I have an 8 year old son, who has been in speech therapy, and occupational therapy since he was 2. I thought that his speech delay was from the fact that he lost his teeth (had to have them pulled) at 21 months. But a little over 6 years later, he still has the same problem. He is way behind his class, and very self conscious about it. This past school year his legs started swelling on him really bad. My doctor wanted to send him to a Childrens Hospital and have him tested for MD. I never did make it cuz the hospital never set up an appointment, and now road conditions are not permittable. However, now my doctor wants to test him for brain damage and all sorts of things. He is a very bright child in many areas, just way behind on his fine motor skills and his speech. I am not sure what this could be..and it drives me nuts to see my son come home crying on a daily basis, because kids are cruel, and ask him if he is retarded all the time. Any help or advice or suggestions would be GREATLY!!! Appreciated.
Thanks

Take the doctors advise. I would get him every test i could. Rule out learning disabilities, rule out brain damage...was there any problems with his birth? This is something you really need to stay on top of, if the hospital is slow in calling to set up an appointment than you call them or the doctor who refered you to make sure that the hospital actually got the referal. You need to do whatever you can to figure out what is going on so that you can find the best rout to help him.
As far as the kids at school, you can try talking to his teacher (not to single the kids who are doing it out, but more to talk to the class about differences, how words can hurt etc), but unfortunitly there really isn't a whole lot you can do, like i said talk to his teacher. Just let him know that everybody is different and some kids don't understand that.

My little girl who is 6 now also has a bad speech delay we have also been in speech therapy since she was about 3. She is improving with her speech but she still is on about a 3 or 4 year speech level . I would do everything that your doc says too. because her doctor is not doing anything she just says if she is in speech thats good enough. But me and her dad would like to find out if anything is wrong with her brain. let me know what you find out about him

I thought I would respond to jbox's response. I am hoping you will read this, because I feel it may help you in your situation. My doctor for many years did nothing. Told me that he would catch up. That there was nothing she
could do. The reason she started doing all of these tests, is because I took my son in, and told her, you know something has to be done, we need to know if this is a permenant thing, or if he will eventually out grow it. She initially told me "I don't know"..and once again started blaming the fact, that for 3 months he had no front teeth. Then when his legs started swelling, before his last growth spurt, and she saw how difficult it was for him to just get up off the floor, she started asking me about his development in infantcy. He has always been behind, didnt sit up alone til he was 9 months old, didnt stand til he was 11 months old, crawled at 10 and walked at 13. Well, since I didn't make it to his Dr.s appointment at Childrens. I asked her, if there was anything else that we could do, to rule things out rather then just hop into a test that would be extremely painful. That is when she decided to do the MRI on him that he is going to get done tomorrow.
Though there was nothing traumatizing at birth for him, he has fallen down the stairs MANY MANY times, as he has grown, and has lost consciousness 2 times, after the last fall, down the stairs he had a seizure. Since he has been in school, my little acrobat, has fallen head first off the crossbars 2 times and got concussions from both falls, so there is head trauma to look at. If you want to know if there is anything wrong with your daughters brain, demand an MRI, if your doctor will not order one, go to another doctor, because its not right for them to say, well as long as she is in speech we give up. Thats the way I see it. I will let you know how his MRI comes out. Glad to know I am not the only one with a child in this situation. I wish you all the best.

If there is one thing I have learned is to be pro-active when it comes to your child...my son has ADHD and you have to be your childs advocate...because he only has you! Get him checked ou!
I know how heart breaking it can be when your kid comes home crying. Let them do every test they can, it is much better to be informed than to wonder whats wrong. You will be suprised how storng you can be when it comes to your child.
Did his leg swelling go away?

I wish you all the luck in the word!

His legs do not swell as bad as they did, they still hurt him quite often, but, he is doing better that way. He got an MRI done this morning, and that went pretty well, he freaked out about half way through it, but said he didn't want to cry cuz he didnt want to get the machine wet. I will probably find out Friday the results ... if not before.

He sounds like a great kid!
Good luck and I will keep you both in my prayers...Keep us updated ok.

my daughter Gracie was also late in walking at 15 months but other then that and her speech she is not that far behind. She has not had any kind of trauma in her lifeother then when she was 2 and half she had cellulites in the eye.(not too sure on spelling) We was told if we would have waited 12 more hour it would have turned into minngiutes and would have went straight to the brain (again not sure on spelling don't laugh). So me and ny husband has our worrys if that did something about her speech. Let me know about your son mri i and i thing i will make other appointment with Gracie doc. GOOD LUCK

Destry's MRI came out fine, he doesn't have any brain dammage. I don't think I have ever been so happy in all my life, however, it frustrated me at the same time cuz I still don't know what is "wrong" with my son. But, at least I now know, that it is not his brain that is causing this.

Jbox:
It is my opinion that if your daughter had cellulitis, in her eye, when she was a baby, and you were told that it could have turned in to menengitis, then I would not ASK for, I would DEMAND, that your doctor do a scan of her brain. Because menengitis is a swelling of the lining around the brain, and if it was already progressing toward her brain, then it could have done some damage to her tissues, with out it swelling.
Keep me updated. Good luck