A Mommy Story

It’s been just over a year since we took Cordy for a developmental screening and started the process that would provide us with words like “autism” “spectrum” and “PDD-NOS”. Going to that screening is probably one of the best things we could have done for Cordy.

So today I’ll admit I was a little nervous when we carried Mira out of the car, through the cold parking lot and into that same developmental screening.

I have absolutely no reason to think Mira has autism, and that wasn’t the purpose of the visit. Instead, it was to evaluate her speech. At nearly 18 months, Mira still can’t say one intelligible word. Well, one intelligible word that someone learning English as a second language would understand.

We’ve come to understand and translate the few mangled words she says. “Aaaiii” is “hi” or “bye” depending on the inflection. “Aaa-ooo” – a phrase which she uses regularly – is “thank you”. There is no “mama” or “dada”. There are no consonants, really. Her speech sounds like someone talking underwater. Other than those few words, everything else is just random babble.

The evaluator began with a test of social skills. Mira happily played along, while also checking out everyone else in the room. Always the socialite. The evaluator asked her to feed a baby doll with a bottle, and with only a little prompting she did so. (Oh yeah, 18 months and already well ahead of her 4 year old sister in that skill.)

Next up was the ever-popular stacking blocks skills test. Mira could stack two, but each try to get to three ended with a crashing tower. Still, for her age that wasn’t bad. She also had a good throwing arm when it came to throwing a ball, but refused to kick a ball.

Finally it was time for the speech test. We were asked several questions, and based on our answers and the evaluator’s experience with Mira, she failed that section of the test. A child this age should have a minimum of 5-10 clearly spoken words, including saying mama or dada. They asked if we wanted her hearing checked, and we agreed. She passed for her right ear, and failed for her left ear. That doesn’t indicate a long-term problem – she’s had a cold recently, and it could mean she has a little fluid in her ear. We’ll take her to the doctor to have that ear checked out.

So with her first F comes a follow-up developmental evaluation and a planning session to determine what, if anything, we will do about this. Honestly, I’m not all that worried. Mira is brilliant, filled with the guile and resourcefulness of James Bond and MacGyver combined. She’s already learned how to push or pull a chair to where she needs it to be in order to obtain things out of her reach. She may not say much yet, but she understands every word said to her. And even if she never says a word, I know she’ll still charm the world with her sly smile and expressive eyes.

It’s really true that you’re more relaxed as a parent the second time around. My second child isn’t following the traditional pattern of development. Her speech is a little delayed – eh, I’ll deal with it. I’ve been through worse.

(And it was amusing to find out that Cordy is still remembered by the screening staff that saw her over a year ago. She had that effect on people, with the screaming and the head banging and the hiding under the table. Somehow I think they’ll be telling stories about her for a long time to come. I only wish we could have brought her today so they could see how far she’s come.)