At their own pace

Number One Son has just had his first and perhaps only speech therapy session. This was the initial assessment and it seems everything is alright; he just develops at his own pace. A parent cannot be without comparing one’s offspring with others’. At least this parent can’t. Archaeologist Husband seems to take the moral high ground and frown on my slight anxiety. He is right in the sense that if I air my doubts and other children’s perceived superior development when our son is around he may pick up the negative words and feel inferior – or think I, his mother, think he is inferior. But he is not; it is just me losing my nerve and my patience.

It is blatantly apparent that this is the pace our son develops at. He did not start crawl before nine months and was older than 18 months when he started to walk. He does make continuous development but he is not among the quickest. He does things when he is ready. I am in awe when observing this all since it does not matter, if the other babies and toddlers are crawling or walking or whatever left, right and centre, he ignores them. He takes notice eventually and sometimes you know exactly the moment when the penny drops. When crawling he was very quick in it and did not seem to need to walk. But at the swimming pool he saw another toddler running and seemed to realize that this walking malarkey may be a good idea. Now with speaking he seems to make himself understood with grunts, squeaks and pointing out things. He talks but in his own tongue so the moment of truth must be near. He does shout 'Airplane!' every time he sees one.

The therapist explained different techniques to use in order to give him incentives opportunities to use other expressions than ‘yes’ and ‘no’. However, just making comparative questions does not seem to make the trick. Number One Son has inherited Archaeologist Husband’s diplomatic, very English manner. When asked if he prefers to have biscuits or fruit, our son stubbornly answers ‘yeah’ – repeatedly. Ho hum, Archaeologist Husband only started speaking properly when he was three...