Hi all, long term lurker here! My almost 3 year old DS is awaiting his multidisciplinary appointment due to a couple of red flags concerning communication. No one has given us any indication as to what we are looking at. Background is, he has good eye contact, isn't particularly hyperactive, answers to his name 70% of the time, points and follows a point, shares joint attention and sleeps well.
Our area of concern is his speech and social interaction. He will say words perfectly well a few times and then other times completely mispronounce them. Same with his phrases, he really tries to put them together but often muddles them up, particularly when anxious / under pressure (eg. We taught him Open the box' and 'put it together' which sometimes comes out as 'open together'). When you get him to slow down and repeat he will he will get it right. Or if I ask a question he often blurts out a random answer and then I ask again and get the right answer. Often he uses the middle consonant at the start of the word such as googether for together. Sometimes misses the first letter off particularly 'm' so mummy is often 'ummy'. Its like there's a slight delay in hearing the info and connecting his brain with his mouth. Often if its too difficult he will just say 'okay' which is code for 'shut up mum'. When he's playing he can be very vocal and more often than not his pronunciation and sentence structure are correct and i feel this is because he is relaxed and not under pressure. He has great pretend play but still enjoys to play alone or in games not requiring language. When no speech is expected he can be very engaging however when he is expected to be verbal often he will wander off or do his own thing. And if he knows the answers or its a familiar routine he will happily play along. His understanding i feel is good. I test him a little during a 20 minute 'work time' exercise put in place by Spectrum (I think this is the equivalent of portage) and he follows 4 step instructions such as put the blue square on the orange plate and he gets it right every time. Fine and gross motor are inconsistent, he's great at soft play but will trip over every kerb while walking. He can thread beads but cant do his Velcro straps on his shoes. Can intermittently use a fork and spoon but again its inconsistent and i can't figure out what the difference is. He is so bright and i think is very aware of his issues already as he won't try anything new when you are there but will go off and master it and then happily show you later when he's nailed it.
Sorry for the massive spiel folks, this thelread has been a year and a half in the making!! And just to add, he is in speech therapy and has been pretty much signed off as age appropriate which is complete bollocks, and we get a review appointment every 2 months and told Keep doing what you're doing'