Look Who's Talking

A few weeks ago we had a developmental therapist come out as part of an evaluation process started because of a concern for Liam's lack of eating and trying new textures at 12 months of age. Of course, by the time the coordinator and I got our acts together (ok, mostly me) and started scheduling the therapists (speech, developmental, and occupational) to come and visit Liam had started eating almost anything we'd put in front of him. Don't get me wrong - he's still a picky eater, but he tries things - THEN throws them on the floor - as opposed to before when he'd just throw them on the floor. It took some work to get him here (and some time) - but a lot of me holding something he needed to try and saying "this first, then this" while showing him something he wanted. But it worked - and he eats - and will usually it one or two bites of a veggie that he doesn't love. But ANYWAY...

The developmental therapist came a week or so ago and found that his speech skills were at a 10 month level, gross motor skills at a 13 month level, cognitive skills at a 18 month level, and fine motor skills at a 17 month level. He was 14 months at the time - so behind in speech and gross motor - but ahead everywhere else. At the time of the visit Liam wasn't saying many different works and just barely willing to walk.

Then Thursday, August 28th came and Liam started walking. All over the place. And smiling the entire time.

And then this weekend came (and went way too fast) and Liam started talking. So in order to prepare myself for the speech therapist that is scheduled to come tomorrow morning I'm going to make a list of all the words I heard Liam using correctly this past weekend.

Boo (as in peek a boo)
Done
Bye
Nigh - night
More
Ball
Up
Yes
Mama
Dada
Book
Stop
No

I think the list is still short of where he needs to be, but considering the ones in red are the new ones - I feel like his language is just starting to explode! We'll see what the speech therapist says tomorrow.

I've read that babies usually focus on one area of development and once that's figured out then they'll move onto something else. So maybe, Liam was just trying to figure out that walking thing and now here comes the language. I hope so!