation and be there for your sister if she has any concerns. Don't put any more stress on her. She will appreciate you more if you are supportive.
R.

May be nothing but in cases like this, I always say that it better to err on the side of caution. Have your sister check with the local school district they should have some program in place to assist with developmental delays. Michigan has Early-On. Not sure what you have in place in OH. Most of the kids who go through the program here are "normal" kids who just happen to have some type of delay. Our program here offers, play therapy, Speech, PT, OT. IMO it can only help.

Personal experience with my dd. Everyone also thought she was just fine and will talk in her own time. A mom here did direct me to early on. She was 17 mos then. She was dxd with Autism at 2 (Although this really is irrelevant in your case whether he is or not he can probably benefit from the same type of program). Now my dd is talking up a storm and is quite social. I strongly credit early intervention. We have gone from counting "Vroom" as one of her 4 words to begging her to be quiet.

well first thing i have three kids and two of my kids were 16 months when they started walking and my other child was 15 months starting walking. my niece was 9 months. its a big difference.
my boys were almost 10 lbs each when they were born so that could having something to do it.
my middle child whines my two other kids do not ( thank god) i loathe whining and he is in timeout when he whines. try to work with positve reinforcement to get him to not whine.
i would see if you could have him evuated ( sp wr) to see if he is were he should be with his speech and walking and whatever. the county/state i think that your nephew lives in most likely will send someone to his house.