If you lived with us, you might almost wonder if Owen is even delayed any more. He talks all day long, sometimes to us, sometimes to the dog, sometimes yells at the cats to get off the table. So he's definitely catching up! There are a few things even at home that he has problems with still, though. He still tends to use one word utterences to get what he wants (ie he'll just say "milk" instead of "I want Milk.") If we prompt him or withold his request, he'll bust out the longer sentence, but it's not always spontaneous. We understand him pretty well, but strangers may only get ~50% of what he's saying, if not less, which is still a little low for his age.
Now if you've seen him in public, I'm sure you still wonder what the heck is going on with this kid. Even at daycare, where he spends 3 days a week, when we walk in the door and I ask him to say "hi," he'll just wave instead of talking. He is more comfortable there than he used to and they say he's been talking quite a bit more. He is still unsure (or shy?) of talking much in public, though. For instance, about 2 weeks ago he came home with a HUGE, purple goose egg on his head. They have no idea how he bumped his head. Possibly when they were outside, he fell and they didn't see it? They're not sure. He never came over to show them. Never told them he was hurt. Nothing. We also can't get a straight story out of him about how it happened (though I don't think that is terribly unusual for 3.)
So what does all of this mean? FREE PRESCHOOL! :) (By qualifying for services, we won't have to pay tuition for the district preschool) Seriously, though, while I think he's caught up (or close to it) quantitively in terms of the number of words he strings together, etc, he still needs support to learn to USE his language. A kid can't go through school never talking to a teacher or other students, right? So, we had another assessment done. They basically take us into a room and play with Owen trying to evaluate his motor, social, and language skills while he plays. Owen had a blast. He "fished" for words. He played in their "kitchen." He went down the slide and climbed the stairs. He ran down the hall, etc. True to form, he used mostly single word utterences with them and they had a hell of a time pulling the 4-word phrases I know he can do out of him.
Now Owen has turned into a teenage girl lately. He LOVES to talk on the phone and insists that we call somebody at least once a day. It's pretty cute because he's starting to have real interactive conversations on the phone (especially if the person on the phone is asking him lots of concrete questions like "what are you doing?" "What did you have for breakfast?") This was a little problematic when I was called for a reference check on a friend who is applying for teaching jobs, but I THINK the person was understanding about it.
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