"He doesn't understand English"

[hazeimcgee]

This is OH's summation of our 14 mo's linguistic capabilities!!

He was saying a few consonant sounds at 10 months but we've been in hospital for 4 months and he's back to just vowel sounds, lots of "ah" and "aha" but def no mama, baba, dada etc.

I read he shod be able to follow commands by now vut other this "kiss" i'm not sure he really does anything else i ask him. He will follow some visual commands for pick up and passing etc.

I know he's been through allt and SALT just humour me but i'm worried it's indicative of underlying leanring dificulties.

I'm dreading his 12 month assessment when we finally get out

Sorry meant to ask has anyone had anything similar or any advice?

I wouldn't like to say, I assume theres something else going on that you're worried about? But my ds didn't speak until he was nearly 3, and he didn't follow basic instructions until he was around two. He had to see salt etc, but hes fine now.

Just worried that he's especially behind of talking and following instructions compared to what is generally accpeted to a degree which isn't explained away by 4 months in hospital i guess

It Could be a wee bit early to worry tbh - I could have written your post ( except for the hospital bit) when my ds was 14 months, he ticked a lot of boxes for autism.
He is now 19 months and has really come on in the last month or so- his comprehension in particular has improved in leaps and bounds.
He still doesn't talk so we are booked to have a SLT assessment next month, but I think we might be moving away from a learning difficulty towards a speech delay.

I'm sorry your having such a tough time, it sounds like you've been through a lot.

I found the twelve month assessment to be pretty lame, so try not to dread it. They basically just check the children are still breathing and advise that 'normal' is a really broad term.

I like the Talking Point website. You could try the Progress Checker at some point, maybe after you get out? There's also lots of ideas on things to do with children to promote good understanding/language.

Ah thanks Anna i'll look.

I'm beginning to think i moght go into it sloghtly hysterical with derision tbh. Hos fine motor skills are ace (can you reach thatvplant with your feet and pull it close enough in to grab it with your hands so you can eat it? Check!), his gross are behind but actually he was never gonna be a crawler andee're mainly just missing balance but not determination haha!!

His social skills are fab - he can flirt with anyone!!!!

DD was way behind at that age. I'm not sure why, she didn't point at anything which she was apparently supposed to. She was just very small babyish. She had her assessment late too.
But she's fine now. Still little but perfectly formed she caught up when she was ready.

She still doesn't follow instructions though!

We def don't point and wave is sporadic and not necessarily linked to leaving haha.

He was heavily ventilated for 9 weeks and has wonky chromosomes so i guess i'm looking for something that might not be there! 8 months he was bang on. I guess i need to suck it up and get the assessment booked between hospitalisations

just how wonky are his chromosomes?
If it's a rare chromosome defect, then you just have to see how things go.
But that's kind of true of all kids.
My youngest was really slow to understand English, certainly didn't understand hardly anything at 14 months. No wonky Chromosomes, just an awkward kid.

He's wonky and awkward lol

He has mosaic trisomy 12 and 18. I can't find anyone through Unique who has exactly what he has so they made pronouncements based on mosaic trisomy 18 alone as 12 is crazy rare. However he was meeting all age approriate targets up to 8 months which utterly baffled his dr lol

Mosaic means only parts of his body are affected with the trisomy, right? Do you know which organs are affected?

Well it means that pnly some of his cells carry the extra two chromosomes but its notoriously hard to pinpoint exactly how much as each samole will read differently. He was born wity a right sided diaphragmatic hernia which is likely to be caused by the mt12 and 18. He also has bilateral VSC with an unroofed coronoary sinus as well as other circulatory issues which we can assume is caused by the mt12 and 18 but really alot of it is guesswork as it xan all occur in people with the boring number of chromosomes

prolonged hospitalizations will affect when he reaches his milestones. in the early months developing a sense of trust and consistency is a big part of learning. I think you will have to be patient, I think it is to be expected for him to show some delay if he has been in a hospital.
positive thoughts for your little fellow :)