By Glaucia Batista Geraldo
OUR STORY
Thales was my first and only child and I was learning from him to be a mother. Everything was fine. At 10 months old he said “mommy”. But shortly after his first birthday, he stopped talking. There were few loose words and little interest in talking. It was scary!
Time passed and little had changed. Compared to other children, it was clear to me that Thales needed to be talking more.
At 2 ½ years he was evaluated under ASD hypothesis.
At 3, Neuropediatrician said: “Sounds Like DLD”
ME: “DLD?”
Yes. It was all on the Language Development Disorder symptom checklist:
✔ It takes time to develop speech;
✔ Difficulty expressing yourself even after you have already developed speech;
✔ Difficulty in narrating events or repeating a story;
✔ Immature pronunciation, difficult to understand;
✔ Difficulty following a conversation. It may speak out of time or say unconnected and irrelevant things;
✔ It takes time to react to what you have heard (respond or obey);
✔Emotional immaturity;
✔ Difficulty understanding school explanations or play rules;
✔ In noisy environments it may be more difficult to focus on the conversation.
There we are. My baby grew up and is almost 8 years old. Many learnings along the way. And this Checklist was not completely outdated, but it has changed a lot with speech therapy, psychotherapy, a school that respects individuality and family support.
Today I am a mother of two. My second boy is 4 years old and he has autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yes! It’s not easy, but I’ve been learning a lot about difference between both disorders at home.
I’ve been using Instagram IG @humaninhosTDL to share my experiences of an atypical, challenging, tiring, lovely, and very lively motherhood with two language-impaired children. I believe that by trading we can help each other and learn a lot.
The treatment of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is hampered by the limited information available in Portuguese and few professionals who specialize in this issue in Brasil. Lots of than follow my IG and thanks me for what I’ve been doing telling the world our story and routine.
For more love, acceptance, respect and quality of life for our children. ❤
GLAUCIA BATISTA GERALDO