Dispatches from the sunburned wastelands

About this time last year, we started to realize that the little monster was maybe a little different than most other kids his age. Although we had gotten over the initial worries of him walking, what with him being born with crooked feet an all, and he was now running around like a little energizer battery bunny, we were still a littler worried about his delayed speech development. 18 months old by then, he had lost most of his (admittedly few) earliest words. We were watching him with other kids his age, and where they were busy babbling away and using words like yes and no, he would be silent. No finger pointing t indicate what he wanted, and he also didn't come running at the sound of his name. "Oh, he'll be alright," everybody told us. Everyone seemed to know of someones children who took ages to develop speech. Round about this time, the LM was started being plagued by ear infections. Towards the end of last year, we decided that the constant ear problems must, must! have created some sort of hearing loss, and we decided to send him for a hearing test. By this time, it was also a major effort to take him to see any kind of medical professional. As soon as he entered a building that just vaguely resembled a doctor's chambers, he would start running, screaming and throwing tantrum's. The testing provided no explanation - his hearing was fine. Upon hearing the results, I pondered this for a moment, and then turned to Mrs B: "could there be something else wrong with him...like autism?" This was the first time that one of us uttered the dreaded "A"-word.

To be continued...

Posted by HannesB at 3:06 PM Comments