Just saw this post. Although late in responding, I thought it may be helpful (or not) to add my 2 cents. My DS4 (almost 5) is a late talker as well. He has been receiving ST since age 2, with about a 6 month break in there due to finding a better SLP. We have been seeing the same one for about 9 months now; and he likes going. He sees the value in it; and so do we. My DS sounds similar to cricket3's in his slow, gradual progress. My DS at this point doesn't have the banter his age-peers possess; but cognitively he is through the roof; and he can take care of himself well. He is a responsible little kid. It is extremely frustrating for him to not be able to get out something he wants to say. I too read "Ein.Syn;" and we fit into the profile 100%. My DS has expressive language and language processing problems - nothing else. He can read, is extremely strong-willed (especially lately-grrr) and also has picky-eater issues. If you ask him questions, depending on what the subject is, he can answer you, but not grammatically correct. He does not mind our telling him the correct way to say things. At times, he will run up to us wanting to tell us something so badly, but just cannot get it out. And since it is out of the blue, we can't help him get it out; and he gets sad.:( He is constantly talking, whether role playing with his cars or whatever, he has them talk to eachother like he had scripts for them, etc. If you ask him about what he did at the zoo, he would take time to process all he did. Often, we have to break it down for him "what did you see?" and he'd answer; "what did you ride?," and he'd answer; "what did you like most?" and he'd take a few seconds; but he'd answer. The answers are not the descriptive answers his age-peers have though, like how they could re-cap a movie from start to finish. He takes longer to process things. His SLP said that some kids need to organize things into groups in their heads to be able to have fast retrieval. Whether that's true or not, I don't know; but I trust her. So she is working on that, seemingly successfully. His voice still sounds "baby-ish" like a "normal" 3-yr olds'; and he is asked by kids he meets all the time how old he is? Some make fun of him; but we have given him comebacks that seem to be working, "so what" and such.:) If we just read a book, I can ask him questions about it right away, and the answers are there. He also has an amazing long-term memory; and always has. He is fantastically amazing with directions; e.g. we went to a bounce house when he was two on the other side of town; a year later, we went back to the same place and the turn was under construction. He told me to turn where I needed to turn even though it looked totally different, new buildings around and all. I was shocked (ha, but not really;). He has always been good remembering exit numbers, addresses, phone numbers, etc. He hope that it will continue to progress and eventually catch up; but we just don't know for sure. Is it stressful? All-consuming for me sometimes, especialy since he is home with me. There may be one school K-12 here that we just found that helps solely Gifted, 2E and plain LD kids; and I am waiting for a call back from them. It is hugely expensive; but we have decided that if he gets this special help at an early age, our decisions later on may be easier, hopefully, and easier to advocate for him elswhere. Otherwise, I will have to be in a hunt for a tutor for him to teach him in the specialized way he may need. We are hoping that he will eventually catch up; since we believe that these skills are most important; but we also don't know if he will. Faith is in play. Hugs to you! We're not the only ones.:)
