I’m feeling a little lost and overwhelmed with things around my just turned 2 year old little boy.
For the most part, he is a very happy, giggly, cheeky and super affectionate little boy with so much love to give.
His speech is delayed which he is having speech therapy for. We’ve been given a few activities to do at home and he’s started saying a few more words each day. He’s just learned “I get/got/go” (they all mean the same thing to him) and he has a few other words too.
He doesn’t point with his finger, he takes me to things or brings them to me to get my attention. Or he points with an open hand/grabbing motion.
He shares some of his interest with me with certain things but likes to do his own thing a lot of the time. He understands a fair few things which is slowly improving at the moment too, with him learning more simple instructions. There’s still a lot he doesn’t understand yet too.
He goes to nursery 3 and a half days a week and is starting preschool in September. Nursery have talked about applying for additional funding for him. Not 1:1 but some extra numbers while he’s still behind with his speech.
HV has seen him a couple times and says she usually has a good radar for Nerodiversity in little ones but really can’t tell if that’s the case with him or if he just hasn’t come out of his shell yet as he shows some understanding and acknowledgement of others.
He won’t engage with someone he doesn’t know at first. He’ll blank them until he warms up to them. This can take up to an hour or so depending on his mood.
If his boxes are all ticked, I.e, he’s slept enough, ate enough and is in a good mood, his social communication automatically amplifies and he doesn’t go in on himself so much.
He used to love playing with toys but now at the moment, prefers to explore his surroundings and prefers going outside, playing in the sand box, water, going on the slide. He’s not really interested in sitting down with someone and doing flash cards a lot of the time, he just wants to play and laugh. Sometimes he will do it and he’ll try to say what they’re reading to him. What is frustrating is, he won’t use any speech when he sees the speech therapist or HV. He’s just so shy. I KNOW he knows his name too as does his nursery key worker but typically, he won’t answer it when a professional sees him. It’s so frustrating! 🤣 it worries me it paints an inaccurate picture of his ability which could lead to a inaccurate diagnosis- should he have one.
I feel at this point, there’s something there, whether it’s Autism, ADHD or something else. At this stage, no one will name anything, it’s all ifs and buts and see how he goes as he’s so little.
Which I’m really struggling to deal with. I just hope whatever it is, it isn’t too life impacting for him. The idea of him struggling all his life or feeling different, really breaks my heart. I would love and support him whatever it ends up being of course, but I do tend to spiral and picture the worse case scenarios.
Has anyone else had a similar parenting journey? What was your outcome? How did you deal with the mental side of things?
He’s my little sunshine and I feel so lucky to have such a loving boy. This particular period just feels hard and full of worry. I think by typing it out and posting it on here, it’s helped me release and feel a bit lighter. Thank you and well done if you got this far! I would love to hear anyone’s experiences and helpful messages..