Should I seek another speech evaluation? Is this normal?
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Anonymous
| My son is 5 and he's not very verbal. He did speech for a year when he was 3 for a stutter that seems to have mostly resolved itself. He's always been quite introverted and prefers video games and puzzles to playing with lots of friends. Although he does have a best friend at school and he plays relatively well when older kids are involved, he seems mostly uninterested in his own peers. Occasionally he's expressed that he gets nervous around people. I've been noticing that his answers to questions tend to be very short. For instance, today his teacher asked him for a safety rule and his response was simply "wear a mask". The other kids all went on long tangents about things like not opening doors for strangers, or being careful crossing the street, or not jumping on the bed. The teacher asked what he enjoys and he said "I like green and pizza" with no further elaboration. If I ask him how his day went, he usually only says "great!" The only long conversations he has involve video games or pokemon. He is usually quite polite and well-behaved (although he does have a silly side like when he does his baby voice), but I've noticed other kids his age will ask adults all sorts of questions, and boldly ask for things and he never does that (although he does ask me for things). His teacher told me she thinks he's gifted and it's true he's ahead in the sense that he's reading and doing math, but it seems like socially he's not quite like the other kids. They did speech evaluations last year in preschool and his evaluation went well, the therapist didn't note any areas of concern, but I'm wondering if I should be concerned? My husband thinks he's just a regular boy who doesn't have a lot to say. Anybody else have a boy like this? Should I take him back to speech to help him get over any anxiety? |
Anonymous
| Well, not exactly what you're describing, but my friend has a daughter who has selective mutism. She can talk, but mostly does not in any social environments. I think you should stop comparing your son to other kids, he's 5. It's not uncommon for kids that age to be shy or afraid to speak in front of others, and doesn't mean there's something else going on. |
Anonymous
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My son is 6 almost 7 and he was/is a lot like that. He answers a lot of question with a quick matter-of-fact answer and doesn't want to say more. I often get "great" when I ask him how his day when, and if I ask what he liked best he says "everything!"
I've noticed he's very precise, he doesn't like to speculate or infer, and he's very literal. If I start asking him questions about what might happen next in a book, he'll say "let's just keep reading and find out!" He doesn't enjoy talking about more abstract ideas, he likes facts. He likes to find out the whys and hows of things. As he gets older, he's able to articulate more complex questions. Like he's very interested in dinosaurs and we recently had a long discussion about evolution because he wanted to know why the Jurassic dinosaurs didn't continue living into the cretaceous age and meet those dinosaurs. Maybe your boy is the same? I mean, maybe he thinks once he's answered that he likes green and pizza, what more is there to say? You say he can talk a lot about video games and pokemon, maybe he's only talkative on a subject he's really interested in and not just for the sake of talking? |
Anonymous
| I would be very careful with DCUM diagnosis. Some of that can be very normal with a 5 year old boy especially from people whose kids don't have language disorders or have kids with multiple needs. I would get a speech evaluation to check it out. The not being detailed about school can be very normal at that age but some of the other things you mentioned I would get checked out. |
Anonymous
I am currently going through this right now with my 4 year old. Smart and talkative with me, his Dad and my Mom and 1 or 2 others but clams up in school and even with familiar family and friends. He often gives just a few words to a question when I know he can give much more. However, shyness and social anxiety runs in my family so I am confident in the selective mutism diagnosis. I am not sure you will get much out of a speech evaluation especially if the first one didn't have testing scores that were below average I think you need a more detailed look at what is going on from maybe a neuropsychologist (including a classroom observation). |
Anonymous
OP isn't describing selective mutism. |
Anonymous
Nobody can diagnose anything over the internet. Op, What you’re describing sounds like a fluency issue when he was younger: https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Childhood-Fluency-Disorders/ If he received these services though early intervention, they don’t actually diagnose your kid. They give services when there is a significant delay but services don’t automatically transfer when a child aged out. It’s good that he can be understood by others. He may be an introvert or he might not be able to get all his thoughts out, so sticks with the minimum. Does he have this pattern at home too? Personally if he had speech issues while young, I would err on the side of caution and have him evaluated. Not sure if you’re local, but the best speech evaluation I got was from the lab school of Washington. (The worst from UMD.). You could probably get more recs from the SN forum. |
Anonymous
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Why is he playing video games at 5yo? I continue to believe that excessive screen time is the root for many childhood social problems these days.
And yes, I know I’m on a screen now, but I didn’t get them too much when I was a kid! (And I’m young, 33). |
Anonymous
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My child is 5, and he has speech disorder. He talks a lot, and he is a smart boy. He is social & loves team work, and he has no problem making little friends at daycare. He can give out short & long answer. He loves to watch videos & play video games as well. He is a mama boy, and we talk about anything from small thing to big thing. He is a fun kid to talk to, and sometimes his conversation surprises me. Well, sometimes I think he talks too much. He has some anxieties issue as well, but his outgoing personalities mask everything, and other people cannot tell at all. Now, he is seeing speech therapist mainly to correct his pronunciation.
I have seen some kids from his classroom are quiet & do not talk much. And, they are all normal, do not need speech help, and they just happen to be not talkative, shy or not feel like responding. I think your son mostly is fine, and I would not spend money on speech therapist because I am not sure what your speech goals are. If you want him to be more talkative, talk to him or you may look into social conversation group ( for his age level). However, I would say, your son behavior seems to be normal to me. |
Anonymous
Don't listen to this person. |
Anonymous
If that's the case, you're going to see a lot of mute and antisocial kids after this pandemic is over. You do realize they're going to be on screens for 5-6 hours a day, right? Even the youngest ones. |
Anonymous
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DS has always given short answers to questions, he still is that way at 8. He has areas were he will prattle on forever but it is not unusual for him to give one or two word answers. We need to prompt him to elaborate when he is talking to family on the phone or over Facetime.
Your child sounds normal. I would limit screen time. DS is allowed an hour of TV and an hour of screen time. He did not get that much at 5 but we were not living in a pandemic either. That said, we are on the low end of allowed screen time and I am very well aware of that. |
Anonymous
He really enjoys video games. He plays with my husband on the weekends, it's a bonding thing for them. Playing some of the adventure games really sparked my son's interest in reading, he learned how to read by reading the quests in some of the games last year. We don't allow games during the week, but on the weekend it's a great way for him to relax with my husband, they both really look forward to their "boy time". |
Anonymous
He did not receive services through Early Intervention, we could not get our pediatrician on board to recommend it (she thought he would outgrow his stutter). We received private services and our therapist decided that he was done with speech after a year, she said she did not see any reason to recommend further services. However, she focused only on his stutter, I don't believe she focused on anything else. |
Anonymous
Do listen to that person. A child that young should not be on a screen much, if at all. |