We just started preschool for my 3 year old from march.3 weeks back his teacher told me that he doesn’t talk at all in school, not even a single word. Not with teachers not with other kids. This is all very surprising for me because he is very talkative at home. And apparently he has settled well in preschool. He talks about his daily activities, his friends and things he did at school not in whole lot of detail but still he tells me.
They have asked me to take him to a speech therapist. I am not sure if speech therapist can help in that but i am not sure if there will be an early child hood development program in Pakistan either.
Have you sat in class with him? If he's accustomed to speaking with you and is obviously comfortable doing so - maybe you can act as a bridge until he feels a little more comfortable talking to the other kids and teachers.
Given he's talkative at home - I can't imagine a speach therapist providing any value. I think only you and the teachers can help him overcome his shyness and become more confident verbalizing.
Is he exposed to another language at home? What is spoken language at the school?
Get a hearing test done for your own peace of mind.
If you as a parent don't have any concerns then I wouldn't worry about what the teacher says. I get the feeling this is his first time out of the house? If yah then he needs more time to 'bloom'
Encourage him to speak to peers, have play-dates; have him involved in activities such as craft/story book time
perhaps a one on one play date with the kid he mentions to you the most? that might translate into him opening up and talking more at school with the same kid and eventually with others too.
No harm in getting a hearing test and speech eval. done. even if you think he doesn't need it ... you might just pick up a little nugget of info or perspective that might help you/your child in unexpected ways.
Though mine doesn't goto school yet but mine is pretty shy to o. I beg him to go on rides, even regular park slides, see saw but he doesn't. I think some kids are just shy. Give him time .
Maybe you can go with him to his class and see how he interacts in his surroundings and if he is reserved around others then encourage him to talk to the other kids/play with them.
There are speech therapist connected to various hospitals in Pakistan and the one that comes in for my grandmother has mentioned he regularly interacts with children who not only have real speech issues but also just behavioural issues.
Thank you every one for your responses. Sorry i couldn't check the post earlier. So here is the update, i went to his school and spent a day there. He was very shy with me in the beginning but was ok afterwards. every one was surprised that he was talking to me. I saw a couple of problems there:
Even though the school is for young kids under 4, and the teachers are trained in early childhood development, i felt that they were not sure of how to deal with him
Different kids with different behavior and back ground not same as ours.
Yes, i totally accept that our social circle does not have the same age group as his.
I am planning to start working on the above 3 point and also the Dr Sear's list before looking for professional help. He is supposed to start school from September. I hope it works out for us.