It is probably a symptom of other developmental issues. Considering limited info, services and speciality in Nigerian, you ( and they) may not get the full picture.

From personal experience, it could be as a result of ASD ( Autism Spectrum Disorder).

I will recommend searching on Google for further info.

Tips are :

- Engage the child in activities that stimulate his or her senses.

- Use of picture to describe daily activities and next activities.

- The use of flash cards with pictures to encourage single word formation.

- Role play and taking turns to play games.
The
- Outdoor activities with age mate and favourite persons.

- Breakdown your words to the child when communicating.

- Avoid the use of longer words/sentences when communicating.

- Repeat words to derive action and attention.

If you need further tips or information, let me know.

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol but ur comments are always one of a kind

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol but ur comments are always one of a kind

At the age of 5 I still couldn't construct a simple sentence. Pronouncing my name was even a bigger problem. My parents had concluded that I was deaf and dumb and had given up on me totally.

Then a family friend came up with an idea. She told them to bring in kids of my age to stay with me and should stop isolating me from the outside world. My parents invited my cousins over and they stayed with us for a while.

One fateful day, while playing, one of my cousins (Happiness) kept poking me and would run off before I could retaliate. She kept at it till I couldn't take it anymore.

"Ha-ha-ha-happy le-le-le-leave me a-a-alone!" I yelled at her.

Problem identified. I was a chronic stammerer, not a deaf and dumb.

@callmemike, your child doesn't need a therapist. Let him mingle with his mates, they'll help him learn quickly.

PS: Mum recounted this story to me. I'm better now.

Callmemike:


yes. I have that. I use it to teach him. Lappy? Am considering it. More cos he does not allow my lappy to rest . And he uses it well too

If you're getting him a tab or laptop try to reguaktr how often he watches them. Kids like that need all the social interactions with people around them and a device will limit it


Good luck with your child.

lovelyncakes17:
Experiencing same with my son, though he's just 2 and 5mnths, and just started school this January. in my own case, i think making him start school late might have caused it.

he cannot even pronounce alphabets yet, but he follows instructions also.

That is good. It means he hears well and with time, he will talk. Have faith

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol but ur comments are always one of a kind

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol but ur comments are always one of a kind

cos of u,i go repent and CHANGE my moniker

I think he has already know that u are eager to hear his word and maybe lead to his timid.buy kids video music and leave him whenever u play it,don't even pay attention to him or if u have neighbour children who he can play with try to leave them and see the change after two weeks...

Be patient and let him play with his peer group @ home .

you can pm me for product that enhanced kid memory and aid baby growth.

Take him to a church that has sunday school for kids,It has been proven time after time the effects elementary sunday schools have on children's speech. I will recommend The Apostolic faith sunday school service, then come back to thank me

dfrost:


Your observation might be right but you need to draw the op out gradually. Some are afraid to admit it openly. It takes courage.

He is not austic. Docs have ruled it out at ages 2 and 3

ipobarecriminals:
cos of u,i go repent and CHANGE my moniker

lol plz don't go solo ooo


Only ish now is am an ipob and am not a criminal

Sirkelvin:

practice makes perfect...Pm me let me give you a contact in Owerri.

Done

Callmemike:
I will try to be very brief. My son is some months shy of 4 years old. However he has not started talking. When he was almost 2 years we took him to FMC owerri for examination. The result said he was ok. Unsatisfied we went after some months. They referred us to the International Speech and Hearing Centre Enugu.

There the result was that his hearing is limited. They said we should come for a reevaluation when he is past 3 years to see if his hearing has improved or if he needs a hearing aid. But we were advised to enroll him into a school to increase his interactions. The problem with this then was his repeated bouts of illness after each two weeks in school. We tried homeschooling him for a term and half afterwards. This term we have enrolled him into a new, regular school and he has adapted just fine.

Between this period, we have visited other hospitals for evaluation and they said it is ok. That he is just a late developer.

We just went for a reevaluation and they said he does not need a hearing aid and that his hearing is very OK now. They recommended a professional speech therapist to help him pronounce words, since all he does is just babbles. He captures things fast and can act out a full cartoon movie.

So please if any info is available about a speech therapist in Owerri, it will be appreciated. Other advices are also welcome.

