Really worried about my (almost) 3 year olds behaviour and development :-(

[blondeirishmummy84]

Hi everyone,

My son will be 3 in a couple of weeks. He has delayed speech and we have seen a speech and language therapist via Zoom who wasnt really that helpful. I started giving him omega 3 a few weeks ago and I dont know if its coincidence but his vocab has increased a fair bit. The main problem is his clarity of words, we can make out most of what he says but most others wouldn't. He is only now just saying two words together. He doesn't even say Mummy. He can say da da ok. He completely understands all we say, follows instructions, he has known his colours and vehicles for several months now and can say most of them but again the pronounciation is poor. He is starting to say shapes now too (he will say a circle is round and will draw it).
The S & L girl did mention autism which shocked us a bit as he doesnt have any other characteristics of autism at all really. We dont care if he is or not anyway.

However lately in these past few weeks he has been sleeping poorly and been very defiant and emotional. His behaviour has been so challenging for us. He is usually a very sweet, laid back little boy and slept like a log.
I believed it to be a phase or perhaps linked to the omega 3 with his brain development, but my husband is at his wits end and thinks there is something 'wrong' with him. He is struggling to cope and was near in tears this morning after shouting several times at him.

He is our first born so this stage is new to us. He was delayed in walking - he bum shuffled and didnt walk until he was 22 months.

I think its hard to determine if this is just a normal toddler phase/behaviour or whether we might be missing something.

He goes to creche 3 days a week and they have zero concerns whatsoever about him and he is a complete angel there, which is good one one hand of course, but then makes me feel sad that he can be so unsettled at home :-(.

Anyway, thanks if you have got this far and would really appreciate any thoughts and advice.x

Hi, speech therapist here. Just wanted to say that there are a wide range of communication issues that children can have. The SLT you saw will consider autism but alongside many other possibilities. It sounds like he is developing and changing which is great, but perhaps he's frustrated with his difficulty getting his message across. I think follow up by SLT would be helpful, doing it via zoom is of course so difficult but you might get more from a second session.

Thank you for your reply. I had considered that he is frustrated in general with not being able to communicate as efficiently as he wants to.
It is very difficult via Zoom as although my son stays engaged, he acts quite shy and giggles when she asks him to name a certain toy, e.tc when we know he can say it.
We are considering paying privately for a face to face S & L therapist as it may be more beneficial.

"acts quite shy and giggles when she asks him to name a certain toy, e.tc when we know he can say it"

This happens in face to face sessions too! No harm in going private if you think the risk of face to face is worth it, but I do think give it a bit more of a go. The SLT will take a few sessions to assess the issue, then after that the most important thing is setting up a programme which you as parents will mostly be practicing with him. It's the practice between sessions that is important.

Thanks. The girl via Zoom emailed us links of youtube clips and links on what to do which may help. Although they are things we have already been doing, even basic things like reading books?! I mean, we have read him books from the day he was born!
She gave a couple of useful tips but couldn't advise us on how we can help him with the clarity of his words.