In November 2008, 2-year-old Curran started treatment for a language delay. When he started treatment, he was nonverbal and communicated only by using hand gestures and vocalizations. The speech-language pathologist suggested Curran’s family encourage English as his primary language, and after progress was made they could work on his native language.
After beginning speech-language therapy, Curran started identifying pictures with verbal cues, then gradually started speaking and building his vocabulary. Soon, he was able to speak two- and three-word phrases. The therapist and his parents were pleasantly surprised that Curran was learning vocabulary so quickly. After 10 months of therapy, Curran reached the level of being age-appropriate in his language skills, which now match those of a physically active toddler.