20 months possible motor planning

[pedi08]

Hi, My DS has extremely high receptive language skills but is not talking as much as he should be. He never really babbled the way they say babies do. He is not a child with ASD. I am questioning possible CAS or motor planning and would love some insight, etc. He will not imitate and when he does it comes out incorrect. For xmapla, if I ask him to say "open" and I model it, he will say "mamamama" one time and another time it mao be "opah" its hard to tract, imitate what he says or write down. Something with his verbal just seems off. I have an appt with pedi coming up and we plan on gettinga full audiological and seeking early intervention. In the meantime, I am nervous. I would like some input and anything I can do to help. I read online fish oil may help. I also read he could just be a late talker. I also read lots of info, that its few and far between as to who can actually pin point something like this in a toddler this age. Any insight? Is it something with the neural connection and how can I fix that? Is it a lack of a nutrient he got?

[sapphire_chan]

while you're waiting for the evaluations, I'd say the best thing you can do is assume he's fine and go about your day interacting with him and showing him the world.

Lots of talking, lots of repetition, don't get hung up on whether he says anything in response, respond to the stuff he does say.

E.g.
You: Open!
Him: mamammaamama
You: Yes! I'm Mama, I'm opening this jar.
Him: jjjjjj
You: Jar, yep, this is a jar, it's a glass jar, it has pickles, do you want a pickle?

etc, etc...

but it's hard to chatter away when you've got a background of worry about "should he be doing X? did I do Y correctly?"

You've gotten things underway for getting him help if he needs it, now set it out of your mind and just be with him.

[pbjmama]

My ds was saying about 5 words at 20 months but didn't qualify for services through my state because his receptive language was fine. 95% receptive + 10% expressive = less than 50% delay which is what he needed to qualify. I found the whole process very irritating. Anyway, after many evaluations and educating myself to the hilt his language has improved significantly. I find now that he just doesn't talk much - not because he can't, he just isn't a talker! He is about to be 4 and just a few weeks ago hit the talking non-stop phase that my dd is in at 2.

I agree with pp, don't stress and keep talking to him. When you get the evals in you can learn more about what is going on, if anything.