Little bear goes to the Doctor

The ongoing saga of little bear's failure to speak continues. He is twenty six months old, so not really so old but it is a worry. Well, the Health Visitor thought so and we were referred to a paediatrician.

I bolted out of the house, running late, and got to the clinic at the nick of time. Little bear was a bit of a sleepy bear. If he had gone to his room for a nap when the appointment was due he would have probably napped. As it was, he was looking round, all eyes, very subdued. He submitted to being weighed but cried when they measured his height - no idea why, but it meant he had a long cuddle on my knee while we waited for the main doctor. We managed to get to see her half an hour late!

Little bear was, of course, quite polite but he cried when she was checking his heartbeat and pulses. He played with things quite happily, but of course did not speak. Sigh. She asked things like, 'can he take his shoes off?' I did say yes but should have mentioned that last summer he was down to his goosebumps! Everything came off! She asked if he could play 'peekaboo' and about ten minutes later he was playing (at his instigation) at hiding in the curtain of the room and coming out to peekaboo. She watched him instantly grasp how to work a particular toy, lots of eye contact, cuddles and worked out instantly when he understood what we were asking, but had decided just not to do it.

She ruled out all the 'syndromes' and was quite confident that there was no strong autistic indications. Little bear loves his cuddles so I wasn't really so worried about that. Apparently because he also runs shrieking with laughter when I 'chase' him or hits poor dear heart with his teddy when daddy is playing tiger and shrieks with laughter then it is a positive sign. I should have said how often he firmly guides my hand to his toes so I play 'this little piggy' or tries to get me to play 'head shoulders knees and toes' - all at his instigation. The doctor said that it was hard to work out if the child was at the appropriate stage of cognition in one session but she didn't see any reason to worry. I could have hugged her!

Also - he knows some of his colours at least, which is apparently good and he was threading laces through holes which he wasn't supposed to be able to do till he was three (apparently) gives me a few gloat points.

So it is just the speech therapy now.