After Akira's three-month therapy, I started to have more questions on Akira's developmental progress. If any psychologist or doctor could tell so much about my son based on a 30-minute observation in a full-mirror room with some toys, should not I feel know him better as I spend more time with him?Everytime the therapist opens the door of the theraphy room, I just can not wait to find out how things will work out, for how long and what more I can do of helping my son to keep up with other kids who are considered mastering the age-appropriate development.
I am not a doctor nor a psychologist. What do I have to prove that my son is also normal? Just because he does not posses 50 words in his repertoire he is diagnosed to have speech delay... Just because he fails to point his body part when we ask him, does it make him less capable?
From here, we found:
A delay in speech development may be a symptom of many disorders, including mental retardation, hearing loss, an expressive language disorder, psychosocial deprivation, autism, elective mutism, receptive aphasia and cerebral palsy. Speech delay may be secondary to maturation delay or bilingualism.
Wait, wait, it means there are three possibilities now :expressive language disorder, maturation delay or bilingualism.
Children with an expressive language disorder (developmental expressive aphasia) fail to develop the use of speech at the usual age. These children have normal intelligence, normal hearing, good emotional relationships and normal articulation skills. The primary deficit appears to be a brain dysfunction that results in an inability to translate ideas into speech. Comprehension of speech is appropriate to the age of the child. These children may use gestures to supplement their limited verbal expression.
They say it's difficult, if not impossible to tell whether a child has expressive language disorder or maturity delay. What is quite relieving is the following statement:
Maturation delay, however, is a much more common cause of speech delay than is expressive language disorder, which accounts for only a small percentage of cases. A child with expressive language disorder is at risk for language-based learning disabilities (dyslexia). Because this disorder is not self- correcting, active intervention is necessary.
I think this is why my the psychologist insisted on putting my son to speech theraphy. Eventhough the speech therapist is a such a nice and helpful person, somehow I don't feel Akira gets the best treament when the diagnosis is not thoroughly conducted. Not that I do not confide in them, but something is telling me that I need some other opinions about Akira.
If he belongs to Maturation delay, I'll just probably sit down and relax.
Maturation delay (developmental language delay) accounts for a considerable percentage of late talkers. In this condition, a delay occurs in the maturation of the central neurologic process required to produce speech. The condition is more common in boys, and a family history of "late bloomers" is often present. The prognosis for these children is excellent, however; they usually have normal speech development by the age of school entry.
Aren't boys notorious to acquire language later? Did not I hear testimonials of mothers whose sons do not speak until the age of three? Did not I believe that the latebloomers do exist but can catch up in time when they are ready?But then what if he does not have the maturation delay, but something else? Perhaps ... being bilingual unintentionally?A bilingual home environment
may cause a temporary delay in the onset of both languages. The bilingual child's comprehension of the two languages is normal for a child of the same age, however, and the child usually becomes proficient in both languages before the age of five years.I wonder if a biligual onset that Akira has been going through? Looking back to the time we stayed in Japan while Sandy and I speak Bahasa Indonesia around the house but at the same time to the non-Indonesians we speak English and broken Japanese.... could this be one of the causes?
Until I found a book written by an Indonesian mom living in Netherlands,which explains another phenomenon: hoogbegaafd (in dutch) ,GIFTED-DYSINCHRONY who have speech delay but are excellent in their visual spatial intelligence, I think I need to search for more...
Personally I don't know how Akira is. Though I hate to think about which group of kids he belongs to, but I feel that I have to find valid judgement from reliable and competent expert. What if he does not fall to any category? Does it make him less normal or a less achiever? Does it even have a name ?
Anyone knows any child psychologist or othopedagog who is updated with this phenomenon we can consult with?
2 comments:
I'll tell you all about it after this wednesday. Wish me luck.
i was surprise to read about Akira.
i thought i heard your heart voice.
i cannot give you the answer. but my mother worry about same problem to my brother long time ago and also i heard from my foreign acquaintance that his daughter was not exactly same but like Akira. the latter case is girl.it is bit long so i will write about this in email.i wish you rest from your worry early.
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