I have a Grandson that will be 3 in February. He is not talking. We were all very concerned. He has been tested for Autism but has been found not to have it. He seems to be in the range of children his age in everything but speech. He is receiving speech therapy and is also enrolled in a developmental preschool. We started noticing that everything he did, he did up close. He almost had his nose on the television when watching it, (this had not always been the case, earlier he didn't seem interested in television at all) he would not sit and let us read to him. If he had a new toy, he would examine it closely for a long time before playing with it for the first time. One day I noticed him walk over to the television and run his fingers along the buttons on the bottom. When his fingers hit the biggest button he smiled and pushed it to turn the television on. We started wondering about his eye sight. My daughter made an appointment with an eye doctor and that doctor referred him to a pediatric eye specialist. Well come to find out, he has a vision problem. They have determined that he can not see much beyond 6 inches past his nose but then can see again about 6 feet away. The specialist thinks this may have a lot to do with his speech delay. If he can not see you clearly to see you forming words or can not see the item you are holding or pointing to then he is not going to learn. He now is wearing glasses (looking adorable!) and seems to be starting to catch on. He will continue with the speech therapist and the developmental preschool and everyone is working together in hopes of him catching up.
Sorry for this long post but I hope it may help someone out there!
