Speech

Ok, so I'm going to come right out and throw it out there. I am certainly concerned about Ellie's lack of verbal communication abilities.

Now. That's said.

As you'll remember, she was tested by early intervention a while back and I was concerned about her "gross motor skills" (basically that she couldn't walk yet) and her verbal skills. Now, she's running around everywhere (boy, is she!!) *smile*.

However, the verbal skills have not come along like I think they should be. She says, "Mymamama" (mama) and "cat", "ball" and "Bo" (meaning dog because the neighbor's dog's name is Bo). We sometimes get "Bubba" (Josh) and "daddy". That's about it, though. She is very clearly understanding everything we say as she follows commands very well. She will take something to the right person, pick up something you tell her to, put things down, bring things to you. She knows who Elmo is, knows her blankie, shakes her head no in response to questions. She also makes her wants fairly well known. We've had some success with sign language, but mainly only because Dee'Anna (her babysitter) uses it there as well. She does "eat" and "more" and "all done".

I keep reminding myself that she was two months premature and her developmental age is adjusted to 14 months and that she was in a country that spoke another language that she heard for 6 months. However, it's just not ringing true for me (aka: mama gut). I read other families' blogs (that have children her age that were also internationally adopted) and see the words they are coming out and that it's pretty rapid fire at this age, and she's just not.

And my question is: when should I be concerned? She is obviously functioning too well in all other areas to qualify for early intervention. My friend Kat told me that I can pay for speech therapy locally for $50 a semester with grad students at the local college. But when do I start that? I don't want to "push" her, but I also want to give her every advantage to succeed without getting behind.

Comments welcome.