Our second daughter, whom my husband and I adopted through the foster system at 12 months, is nearly 24 months of age, and she is not yet using a great deal of spoken language. She does know a couple of dozen signs (ASL), which she uses regularly, and she is capable of recognizing nearly all of the letters in the alphabet and verbalizing the sounds associated with them (e.g., She calls B "buh" and D "duh".). She has extremely good receptive language skills and can follow complex directions. She can identify all of the major parts of her body, and she can identify many common animals, objects, and colors. Despite all of these skills, however, her spoken language is limited largely to letter sounds, "baba" (bottle), "Mama", "Papa", and "lala" (blanket). She does not combine words or make simple sentences.
She does not attend preschool; however, my husband and I attempt to provide her with as much enrichment as possible at home. We speak to her and read to her throughout the day, and we expose her to other sources of language, such as songs and poetry. We do not have a television, but our daughter does use the PBS Sprouts application on the iPad, so she does have some exposure to video.
We are currently on a waiting list for speech therapy, as the our state's resources are limited, and our daughter is not considered a high priority case. My husband and I are concerned because our daughter's biological mother is challenged by a moderate intellectual disability (what used to be called "moderate mental retardation"), and we know that our daughter is at high risk for delays. Given what I've shared, would you be concerned if you were in our shoes? Also, I would be grateful if anyone had learning strategies that they might be willing to share. We're working with our daughter every day, but the speech remains slow in coming.
She does not attend preschool; however, my husband and I attempt to provide her with as much enrichment as possible at home. We speak to her and read to her throughout the day, and we expose her to other sources of language, such as songs and poetry. We do not have a television, but our daughter does use the PBS Sprouts application on the iPad, so she does have some exposure to video.
We are currently on a waiting list for speech therapy, as the our state's resources are limited, and our daughter is not considered a high priority case. My husband and I are concerned because our daughter's biological mother is challenged by a moderate intellectual disability (what used to be called "moderate mental retardation"), and we know that our daughter is at high risk for delays. Given what I've shared, would you be concerned if you were in our shoes? Also, I would be grateful if anyone had learning strategies that they might be willing to share. We're working with our daughter every day, but the speech remains slow in coming.