I’m no longer on Facebook but I’m missing the support and advice for gentle parenting.
My pickle just turned 3 and only says two words regularly, very occasionally attempts a new word, but they never seem to get added to his vocabulary. Other than his speech, he is meeting milestones and clearly has a great comprehension. I have inattentive adhd myself and it is likely I’m autistic too as I have many traits, as does his father (who is now an every other weekend dad).
He’s been on the speech therapy waiting list since he was 2 and after about 6 months of waiting I had a private speech assessment where the SALT basically said she can see no SEN and no reason why he’s not talking, felt he was being stubborn and it’s almost a game to him. I was a little annoyed by this advice as it offered no solution but recently the senco at his nursery said something very similar.
The reason I believe we never get anywhere with gp, home visitors, anyone who meets him really is because he makes eye contact, is sociable and loves interacting with just about anyone.
The things I notice that I can either relate to myself as a ND person that make him different from his peers are that he doesn’t really talk (he does sign more than he talks), he has fought every sleep since birth, still takes me over an hour to get him down most nights and he almost never sleeps through, especially if not bed sharing, he has only a handful of safe foods and very rarely strays from these, if he does it’s likely to be just a variation of something he already eats (pasta, something made of potato, yoghurts, bananas etc), he has an extremely short attention span and very few tasks get longer than a few seconds attention from him, he needs a huge amount of physical activity or he starts creating his own assault courses. He does have excellent non verbal communication and anyone can understand what he is trying to convey.
Anyway for the second time recently I’ve been told by a professional that they’ve never met a child like him. Non verbal but so expressive and intelligent. I just want some support so he can keep up with his peers in this way and not be left behind when he is so capable. And I really need to crack this sleep thing, single mum now and these nights are killing me, any gentle advice welcome, I won’t sleep train thank you if anyone actually reads all this 😂