Abby Normal

Few things can bring me crashing to Earth like a well child check-up.

I usually walk in on top of the world, thinking that I have the most wonderful, advanced, spectacular child in the joint, only to find out 45 minutes later when they finally call our name that I, sadly, do not.

I am then reminded of how little I actually do know about health and development in general when faced with the health and development of the two little people living in my house.

I also think that sometimes, this is all a load of horse manure.

What is child development based on? From what I can gather, it is the average time that an average baby/child meets specific developmental milestones. This is similar, perhaps, to saying that every woman on the planet ovulates on day 14 of her cycle and then exactly 40 weeks later, a baby is born. Which is bunk.

So if we're talking in averages, then about 50% of babies at 18 months have 10 -100 words in their vocabulary, right? Or is that too wide of a range? Maybe the bottom 10% have 10 words, the next 10% have 20 and so on. And if my child has 100 words but is still not feeding himself, does that mean he is advanced verbally and delayed with fine motor skills? What does this all mean?!?!

Before I say anything else, I don't want to sound as if I don't appreciate the heads up. I definitely needed to be told that we weren't devoting time everyday to Brooke's vocabulary and speech, and since that appointment, she has been talking more and gaining words every day. But I am wondering if it is what we are doing that is making a difference, or just the fact that I'm truly listening to her.

The one thing that has struck me the most about the whole speech/language development thing is how many moms have had their children evaluated. Formally or informally, pediatrician or speech pathologist, so many of the moms that I come into contact with daily have sought help for their child's own speech development. Is it just because we are aware of the resources available to us, or is it that most of the kids I know are in some type of preschool situation, I don't know. It's just more widespread than I thought.

Because obviously, I don't know everything. But I still think that Brooke is amazing, wonderful, and spectacular, if not advanced. She is perfectly average, with her little hairy patch on her belly and her 20 words at 18 months.