He's Not Waving "Hi" and "Bye"

Here's some background that shows how we got to the point of a PDD-NOS diagnosis.

I can't recall exactly when, but my husband and I had noticed that Jaden didn't wave "hi" and "bye." He wasn't really imitating what we did. I would clap my hands, he'd just smile at me. When I would clap his hands, he'd manuever his hands around mine and clap my hands.

Then there was him not speaking. He would babble and make sounds, but not words. No "mama," "ball," "uh-oh," "hi."

And why does he keep putting everything in his mouth? That boy puts everything in his mouth--toys, crumbs, his shirt, paper, books. People would ask me if he's teething or if his gums hurt. At 18-20 months old, I didn't think so, but I hoped he would grow out of that.

When Jaden went to his well-baby checkup at 15 months, his pediatrician was asking me questions like what words are Jaden saying, does he know his body parts. I had to answer "No." So the pediatrician said if he's not talking by 18 months, he will refer him to Early Intervention. He told me to work with him and we'll see.

The 3 months went by and no words. I struggled a little when the doctor said "work with him" because I felt that I'm already doing that. We (my husband, his 3 sisters and I) talk to him, sing to him, read books to him. "Maybe we could spend more time doing those things with him," I wondered. And this time I tried to focus on ball. Let's play with the ball. This is a blue ball. What color is the ball? Roll the ball. Do you want the ball. I figured surely by the time he's 18 months, he would be saying the word ball.

As an aside, honestly as far as "working with" Jaden, I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't have to "work" with his sisters in a particular way. As we played, the sisters learned gestures and words. The "work" I did with them was teaching them Spanish, and I didn't work with my twins as much as I did with Jaida, my oldest. But they understand and speak quite a bit of Spanish. And, between 9-13 months Jaida was identifying things in Spanish and pointing to her body parts when I said them in English or Spanish.

So I called the pediatrician and got the Early Intervention recommendation. He said to tell them that I want to get my child evaluated for speech delay.