Oh, crap. One of the college girls in the coffee shop just mentioned "Professor.com," reminding me about the existence of ratemyteacher.com. Which I am determined not to read. NOT! No, no... resist...

Emily,

That way lies madness!

Oh {{JZ}} - we just went through that again with Iris when we switched daycare. The prune juice helped, and the belly rubs (go d!), but we were waiting for my mom in a store in the mall and she went through a crying and straining phase - loudly - for it seemed like 15 minutes. We were in the back of the store, waiting for my mom to meet us - so we couldn't leave - but still - dagger-looks from the PBK staff. And the hallway to the bathroom echoed, and there was someone in the bathroom. Trapped! But at the end, she stopped crying, and took a deep breath and said really loudly "Phew! That's that!" and then went off about her business. it was really funny.

Shall I look for you?

I'm evil.

DH ended up taking Annabel to her speech evaluation instead of me, and I just talked to him. Basically, she *is* behind in sound production/articulation (though not apparently in vocabulary or comprehension), in particular having more trouble with her R, L, and S sounds than you'd expect with a kid her age (I hadn't noticed the S issue, but I did know she calls her friend Laura Wowa and says her grandmothers are in Okwahoma and Awabama). So her articulation is more what you'd expect for a 2-year-old than a 3 1/2-year-old. but she's only 1.27 standard deviations behind, which isn't even close enough to qualify for services from the school system. So our options at this point are private speech therapy or just watchful waiting and maybe having her reevaluated in another 6 months.

I'm not sure what to think. I'm not freaking out or anything, but it's weird to be stranded in a sort of limbo between "everything is perfectly fine" and "let's put a treatment plan together."

Eve is 4 and still has a lot of L/W issues ("Wook! It's Wucy!"). I asked our pediatrician and she said we could practice making the L sound with her (she can make the sound, just usually doesn't) and correct her if it was bothering us, but from her perspective it was no big.

So I guess what I'm suggesting is, maybe you could find some speech exercises that you could play as a game with Annabel to help her practice articulation, kind of like free fun home speech therapy?

evaluation in six months sounds like the first part of the plan. I have no idea if there is anything you can do to work with her at home. or what private therapy costs. I wonder too , because she is fine in vocabulary and comprehension if she will 'figure it out" herself. ( I don't really know what that means - but smart kids seem to be able to 'fix" somethings) Not against the speech therapy, I've just wandered into the realm of wondering what these deviations mean in the long run. Maybe that is the answer to what to do - research what all these numbers mean over time. will she catch up in time - or is falling further 'behind' more likely?

oh good - a mom with an idea that isn't too far from mine. I have lots of theories about kids - but since my experience with kids is limited - I try to be very careful how I say things. It is sorta like my ADHD theory. I think it is more of problem because of how we live now ( a lot of sitting still ) and there was a time where ADHD had a survival factor.

Susan, Mom was a speech therapist I can ask her what some exercise or games you can do at home with Annabel.

So I guess what I'm suggesting is, maybe you could find some speech exercises that you could play as a game with Annabel to help her practice articulation, kind of like free fun home speech therapy?

I'd like to. I'll have to do a little research and see what I can find.

ETA thanks, askye! That would be wonderful.

Maybe that is the answer to what to do - research what all these numbers mean over time. will she catch up in time - or is falling further 'behind' more likely?

Unless something changes, I think she'll catch up in time, though DH and one of his brothers had speech therapy as elementary school students because of difficulty with certain sounds. But she's definitely been making steady forward progress on all communication fronts ever since she got around to starting to talk. She was just never the kid who doesn't talk and then suddenly speaks fluently. It's been gradual, though I feel like she never had a problem with comprehension and that her vocabulary is right where it should be. The girl knows a lot. Stepping back from the part of me that says "Problem! Problem! Must fix now!", the only thing I'm really concerned about is that I think her difficulty with sound production discourages her to some degree from conversation--i.e. people don't understand her, so she gets frustrated and doesn't try. But even that has been getting better in the past few months.