The Two-Year Check-Up

Today we had a visit with the pediatrician for Jamie's two year old check up.  In general, the kid is healthy as a horse and (I always say this) something of that approximate size.  Today he weighed in at 31 lbs, 10 oz. and was 32.25 inches tall.

The good news to come out of the appointment is that Jamie does not have an ear infection and so we're holding off on ear tubes for the time being.  I have nothing against him getting them if he needs them but it would be silly to do it just for funsies.

The less-than-good (but not really bad) news is that he's going to need speech therapy.  He babbles incessantly but that's all it really is.  He has a few intelligible words but we largely get by on pointing and grunting and yes/no questions.  He doesn't really pick up new words, the babble isn't becoming more intelligible, he doesn't string words together AT ALL.  It's getting tiresome and he needs to catch up to his peers.  In this particular area of parenting, I tend to be more "eh, wait it out, he'll talk when he's ready."  But.  Liam was speech delayed, too, because he had bad ears and needed tubes.  Once he got tubes, he caught up and was fine.  Jamie is the same age that Liam was when he got tubes and Jamie is further delayed than Liam.  Since he doesn't need tubes, it's time for professional help.  Also, I worry that if we don't intervene now, he will have trouble with language later when it comes time to do things like read.

Let me be clear:  We do not use baby talk in this house.  We never have and we never will.  I find it abhorrent.  The problem isn't that he doesn't understand language.  I can give him a set of directions four sentences long and he can go do it (if he feels like it, he is two, after all).  The problem lies in him being able to make the words in his head come out his mouth in some form that we can understand.

We've tried pushing him to use words by giving him two choices and asking him to tell us what he wants.  "Milk or water, Jamie?"  He won't do it.  We persist and his temper kicks in.  Then we get nowhere because he's too busy getting his mad on.

I'm grateful that these services exist and that we have health insurance that will cover them.  I just wish he didn't need it.  I know there is a really intelligent kid hiding under all that babble.  I want to bring that out because he must have things he wants to share with us.