Developmental Screening... and the start of our journey to 100 words

Aside from our concern with Gio's feeding habits, we noticed that when we say no to him, he hits his head. Researched about it in google and one particular answer rose above all answers. That is, to not give particular attention when he does it. Meaning, when he hits himself, we will pretend that it is nothing so as to give him a sense that it does not do him anything to hit himself. We also minimized the use of no. We either say "dont do that" or just divert his attention to something else. It was working. However, since we were already in the Center of Developmental Pediatrics, we still listed this as a concern so that we will further be educated on this. Another concern we mentioned is Gio have never said "mommy". If he wants me, he comes to me and pulls me. Of course, other than it hurts not to be called so when he can call his nanny by name, it also post concern on his speech development. So, according to the doctor, she used 3 developmental screening tools. Of course, during the session, we didnt feel like she was doing all that. Maybe, this is part of the testing. So she did: 1. Parents Evaluation on Developmental Status (PEDS) - think this is a few page questionnaire we have to answer 2. Modified Checklist for Autism in toddlers (M-CHAT) 3. BRIGANCE Early Childhood Screen II So Gio was doing well in a lot of things but he posted concerns on his talking speech. Apparently at his age, he should already be able to talk 10-100 words. Although, he exceeds 10 words, he still has a lot to say. The advice was to: 1. Talk, talk, talk 2. Listen, listen, listen 3. Read, Read, read 4. Explore, explore, explore 5. do,do,do Being working parents, we are not able to spend much time to be with him. Although, we try our best to spend the weekends with him and have breakfast with him. Its tough knowing we have so much to do for Gio and perhaps we have much to do with his delay in speech. At any rate, we are determined to go through this together. We have created a few adjustments around the house: 1. No TV when eating - my mother-in-law adheres to it although my father-in-law is still adjusting. Grateful though that they understand the importance of helping each other for the development of my baby 2. Talk to him more - His nanny is silent type and a little shy. We made her understand that we need her to talk to Gio more especially when they are playing and that no one is listening to her talk besides Gio, so it should be ok. 3. Reading to him (and show him we are reading as well) - His nanny also feels the need to help, so grateful to have her and to be assured that she has grown to love Gio as well. She tries her best to read to Gio at night when we go home late. 4. Singing to him - My Gio is fond of music. He dances when he hears music. He also sings albeit not understandable. So, to help a bit, we sing nursery rhymes and a few tasks. "brush, brush, brush, 3x a day" makes him do the action. 5. Tell him what we are doing - This is so he will be able to identify the action or the things related to the action. Its 2 days now that i say, "i kiss you on your nose, on your eyes, on your ears, on your lips, on your neck and on your armpit. yesterday he learned how to say "shoot" and "ball" since we might have said those words while doing it, 50 times. 6. Phone calls - we started taking turns to call him any time of the day just for a few conversational minutes. This is not just to say a few words but also a welcome respite to an otherwise stressful day. It is a lot of tasks and we have a long way to go. But we are determined to go through this as a family. And today, he munched on Milo cereals. Rough texture...might be small but a victory nonetheless.