Silas's Speech

Silas has dozens and dozens of words, but he is not well understood. He also has several words that are a very poor pronunciation of the actual word. For example he says, "ack-ee-di-ba" for "basketball". He says it every time and I ask "Do you mean basketball?" and he answers yes (or "ess", actually) every time. Another example is "giraffe"- he consistently calls it a "a-doo". Not even close.  

He also very rarely will put more than one word in a row. He will say, "cake-u mama" or "bye daddy" but those are some of the very few sentences he will use. If I prompt him, he will do it, but it is painful. 

He also refuses to try to say his own name. I know it's a tough one, with two "s's" and an "l" but when we ask him his name, he says, "Ez-wa" and then laughs. He will occasionally try a new word when asked, but more often than not he responds to our request with a simple, "no". He will also call things by their noises, even if he can say the name of it. For example even though he knows how to say "dog" and "puppy" he still calls it a "woof woof". He can say, "horse" (sounds like "orse") but he calls it a "neigh" instead.

He is so different than Ezra in this way that is difficult for us not to compare them, or wonder what we did wrong this time around. In reality, I think we have not done a whole lot different than with Ezra but I think that Silas may just have a speech delay. We will continue what we are doing and see how we can help him, professionally if he is still behind when he is three.