Talking is overrated

When Lauren went to the doctor for her 18 month check up a month ago, the doctor was concerned that Lauren didn't have enough words in her vocabulary. Apparently at that age she should have 20-50 words and be beginning to string 2-3 words together into mini sentences. At that time Lauren had about 4-5 words that she was using regularly. As a result of that, today we took Lauren for a speech assessment. She is now 22 months (we were a few months late for the 18 month check up) and she really hasn't added many - or any - new words (depending on who you ask). The assessment today confirmed that she doesn't have enough words, but we still are not overly concerned. Lauren makes great eye contact, she interacts well, she tries to mimic sounds we make and most of all she's happy. The assessment confirmed what we had been suspecting, Lauren's biggest problem is her parents. We had no idea how to help her, or what we should/could be working on at this age. We also learned that we have to be more accepting of sounds as words. For example, yesterday she found a baby doll, and brought it over to me. I said "baby" and she said "ba ba". To me, ba ba and baby are not the same thing, but apparently to her it is, and to the lady doing to speech assessment, it was, so ba ba counts as a word! Who knew?! Also, because sounds are the gateway to making words, it is perfectly acceptable right now to just work on different sounds with her so we can lay the foundation for her to begin using them to make words. We left the appointment with some ideas for us to better teach her as we go forward. Speech Services Niagara is going to follow up with us in 6-8 months to re-evaluate her and see if she needs further help. The assessment lady told us that 40% of the kids who are where Lauren is now, turn out to be just fine at the next assessment date. Sadly, another large percentage of cases they see, are kids who turn four prior to their follow up, and are then just swept into the school system to be dealt with there. We were not concerned going in, and I don't think we are any more or less concerned now. I think this is just another example of "kids don't come with manuals." There is nothing wrong with Lauren, but there may be something a little 'off' about her parents.