DS turned 3 in December. For background, he had tubes in his ears when he was 11 months old. At the time he was not babbling or making repetitive sounds like mamama or dadada. He qualified for ECI and was in speech therapy and occupational therapy until he was 17 months. They worked on oral-motor stuff with him, as well as sensory-motor stuff. He was very sensitive to movements like turning side to side, going upside down, sliding, etc. By 17 months he had made enough progress to no longer qualify for ECI.
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Now that he's 3, his language (receptive and expressive) meets and exceeds where his same age peers are. He is very creative, makes up stories, has an amazing vocabulary, and generally speaks like a 5 year old. However, one of my bff's (a speech pathologist) and his Godmother (working on her PhD in child psychology, and works in a school for deaf children) have raised concerns about the fact that he still drools. He has drooled since he was 3 months old. Back then, it was way beyond what was normal of "teething" and included multiple changes of clothes per day. We kept him in a bib until they would no longer fit around his neck, but even the ones with waterproofing on the back couldn't keep his shirt dry. Now, it's not like anymore. If he smiles, laughs, concentrates on something, it will fall out of his mouth like a stream to the floor, but other times he doesn't drool. My suspicion is that he pockets the drool in the back of his mouth and when he does certain movements it falls out. If I remind him to swallow he does with no problems. He's never had any problems eating, and never choked/gagged on foods. His words always sound very "wet".
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I guess I just wonder what other people's experience/gut tells them about this. I doubt seriously he would qualify for any services from the school district, so I haven't even had him evaluated again. At the same time, I don't want him to be 10 and still drooling on himself. He doesn't have any other developmental delays, and is actually physically very coordinated. Like many 3 year old boys, I'd venture to say that his fine motor skills are probably least developed, although not delayed in any way. I think it may be a sensory thing, and we have done many of the "waking up" activities I learned about when he was an infant/toddler with little improvement.
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Would you bother with an evaluation of some kind? Wait until he's 4? Older? Ignore it if it isn't causing him any real problems (although teasing could be a problem if you're 10 and drool on yourself).
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Edit to add - I'm asking this here in addition to taking my dear friends' opinions into consideration, partly because they disagree on how to handle it, and also because they sometimes differ from myself in their parenting philosophy. That, and I just really wanted to get a wider range of ideas, and maybe some BTDT advice.
