DS4.5 was very similar. Not talking one day and suddenly talking in full sentences the next day (very close to his 3rd birthday). Could NOT stand speech therapy, but had fun with OT. We have friends whose kids are in ST and do very well but our kids just aren't wired the same way. I came to realize that more than anything, it's their perfectionism that caused the speech delays.
Our ds13 also had a similar path to speech - no babbles or words for years, then suddenly at around 3.5 he started talking in complex, deep thought, adult-sounding sentences. We'd never thought to take him for an EI eval or ST when he was little - he was our first child and it didn't really occur to us that most other children were babbling a lot more at a young age and then speaking a lot more. When he did start talking, the complexity of it just reaffirmed to us that he was on his own developmental path and all was a-ok, and we too thought his early lack of speech was due to him being an observer and a perfectionist. FWIW, we found out a few years later it *wasn't* perfectionism at all, it really was related to an expressive language disorder.
It is so tricky trying to piece through what's up with our kids when they are so young - like Michaela, I wouldn't want to invest time and $ into a therapy that I didn't know my child needed, especially if I had concerns that it didn't feel like it would help and might hurt. I do honestly believe that the best thing to do when our children are young is to listen to our intuitions as parents - they may not lead us to the absolutely 100% guaranteed best plan or solution, but jmo, for most children who ultimately do have some type of challenge, there is no straightforward roadmap to follow, and there will be stops and turns and redirects along the journey no matter what the challenge or where you start or which direction you choose to follow in the early years.
polarbear
