To speak or not to speak Part 2
So Amy found out that her boy is a little speech delayed. I think the doctors are just playing it safe. Consider this: the child is not even two years old yet. I understand you want to catch problems early, while they’re easy to work with. I can respect that. But doesn’t it seem like everyone is a little uptight these days about when kids are supposed to be catching these milestones? If your child isn’t walking by 1 year, well, maybe they’re developmentally delayed? If they’re not speaking in sentences by 2 years, they’re speech delayed? What about the child who is three and is not potty trained yet? No child should drink a bottle past the age of 18 months or the earth will cease to orbit the earth! Well, that one I sort of agree with. But there definitely wasn’t that great of attention spent on that particular issue when my oldest son was a baby. None of these issues were that prevalent when Harry was a baby.
Now, I think a lot of parents are constantly worried and upset about where their children are at developmentally and where they should be and why they aren’t quite there. I do think that everyone should just relax a little bit. While there are milestones and guidelines for a very good reason, each child develops at their own rate. A child that walks at 17 months can be perfectly normal. Same with a child that doesn’t speak much at all until he is 3. And what about the kid that doesn’t potty train until he is 4? A-ok. How do I know? That was my son. And he is currently in the second grade and one of the smartest children in his class (according to his teacher). He reads at a fifth grade level and is otherwise no different than any of his peers.
Yes, we should be conscious of our children’s development. But if a child is 21 months old and isn’t rolling out the vocabulary quite yet, I think that’s perfectly normal.
July 16th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
It’s hard when a blogger posts something as serious as Amy did since we can’t possibly ever know the full story and just need to trust that her doctor knows what he is doing. I was a little concerned with all the comments saying “oh, don’t be so quick to jump on board” that border-lined on poo-pooing her doctor. Cut her some slack!
July 16th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I totally agree, Kelli. It truly is between her and her doctor and she’s got to follow her gut on what she thinks is right for her son. I think she’s doing the right thing by getting on board with it. And it was VERY brave of her to blog about it!