Opinions, suggestions? New DCB and concerns..

[Other Mummy]

Has anyone cared for a child who did not understand English. I've just stared a new 21mo DCB into care this week. His parents native tongue is French. Their English is well enough, but some gets lost in translation. At our interview I got the distinct impression that DCPs were concerned about their son's speech. As well as interacting with others.

They are concerned that DCB is not speaking. He only says one word that I've heard and that is "NO." He babbles and makes these weird Ahh-Awaaa sounds when something gets his attention. We are going on day 3 now and I'm thinking DCB might have some developmental delays. His actions and mannerisms are that of a child months younger. He does not turn when I call his name several times. He does not feed himself. I have to coax him and enourage him, otherwise he drops his spoon or fork and 10 min will go by and he won't take another bite, unless I give it to him. He bit another child yesterday. This again, is due to the lack of communication, and I'm willing to work with that. Today again, he bit twice. I shadow him now and stopped him from biting twice again.

His father picked him up on the first day and came into the daycare to observe DCB for 20 min. DCB did not once aknowledge his father.

Now I"m sure some of these are due to a language barriar. How long will it take for him to pick up basic instructions being at daycare M-Fri full time.

[JennJubie]

There are definitely some red flags there developmentally. And the biting, yikes. That's a big one. My son was bitten once so hard the other child drew blood and left a mark that took weeks to heal.

[Other Mummy]

Also forgot to add, that he does not really play with toys. He will pick something up like a puzzle, take a few pieces out drop them and walk away. Same thing with other toys, will pick something up hold it for a few seconds "play" with it and then drop it. The only thing I've seen him play with in its "proper" sense is ride on toys.

[Momof4]

I have a baby in care (15 months old) and he's been here for 3 months. The parents only speak French at home and I'm teaching him English along with his little friends. His parents are so impressed because he's saying the English and French words together sometimes so they know he understands the meaning of the words in both languages. He obviously has a high aptitude with languages.

However, I have a little girl who just started talking at about 20 months of age. All of a sudden she started learning words like crazy and we were starting to worry. She turns 2 this week and she's doing great now. Then I have a 25 month old boy who has been speaking clearly and repeating everything everyone says for months and months. However, he can't understand questions and answers and just repeats everything that others say over and over and over. So he has language skills but no comprehension skills and it's maddening.

One trick I use is that I talk to the babies whatever I'm doing: let's put on your booster table, time to wash your hands, show me the car, whatever, just talk about everything you are doing while you do it and they learn the words quicker. I swear it helps anyway.

My point is that they are all soooooo different! But they all catch up if there isn't any developmental problems.

As far as a child picking up a toy, dropping it and moving onto something else without cleaning it up, oh.my.god that is all I do, ask them to clean up the last thing they were playing with and run around tidying up blocks, toy dishes, small cars, dolls and blankets and puzzle pieces and how on earth do they manage to cover the whole room within 2 minutes???