I am completely confused. The doctor says she is at the three-month-level in language but she is 22 months old. Do I treat her like she is three months old? Like she is almost two years old? What? And what do I do? Babies at three months old don't talk, you know. So, do I talk to her or not. Or baby talk. I don't even know where to start!
One way developmental screening tests and parent education can help you is by providing some answers to questions like this. A place to start is by looking at the test results you were given by the Infant Development Program or Early Childhood Tracking. If your child is in an Infant Development program, you will receive results of tests during the IFSP meeting. If your child is in Head Start or in school, you will have had an IEP meeting. On those tests, it will state what your child can do and usually give you an age level for different areas, for example, as with the mother above, whose child is at the three-month-old level for language.
Given your child's current level, use any good parent education program and look up what you can expect for children at that age, and recommended ways to help your child develop. There are a number of good parent education programs at there. We like the Parents as Teachers program, offered by Even Start and some other groups, because it gives information about what your child should be doing at each stage and what you can do to help. Go to the next page for an example.
NEXT: Language Development example from Parents as Teachers