Mama, baba, dada

When little Derick started day care in January of this year, he did not participate at all during circle time. And when all the seated children suddenly bolted, scattered, pulled their jackets from hooks and scrambled to put them on, Derick "freaked out," said his mother, Pam Cuming.

"He didn't know why they'd get up and start running," she said. "He didn't like change because he didn't know why things were changing all of a sudden." To top it off, he never responded when his name was called, which prompted his teacher to ask Cuming if Derick went by a nickname at home.

The teacher's inquiry set off "light bulbs" for Cuming and her husband Richard, she said. They had long suspected Derick had a hearing problem because he still wasn't talking although he had just turned two at the time. But previous consultations with their pediatrician, positive hearing test results one year prior, and endless reassurances from well-meaning friends had all served to calm their fears.

Their fears, however, were well founded; Derick had a hearing problem. After the teacher's inquiry, the parents took Derick to another hearing specialist for a second opinion. He was immediately referred to Phoenix Children's Hospital where it was determined he had moderate to severe hearing loss due to fluid build-up, but beyond the fluid, the eardrum was okay, Cuming said.

Tubes for draining the fluid were inserted into his ears at the end of April, and one week later, he was already showing signs of hearing, Cuming said. Previously, because of the fluid in his ears, he could only hear things as if he were listening from underwater, she explained. "Now, we definitely know he hears us.

"When we say his name, he looks at us. For the last year, we could scream his name behind him and he wouldn't even turn around and look at us."

Cuming is confident that Derick, who has developed well in all other areas, will catch up on speech now that his hearing has been restored, she said. But she and Richard continue to monitor him closely and will consider speech therapy if they think he should need it.

Amy Garren, speech therapist and owner of Saguaro Therapy in Yuma, said parents are the best indicators of whether or not something is wrong with their children‘s development, so parents should follow their instincts.

"They're the experts on their child. They know that child better than anybody, better than any therapist, so if they have an inkling that something might be up, it's better to go and have it checked out, starting with the pediatrician, than to sit there and question themselves or wonder."

There are some speech milestones parents can watch for, which, interestingly, begin at birth.

Starting at birth, all children should be making eye contact and engaging with their parents, Garren said. And when parents are talking with them, parents should watch to see whether infants are watching them back. Eye contact and interaction with parents are precursors to language development, she explained.

Then, as infants develop, they will begin to make babbling sounds, she said. "They're going to start with some vowel sounds, and then they're going to make some consonant sounds, and then they're going to start combining those consonant sounds, where they repeat it, like mama, baba, dada. Not that they're saying mama for Momma at that time, but they're able to just kind of say and repeat the sound."

That all leads up to the child actually having a meaning to that word at roughly about age one, so that when the child says mama or dada, the child means Momma or Dadda, she said.

So if a child is six months old and isn't babbling a lot or doesn't make any consonant sounds, that may be a first clue that something is up, she said. And if a child doesn't have a first word somewhere between his or her first birthday and 17 months, parents should definitely have the child evaluated, starting with their pediatrician, she said.

Walking also corresponds with talking, she said. "They usually have their word and they start walking at the same time.

"Up to 17 months is considered typical because you can have some kids speaking a very large vocabulary, and then you can have some trailers who kind of lag off, but it's still considered within that typical range, especially if they're going to be a late walker.

"If they are going to be a late walker, they tend to be late talkers because the two typically go together and walking takes the lead because it's a reflex, and talking isn't."

Parents often become concerned when their children start walking and ease off on babbling or even saying a word or two. But that's typical, she said. "A lot of times, communication will take a second seat to walking, but once that child becomes a really proficient walker, than the speech can come much easier because the brain isn't so taken over by that reflex to walk."

She reiterated that parents are the instinctual experts at sensing whether something is wrong with their child's development. "The best thing they can do is call their pediatrician," she said.

That way, if a child is truly showing a possible delay, he or she can be referred to specialists who will conduct further tests to determine whether the child has fluid in his or her ears or some other type of problem, she said.

To aid normal speech development, parents should interact with their children, she said. "It's really important to communicate with your baby, to talk, play, make sounds and just interact with them because that first year is monumental. Interacting with them helps keep them on task and typical."
Saguaro Therapy is located at 1695 24th St., and the number is 928-210-2339.