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I have been concerned about Henry's speech for quite some time. He is almost three years old and cannot speak coherently. We often know what he says, because we understand his unique words and mispronounciations after much trouble trying to figure it out initially. This bothered me since both my older kids spoke well, easily and early.
I finally got frustrated. I contacted the speech therapist at the public school. She thought maybe he could catch up but we should speak more to him. She also wondered if his birth overseas may be making him speak at a later age. (whaat? sounds silly to me) She was very encouraging and thought that he probably would not qualify for additional help. Just keep talking to him, she said, and pronounce words very carefully.

This advice was nice but not too helpful. After all, me being his mother, he gets spoken to alot. In various ways, such as "Your such a wonderful little superhero!" and "Get your little tail outside and help get wood in NOW!" and lots of story books, songs, and conversations about power rangers and everything under the sun. Well ok then.

I was thinking about this and almost mechanically called the local clinic to make an appointment. Enough sitting around thinking. Now I am doing-- They didn't have any more appts that day but we got an 8 am appt for Saturday.

Guess what.

Henry definitely has a hearing deficit.

He failed the hearing test at the small clinic and we have an appointment in the city with an Audiologist specialist. At that appointment they will determine whether it is a problem of the middle ear, inner ear or conduction in the brain. They will hopefully be able to tell whether he was born with this or developed this later. Also probably he can qualify for some kind of speech training now.

It is a relief to finally get some help with this. Henry is so smart; he often breaks down in tears because he is trying so hard to communicate but we don't know what he is saying. I should have made that call earlier.