Please dominique, sisy3 and the famous lalasticlala, please help me push this to the front page. A child needs your help and i believe in your epatant care. Thank you

Sadly, sir, you're currently faced with a problem I was faced with some years ago with my first son. He was a late talker as well and we got worried when he was heading for 3, so did all the evaluations of hearing and other tests, got several reassurances that there was no autism or other developmental issues there, and eventually opted for a speech therapist here in Lagos whose services were quite beneficial. He was talking reasonably well within 3 months of our engaging her, and we used her services for about a year in total after which he turned into a quite talkative child disturbing me day and night. The only trace of his former issue one might notice is that he stumbles over the pronunciations of a few words, but that could happen to any 7 year old with a slight stammer, for example.

Straight talk - nobody really knows what's going on in the brain - neurologists havent figured it all out and I'm sure you must have gotten all the advice about leaving him and he'll grow out of it and all that. And of course, even when you start therapy, you never know whether the child is making progress because of the therapy or if they'd have made progress anyway.

My opinion - 4 years is late and you need to try speech therapy now. I doubt you will get someone good in Owerri and I had a friend who had this issue 3 years ago and searched up and down. Here's what he did - he ended up sending his wife and the boy to his brother in Lagos, where these services are much more widely available.

If this is an option for you, I'd advise that you consider it. If not, consider going on alternate weekends to Port Harcourt. They also have services available there.

Lastly, there are some similarities between children with the so-called apraxia of speech and autism, especially diet-related, which is why there are sometimes misdiagnoses. In many cases children in both categories limit themselves to specific types of food and do not eat broad-based diets. If your son falls into that category, sometimes changing their diets helps. It helped a lot in my case.

Sorry, I forgot - if you're not having another child soon, perhaps you could arrange for him to get to spend a lot of one on one time with another child his age or younger at home, that also helps immensely. Out of school, I mean. My son also made progress when his junior brother started talking as well.

Let me know if you need to talk more.

Callmemike:
I will try to be very brief. My son is some months shy of 4 years old. However he has not started talking. When he was almost 2 years we took him to FMC owerri for examination. The result said he was ok. Unsatisfied we went after some months. They referred us to the International Speech and Hearing Centre Enugu.

There the result was that his hearing is limited. They said we should come for a reevaluation when he is past 3 years to see if his hearing has improved or if he needs a hearing aid. But we were advised to enroll him into a school to increase his interactions. The problem with this then was his repeated bouts of illness after each two weeks in school. We tried homeschooling him for a term and half afterwards. This term we have enrolled him into a new, regular school and he has adapted just fine.

Between this period, we have visited other hospitals for evaluation and they said it is ok. That he is just a late developer.

We just went for a reevaluation and they said he does not need a hearing aid and that his hearing is very OK now. They recommended a professional speech therapist to help him pronounce words, since all he does is just babbles. He captures things fast and can act out a full cartoon movie.

So please if any info is available about a speech therapist in Owerri, it will be appreciated. Other advices are also welcome.

Please dominique, sisy3 and the famous lalasticlala, please help me push this to the front page. A child needs your help and i believe in your epatant care. Thank you

op i think he’s just a late bloomer...i used to knw a kid like that also he couldnt talk for years until after his junior sis was born...girl even grew like 3 4 yes before d guy agreed to start talking o...some people even advised d mum to spank him..inorder for him to speak or smtn like dat...just give him time am positive he’d talk

enigma2007:
Usually happens to only child or 1st norms without siblings to interact with, you need another baby boss! You also need to communicate with him more. No baby talks arnd him

true in all counts. He is the firstborn. He now has a sibling and we do not babytalk to him. Thanks. You are good

Three kids I know that were like your son are now very smart guys. If handled right, your son will be very smart and sharp.
Kudos and keep trying.

dfrost:

Okay. Researching on it now.

It makes for a good reading

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol plz don't go solo ooo


Only ish now is am an ipob and am not a criminal

Ok.I don give my life to Christ.E nor go beta for dat criminal dat tag ur pipu PIGS,IDIOTS and PROSTITU2..To all pigs wey i don insulted, i dey cos of my new oyoyo sapphirePRINCEX.

Supreme01:
what you need is knowledge from God to help discover that secret. I'll adviced u play around with the boy.

Keep kwayet. Wetin u dey talk, imagine bringing God naa inside this matter.

Pathfinder121:
It is probably a symptom of other developmental issues. Considering limited info, services and speciality in Nigerian, you ( and they) may not get the full picture.

From personal experience, it could be as a result of ASD ( Autism Spectrum Disorder).

I will recommend searching on Google for further info.

Tips are :

- Engage the child in activities that stimulate his or her senses.

- Use of picture to describe daily activities and next activities.

- The use of flash cards with pictures to encourage single word formation.

