Christmas has come and gone, and we are now into 2012. Ethan is a few days away from being 19 months old, but he thinks that he's terrible 2 already. Although the winter months mean being couped up in the house a lot, we are dealing with it well. Ethan just started Gymboree class once a week, and he really loves it. Daddy tried story time at the library, but that was more suited for the stationary child, of which Ethan is definatly not! The Gymboree lets him explore freely, with some organized activities peppered in. In typical fashion, Ethan spends about 2-3 minutes on any one activity, then he meanders off to another adventure. This is a good thing to do for him, because it will allow Ethan to interact with other children his own age. Since we don't have him enroled in day care, this will provide an athmosphere that will help his social development, which is really important for him at this age.
Although his motor skills are well above average at this point, Ethan is still struggling a little with his speech develompment. Ethan babbles quite a lot, and he does have some words in his repertoire (up, out, cookie, dada, bath, all done), he should have many more by now, so Mommy and Daddy have been taking steps to investigate the possible causes. His receptive language seems very normal (he understands many more words than he can say). We are aware that some children (especially boys) tend to just talk late, so we aren't too worried at this point, but considering Mommy is a Speech and Language Pathologist, it make sense that we are addressing the issue early. We had his hearing screened, and there were indications that he has fluid in his middle ear, which could contribute to his speech delay. We are meeting with and ENT next week, and hopefully the doctor will have some more possible answers for us........
