My little man

Gabriel is such a perfect little sweetheart. He's kind and caring, he's always quick to smile and laugh at himself and he throws very few tantrums. He understands almost every thing I say to him and readily does everything I ask and with all this goodness there is one concern for me. I mentioned it before and now I am again. His speech. In my opinion he is lagging behind a bit. He doesn't try and mimic my words, he doesn't say simple words like hi, or bye, or cat or dog. He's so random in his speech that it always floors me when he does say something because it seems like the only thing he says on a regular basis is "dada, yes, and whats this". And when he does say these words they sound a little off. Dada is pretty basic but he says "yesh" for yes. And "daush dis" for "whats this". So Scott and I have talked at length about it and have decided that if hes not getting any better by the time hes 2 (in a few months time) than we will take him to the doctor to get a referral to a speech pathologist. Unfortunately when I look up stuff about speech delays the general consensus is that the children who are most at risk for them are preemies and children who have had parents with speech delays. And guess what. He was a preemie...and I went to the child development center for 2 years for my speech delay.

It's just so frustrating watching him attempt to talk and not getting anywhere with it. I can totally empathize with him. I remember, even though I was young, how frustrating it was to know what you want to communicate but not being able to articulate it. Fortunately, I also know there are some very wonderful therapists out there and that given some time he can learn to speak just fine. I mean look at me now! No one would ever know that I was speech delayed, quite severely too. Now you couldn't get me to shut up even if you tried ;)

I know Gabriel is a chatterbox at heart, he might just need a little help to prove it.