Speech delay recovery – positive stories?

[Anonymous]

Having a down day and would love some positive stories about speech delay recovery in the 4 to 7 year old set, regardless of diagnosis.

My 4-year-old DD will be 5 around Halloween and is slowly catching up expressively, although she is nowhere near her peer group yet. No ASD diagnosis, but there is a strong family history for ADHD-inattentive, and at least one sibling and one parent has it (my DH). Her oldest sibling has social anxiety, and she seems to be high-anxiety as well, although nothing official yet. No delays in cognitive or receptive speech (follows directions extremely well, listens to us, comes when called, answers to her name, etc.). We will be doing more evaluations in the fall, for now she is signed up for preschool.

I just keep having this feeling, however irrational, that she is going to turn 5 years old and that will be it, no more progress. You just don't hear about 5 year olds who aren't talking up a storm, and I'm ridiculously feeling like she must be the only one. I have been waiting so long for her to talk, I'm beginning to fear it will never happen. Rationally, I know that she is now up to three- and four-word sentences, but if she had her way all the time, she would always fall back on the one-word answer. She is a classic introvert, and will engage when she feels like it, but is laughing and happy most of the time. She talks more to her siblings when my DH and I are nowhere in sight.

Be kind if you respond. I am the rock in the family, but today I just don't feel like holding it together and need some sort of encouragement.

[Anonymous]

My DC had a different speech issue but made the most visible (audible?) progress from age 6-10. Progress from 18 months to 5 was so slow.

DC was in the 2nd percentile for expressive speech when he started therapy. Between private speech and school DC was in therapy sessions 4-5 hours a week, with home practice as well.

DC now competes in high school debate. You don't know where the journey will end. But you need to take care of yourself along the way. It is an Ironman-length marathon, not a sprint.
high school debate.

[Anonymous]

I'm a speech pathologist and see it happen all the time. Many times, those closest don't notice progress as much since it can happen in small increments. I find that many families report back after major family functions like Thanksgiving or Christmas that a relative had said "Larla sure is talking more" or 'I can really understand her better".

[Anonymous]

My now 14 year old was virtually unintelligible to everyone but me until he was 6.5 years old. He also didn't talk much so we thought he was incredibly delayed. After his articulation skills developed so did his language skills. Now he's not even a special education student anymore. He still has disabilities such as ADHD but he no longer requires services to manage his disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but if your kid is 4, and having this many problems it's probably not a delay and more likely she has LDs or autism. There's not a "recovery." Not trying to be mean, but don't live in a bubble. It's therapy, therapy, therapy. Maybe a SN school. GL.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Decided to check in and would just like to say a huge thank you to the first three posters.

To 20:28, we are fully aware about potential LD's (duh), and I already said there are additional evaluations in our future to stay abreast of what she needs. I didn't go into all the therapy and what she is receiving, because I didn't get on here to get a diagnosis, I just wanted to hear positive stories from other parents who have been through speech delays with their kids. Not interested in the nastiness, although I knew on DCUM it wouldn't take long.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm one of the MERLD parents on the board, and we have many, many, many success stories of children's language catching up. There tend to be three waves: either around K, or around third grade, or middle school. The bulk of my child's language came in after he was 9 years old.

[Anonymous]

I wish I could find this blog post again but I can't. It was by a speech therapist who was talking about how the bias towards "early intervention" leaves behind the older kids who still have needs and can still make incredible progress. Somehow the push for early intervention (which IS important) has lead to the incorrect corrolary that older kids can't progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but if your kid is 4, and having this many problems it's probably not a delay and more likely she has LDs or autism. There's not a "recovery." Not trying to be mean, but don't live in a bubble. It's therapy, therapy, therapy. Maybe a SN school. GL.

you're a jerk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Decided to check in and would just like to say a huge thank you to the first three posters.

To 20:28, we are fully aware about potential LD's (duh), and I already said there are additional evaluations in our future to stay abreast of what she needs. I didn't go into all the therapy and what she is receiving, because I didn't get on here to get a diagnosis, I just wanted to hear positive stories from other parents who have been through speech delays with their kids. Not interested in the nastiness, although I knew on DCUM it wouldn't take long.

You're in denial. Your kid may and probably won't grow out of her speech delays, so you can hear all the positive stories you want and it won't affect your kid's outcome.

