* At his last evaluation (at 30m), his receptive skills were at the 28m level, and expressive skills at 12-15m.
* When he first started EI at 17m, he was evaluated to have a receptive skills at the 15m level, and the expressive skills at the 6m level, so we've definitely made some progress!
* He currently has 50-60 word approximations, although he only uses a handful of them on a regular basis.
* About 15 of those words are actually animal sounds or sound effects. To this day, he has never said "cat" or "dog" or "car", but always uses the appropriate sound effect instead.
* The majority of his words are pretty vague. I would say strangers would understand him less than 25% of the time. He uses mostly vowel sounds, even though he can say a large variety of consonant sounds on their own. Also, some inconsistencies in how he pronounces them from one time to another. (See list below)
* No 2 word sentences or phrases.
* He can be very vocal, especially in high-energy situations (such as when him and Abbie are running in circles around the kitchen table, bathtime) lots of non-specific yelling/sounds. Not always, but usually.
* During lower-energy situations (mealtimes, car rides, playing with trains), he is on the quieter side, using one-word sentences to request something he needs/wants, or maybe point out something (like a cat walking by the window). Not a lot of extraneous babble or chatter.
* Every few days, he'll get in a "no talking at ALL" mood, which lasts a few minutes to a few hours, where he doesn't make any sounds, and won't even respond to me, just very withdrawn. (I hate these)
* He NEVER imitated on command ("This is a X, can you say X?") up until a couple months ago. Even now, he *rarely* does it, and when he does, it's a very, very vague attempt (again, mostly vowels).
* He does request, although due to his limited vocabulary (and my limited comprehension of what he's saying), we still have LOTS of frustration, LOTS of tears, LOTS of meltdowns because he's not able to fully communicate his wants and needs.
A few weeks ago, out of curiosity, I wrote down every single word that he said that whole day, including how he said it (and if he said it multiple ways). This is what I came up with:
mama : mama
juice : ee-uu
butterfly : aw-aw
two : toooo / ooh
bacon : eh / deh
yellow : eh-woh
meow (word for cat) : meow
pee-pee : tee-tee
teeth : eeee
bubble (word for soap) : bu-bu
cartoons : tooos
Oswald : aw-aw
splash (?) : ta--sch
booboo : boo-boo
more : ma
ham : hey
hat : hai
strong : aww
eww : eww
eat : ee-um
cereal : ah-aw
light : iii
bye : bye
dada : dada
fish : eee
baby : bebe / meme / dede
wet : eh
off : aww
cheese : dee / nee
turtle : toe
shirt : ee-ur
brush : da
blanket : nee
broken : bu-bu
straw : taw
(It looks like a long list, but when you keep in mind that other than a handful of them, most were only said once. Spread it over a whole day, and he's still very quiet the majority of the time.)
His speech therapist has recently mentioned apraxia, which looking at the symptoms, it does seem to be a possibility. Unfortunately, this past week was our last session, so we'll be ST-less until next fall. Which sucks, because I felt like we may have been on to something. If anyone has any experience with apraxia, does the ^^ seem to resonant with what you know? I'd love to chat with others who are dealing with apraxia, especially in younger children.
