I had been worried about Jack's language for about two years. He was an early talker and had been picking up steam until he was about 17 months old. Then, for about two months, our family was hit by bout after bout of cold and flu. After the viral onslaught subsided, my mother and I noticed that Jack's language development stalled. What had been steady climb toward sentence use plateaued.
Back in July of 2008 I posted a question to AskMetafilter. In the thread that ensued I said the following:
"I dropped off a bit in my logging of his vocabulary in the last few weeks, but at last count, it was about 100 words. This is why it something seems off - he's taking in enough language to be able to say about 100 words, but rarely speaks to communicate, preferring gesturing and vocalizations. It just doesn't add up.
He'd been saying words for about a year and was chugging along just fine, until earlier this year, after the whole family was sick with a never-ending merry-go-round of cold and flu for about 3 months. His language development seems to have plateaued since then. I didn't express my concerns to anyone until the pediatrician asked about his speech and behavior and brought up Autism back in April."
The advice that I was given was mixed with some people advising that my son sounded normal for his age and others advising that he be assessed. I delayed getting the assessment. Why? Because I was afraid that I was being a bit neurotic, pathologising a perfectly normal variation in language development. I thought that he might catch up and the language explosion would be forthcoming. It never manifested.
So what happens next? Wish I knew.
