Mrs. Leigh Ann Smith brought her son to me because she was worried about his language development. I observed him, and my observations showed that he was at risk for a language delay. I conducted an interview with Mrs. Smith in order for me to determine some of the factors that would show whether he was in fact a language delay child or just a late-talker. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Me: Mrs. Smith, how old is your son, Casey?
Smith: He is 29 months old.

Me: When did you first become worried that your
child was at risk?
Smith: Well, when he was just an infant, he was
not making very many vocalizations. He really
did not start babbling until he was about ten
months old. I know that his sister, Katherine,
started babbling when she was about five
months old. I know that every child develops
differently, so I wasn’t that worried about it
then. Now that I look back, I wish I had
worried about it.

Me: I know how hard it can be to interact with
someone when he does not want to interact
back. Did this affect how you interacted with
your son?
Smith: I guess it did somewhat, but not in a
negative way. It made me interact with him
more because I wanted to push him to show
some sort of interaction with me.

Me: When did Casey finally say his first word?
Smith: When he was 20 months old.

Me: What did he say?
Smith: dada

Me: When you were pregnant with Casey, did you
use any illegal substances?
Smith: No.

Me: Did you drink any alcohol?
Smith: No.

Me: Did you smoke?
Smith: Sadly, I did smoke occasionally.

Me: I know that smoking is a very hard habit to
break. When you say, “occasionally,” what do
you mean? How often did you smoke?
Smith: I might have smoked about two cigarettes a
week.

Me: Were you around anyone else who smoked?
Smith: Yes, my husband smokes about a pack a day.

Me: Okay, next question. Did you drink a lot of
caffeine while pregnant?
Smith: I probably just drank one Coke a day. I
have to have my Coke!

Me: What about chocolate? Are you a chocolate
person?
Smith: Not really. I do not eat much chocolate.

Me: Well, that is really all of the questions that I
have to ask you for now. Do you have any
questions for me?
Smith: Yes. I heard that children who have developed late in language can sometimes be affected when in their school work. Is this true? Shoul I be worried?

Me: In some cases, yes. Many late-talkers and language delayed children will show poorer scores in language skills up to age nine. They have also shown to be less skilled in reading at ages eight and nine (Rescorla, 2002). As long as we work with him, though, he should be okay. We need to keep him in therapy so that we can work on those kinds of things.

Me: I would like to schedule another visit with you
and your son. If it is possible, I would like to
observe him in his normal environment. I want
to watch him wherever he talks the most. If I
could come to your home or meet you at the
park then that would be great. Is that possible?
Smith: That is fine. If it will help my son, then I will
do it.

Me: Great! How about Tuesday at 3:30?
Smith: Sounds good to me.

Me: Okay, I will see you then.
Smith: Bye!

That concludes my interview with Mrs. Smith. I found out a lot of helpful information. As of now, I still do not have enough information to determine whether Casey has a language delay or if he is a late-talker. I am leaning towards a language delay due to the consumption of nicotine and caffeine. These are two substances that can cause a child to have a language delay (Bernstein, Tigerman-Farber, 2002). They can cause other problems as well, but Casey does not show any of those problems. He very well may be a late-talker, which is why I have set up another appointment to observe him. These factors could just be coincidence. Further evaluations will show whether or not he has a language delay.
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