- Role play and taking turns to play games.
The
- Outdoor activities with age mate and favourite persons.

- Breakdown your words to the child when communicating.

- Avoid the use of longer words/sentences when communicating.

- Repeat words to derive action and attention.

If you need further tips or information, let me know.

you have been very helpful

Twaci:
At the age of 5 I still couldn't construct a simple sentence. Pronouncing my name was even a bigger problem. My parents had concluded that I was deaf and dumb and had given up on me totally.

Then a family friend came up with an idea. She told them to bring in kids of my age to stay with me and should stop isolating me from the outside world. My parents invited my cousins over and they stayed with us for a while.

One fateful day, while playing, one of my cousins (Happiness) kept poking me and would run off before I could retaliate. She kept at it till I couldn't take it anymore.

"Ha-ha-ha-happy le-le-le-leave me a-a-alone!" I yelled at her.

Problem identified. I was a chronic stammerer, not a deaf and dumb.

@callmemike, your child doesn't need a therapist. Let him mingle with his mates, they'll help him learn quickly.

PS: Mum recounted this story to me. I'm better now.

What a sweet story. It just filled me up. And that is why he is in school

Callmemike:


true in all counts. He is the firstborn. He now has a sibling and we do not babytalk to him. Thanks. You are good

It happened with my first child. So my second was better cuz he has someone to play with and talked way faster than his sis at that age...

So keep on talking to him and get him more playmates.

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol plz don't go solo ooo


Only ish now is am an ipob and am not a criminal

SapphirePRINCEX:
lol plz don't go solo ooo


Only ish now is am an ipob and am not a criminal

u don take style enta kitchen. Abeg, prepare Banga soup plus starch make we chop

zaynie:




If you're getting him a tab or laptop try to reguaktr how often he watches them. Kids like that need all the social interactions with people around them and a device will limit it


Good luck with your child.

Thank you. Really. Point noted too

RevJamez:


The son doeesn't need anything, it's you the father that needs a therapist, you want to tell me you don't know how to talk to your little child, what of when he becomes a teen and goes through the rebellious phase, You need to see a counselor or attend seminars on how to train children, if you keep running to therapists for every little problem it will create a poor relationship between you an him. Instead, you go to a therapist yourself and learn how to be a better father.

Op...take this bitter pill....I know it is hard to swallow.... but try...swallow it...it is best for you...and your son.

Let me ask you.... your son can act out cartoons...and I know you are soo proud of that.... don't you know what you are teaching him to be ?...training his mind to be like?...a cartoon character....why on earth would you be expecting him to talk? ..if you put him with ducks will you complain he is quacking and not talking?..and you have no idea why? ..kids need to be with other kids. Why do you think he was doing better in the public school? You really need to see a therapist to get you out of Academia. The child is normal. .... keep going to 'the experts' and I guarantee you'll end up with a human vegetable.

Twaci:
At the age of 5 I still couldn't construct a simple sentence. Pronouncing my name was even a bigger problem. My parents had concluded that I was deaf and dumb and had given up on me totally.

Then a family friend came up with an idea. She told them to bring in kids of my age to stay with me and should stop isolating me from the outside world. My parents invited my cousins over and they stayed with us for a while.

One fateful day, while playing, one of my cousins (Happiness) kept poking me and would run off before I could retaliate. She kept at it till I couldn't take it anymore.

"Ha-ha-ha-happy le-le-le-leave me a-a-alone!" I yelled at her.

Problem identified. I was a chronic stammerer, not a deaf and dumb.

@callmemike, your child doesn't need a therapist. Let him mingle with his mates, they'll help him learn quickly.

PS: Mum recounted this story to me. I'm better now.

Twaci, your story is truly inspirational, but sadly, not all issues and all persons are the same. Some definitely do resolve with time, like yours did, some do not. It is a fact that many children who were left without intervention DID not "grow out of it", while some did. That's the fact.

Sadly, one never knows which will or will not resolve with time, does one? That's why its a question of making a decision to intervene or not, even though it may or may not be a waste of time effort and money. From my experience, I can't advise the poster NOT to intervene. I've always believed that we owe it to ourselves to do our best for the children we bring into this world, lest we have cause to regret one day.

Let it be that the intervention was carried out, even if one can never be sure if the intervention was the cause of the speech appearing or if it would have appeared anyway.

Callmemike:


He is not austic. Docs have ruled it out at ages 2 and 3

Good. That settles it. I will assume you have checked top hospitals to rule out out completely. Kudos to your dedication to your ward.

