Little J's words

One thing I have been watching the last couple of months is J and his speech. So, when he finally hit 18 months I decided it was time to get him evaluated. Not that I was really concerned but not having ANY words at 18 months is not the norm. He is very social and communicates a lot, just not with words. I made an appt for the end of Oct through a program I saw advertized at the docs office. Seems there is a group that comes in once a month from a neighboring town to evaluate kids. They can be parent referred. So, we have an appt in about 3 weeks. Meanwhile, this past week the local schools were offering a free child screening for kids up to 5 years old. Decided to make an appointment and take both boys.
B did really well and passed his hearing (so that makes it selective hearing). The most interesting observation they made about him is that when he writes or colors, he does not put his elbow or pinky side of his hand on the table. So, they really encouraged us to help him with this so as to increase the amount of control he has. They also noticed that he does not skip, how have I forgotten how to teach him to skip? Not sure what skipping shows, other than coordination or the movements across the line of the body. They said he was also not able to problem solve - they asked him 'what do you do when you are thirsty', 'what do you do when it is dark', etc. Assuming it was him just being shy, we started asking him questions. He picked up on it immediately and always answered "I don't know". Once I asked the 'what do you do with candy', he immediately answered and finally figured out how the game worked.
With J, of course my biggest thing was his speech. They observed him for a while and through some questions, determined he was at about 14 month level for communicating (at this point he should have at least 10 recognizable words). She said it was not a concern at this point but said she would give him 2 months. If by the end of two months he does not have words, then we would probably get referred out for services. They observed that most of the sounds he makes are from the back of the throat and he is not using his lips or tongue. So, our main homework assignment is to try to force him to speak. When he is in his crib, keep repeating 'up' until he says it. So, we tried it this morning. After about 10 minutes of wailing, he finally said 'uuu'. I immediately picked him up. However, when we tried it later that morning he dug his heels in until we were on a time crunch and had to get on with the morning, so he won. They told us to expect lots of meltdowns the first couple of days! There was not anyone to assess his hearing but there will be at the end of the month appointment. Will be curious to see what kind of progress he makes between now and then.
A cool, overcast day. Expecting some mountain snow showers tonight. So glad we don't live in the mountains anymore!