Carter had his two-year well-baby checkup on July 19. He weighed 28 pounds 9 ounces (just above the 50%-ile) and measured 36 inches long (just below the 90%-ile).

At the appointment, I talked to Dr. Moore about our concerns with Carter’s lack of clarity when speaking. She said that at two-years old, a stranger should be able to understand 50% of what he says. I knew that wasn’t the case so she suggested we schedule a hearing evaluation to make sure he is hearing all the tones. Then to schedule a speech evaluation.

On July 25 he had the hearing test and it told us that he hears all the tones just fine. He was getting over a cold and had a little bit of fluid in his ears at the time so they had to turn up the volume slightly to get past the fluid. But otherwise everything was normal — just as we suspected.

On August 27 he had the speech evaluation. Based on my description of the problem, they started with the articulation test. They ended up skipping the language test altogether because it was obvious that he has no problem putting together sentences, using all parts of speech, and even picking up new words and using them in another context.

He scored 75 on the articulation test, the normal range is 85 to 115, so the therapist recommended therapy two days a week for the next three months.

We really want to help him overcome this minor obstacle before it becomes a source of frustration for him. The therapist sounded extremely optimistic that he would respond well to therapy in a short amount of time. He was able to form all the sounds she asked him to and even though he was a little shy, he worked with her very well and did everything she asked him to do. It will be a few weeks before we get therapy scheduled but we are looking forward to starting it.