Don't be worried too much else the young man starts looking out for instead of the other way around.

Whatever routine, medical procedures, therapy, et al you employ, remember patience is the key.

One of the factors that causes late development of children are if the parents are analytical persons.

Are you?

Cyberknight:


Sadly, sir, you're currently faced with a problem I was faced with some years ago with my first son. He was a late talker as well and we got worried when he was heading for 3, so did all the evaluations of hearing and other tests, got several reassurances that there was no autism or other developmental issues there, and eventually opted for a speech therapist here in Lagos whose services were quite beneficial. He was talking reasonably well within 3 months of our engaging her, and we used her services for about a year in total after which he turned into a quite talkative child disturbing me day and night. The only trace of his former issue one might notice is that he stumbles over the pronunciations of a few words, but that could happen to any 7 year old with a slight stammer, for example.

Straight talk - nobody really knows what's going on in the brain - neurologists havent figured it all out and I'm sure you must have gotten all the advice about leaving him and he'll grow out of it and all that. And of course, even when you start therapy, you never know whether the child is making progress because of the therapy or if they'd have made progress anyway.

My opinion - 4 years is late and you need to try speech therapy now. I doubt you will get someone good in Owerri (I'm from there and I visit regularly) and I had a friend who had this issue 3 years ago and searched up and down. Here's what he did - he ended up sending the boy and his wife to his brother in Lagos, where these services are much more widely available.

If this is an option for you, I'd advise that you consider it. If not, consider going on alternate weekends to Port Harcourt. They also have services available there.

Lastly, there are some similarities between children with the so-called apraxia of speech and autism, especially diet-related, which is why there are sometimes misdiagnoses. In many cases children in both categories limit themselves to specific types of food and do not eat broad-based diets. If your son falls into that category, sometimes changing their diets helps. It helped a lot in my case.

Sorry, I forgot - if you're not having another child soon, perhaps you could arrange for him to get to spend a lot of one on one time with another child his age or younger at home, that also helps immensely. Out of school, I mean. My son also made progress when his junior brother started talking as well.

Let me know if you need to talk more.

;
Your comment has alot of weight. Can u recommend a therapist in PH? I can make the sacrifice. Also though he finds it very difficult to eat, he eats well if distracted or in a good mood. How can i evaluate the diet part?

Twaci, you are funny.

Straight to business. We all need therapists albeit for different reasons.

A therapist not only helps but monitors and documents progress. Such progress and documentation will assist in helping others.

Callmemike:

;
Your comment has a lot of weight. Can u recommend a therapist in PH? I can make the sacrifice. Also though he finds it very difficult to eat, he eats well if distracted or in a good mood. How can i evaluate the diet part?

Does he limit himself to eating just a few types of food (usually carbohydrates like rice, indomie,etc.) or is his diet well-rounded (eats everything from fruits, to garri, beans, yam, etc, without being forced)?

Secondly, I don't want to cast aspersions on the doctors in FMC Owerri or to , but non-physical developmental issues apart from autism are still far from being commonly diagnosed in Nigeria and its a broad spectrum of issues with autism at the very end. In other words, autism is easily diagnosed, so if they say he doesn't have it he probably doesn't, but other developmental issues are not. You might need to see another specialist
.

dfrost:


Good. That settles it. I will assume you have checked top hospitals to rule out out completely. Kudos to your dedication to your ward.

Don't be worried too much else the young man starts looking out for instead of the other way around.

Whatever routine, medical procedures, therapy, et al you employ, remember patience is the key.

One of the factors that causes late development of children are if the parents are analytical persons.

Are you?

We both are

enigma2007:
Usually happens to only child or 1st norms without siblings to interact with, you need another baby boss! You also need to communicate with him more. No baby talks arnd him

enigma2007:
Usually happens to only child or 1st norms without siblings to interact with, you need another baby boss! You also need to communicate with him more. No baby talks arnd him

exactly.my first son was almost two yrs and could say only daddy.We live in a very quiet estate which i think contributed greatly to the late speech issue.

with this in mind,i took him to my mum where his cousins who came for holiday could interact with him.My husby refused but now he easily recommends this idea to ppl in same situation.
just one mth with them and it was like his mouth tap was opened including the fact thst he hated food then.we stayed for four mths and believe me when i tell you that he makes complete sentences and came top in his class.

Even now we beg him not to eat anymore cos its like he wants to eat everytime nw.

No drugs,no therapist,no educational toys just comm with his peers.