So yeah, my kid's age is in the double digits and we've been doing speech therapy and related services since age 2. Get used to the new normal. That's my positive story for you.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure about the receptive issue? Have you had a really good eval? I would call Mary Camatra and chat with her a bit. Those delays are hard to tease out - my kid memoriZes stuff and is very social so can "pass" by scripting/using clues at 4. It could also be mutism right?

But yes, I hear all the time about kids with significant issues recovering at 7. I know for language that 5 and 7 are big catch up areas. For kids that have epilepsy, my son does, many language issues resolve at 7. It's one of those odd things. It's interesting because epilepsy also onsets at ages where different parts of the brain are used - 4, 7-8, and teens. Odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure about the receptive issue? Have you had a really good eval? I would call Mary Camatra and chat with her a bit. Those delays are hard to tease out - my kid memoriZes stuff and is very social so can "pass" by scripting/using clues at 4. It could also be mutism right?

But yes, I hear all the time about kids with significant issues recovering at 7. I know for language that 5 and 7 are big catch up areas. For kids that have epilepsy, my son does, many language issues resolve at 7. It's one of those odd things. It's interesting because epilepsy also onsets at ages where different parts of the brain are used - 4, 7-8, and teens. Odd.

It's not "recovery." Your kid either has a developmental delay and grows out of it or they have a language disorder. Good God, you and the OP need to get the terminology right at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure about the receptive issue? Have you had a really good eval? I would call Mary Camatra and chat with her a bit. Those delays are hard to tease out - my kid memoriZes stuff and is very social so can "pass" by scripting/using clues at 4. It could also be mutism right?

But yes, I hear all the time about kids with significant issues recovering at 7. I know for language that 5 and 7 are big catch up areas. For kids that have epilepsy, my son does, many language issues resolve at 7. It's one of those odd things. It's interesting because epilepsy also onsets at ages where different parts of the brain are used - 4, 7-8, and teens. Odd.

It's not "recovery." Your kid either has a developmental delay and grows out of it or they have a language disorder. Good God, you and the OP need to get the terminology right at least.

Whoa there. What on earth is wrong with you? Is this how you want to be given information regarding your child's potential prognosis, even if it entirely subjective and most likely not on point? You are being so unkind and petty. Grow up. I'm sorry your child is struggling. Mine is too. It's hard. No excuse for lashing out like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure about the receptive issue? Have you had a really good eval? I would call Mary Camatra and chat with her a bit. Those delays are hard to tease out - my kid memoriZes stuff and is very social so can "pass" by scripting/using clues at 4. It could also be mutism right?

But yes, I hear all the time about kids with significant issues recovering at 7. I know for language that 5 and 7 are big catch up areas. For kids that have epilepsy, my son does, many language issues resolve at 7. It's one of those odd things. It's interesting because epilepsy also onsets at ages where different parts of the brain are used - 4, 7-8, and teens. Odd.

It's not "recovery." Your kid either has a developmental delay and grows out of it or they have a language disorder. Good God, you and the OP need to get the terminology right at least.

Whoa there. What on earth is wrong with you? Is this how you want to be given information regarding your child's potential prognosis, even if it entirely subjective and most likely not on point? You are being so unkind and petty. Grow up. I'm sorry your child is struggling. Mine is too. It's hard. No excuse for lashing out like this.

+1. This board is supposed to be supportive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure about the receptive issue? Have you had a really good eval? I would call Mary Camatra and chat with her a bit. Those delays are hard to tease out - my kid memoriZes stuff and is very social so can "pass" by scripting/using clues at 4. It could also be mutism right?

But yes, I hear all the time about kids with significant issues recovering at 7. I know for language that 5 and 7 are big catch up areas. For kids that have epilepsy, my son does, many language issues resolve at 7. It's one of those odd things. It's interesting because epilepsy also onsets at ages where different parts of the brain are used - 4, 7-8, and teens. Odd.

It's not "recovery." Your kid either has a developmental delay and grows out of it or they have a language disorder. Good God, you and the OP need to get the terminology right at least.

Whoa there. What on earth is wrong with you? Is this how you want to be given information regarding your child's potential prognosis, even if it entirely subjective and most likely not on point? You are being so unkind and petty. Grow up. I'm sorry your child is struggling. Mine is too. It's hard. No excuse for lashing out like this.

And wtf do you arbitrarily get to decide that it's not recover its growing out of it? Who made you the dsm term decider? Calm the f down and get over yourself.