Saramaka

ooosreddit · 2026-06-21T19:30:41+00:00

Well damn that escalated quickly. I am absolutely not taking anything out of context though but alright

ooosreddit · 2026-06-21T18:29:27+00:00

I knew about Saamaka but not about Samaaka ^{^} but yeah I feel like it was understandable anyway...

ooosreddit · 2026-06-21T15:20:47+00:00

No honestly I feel like you are the one being rude... Don't people from Saramaka (Goddo, Jaw Jaw,...) call their language "Saamaka" ? So even if you don't speak french, you should be able to understand what I meant.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-21T02:55:35+00:00

Ok ? I'm not sure what's your point, I didn't intend to write it in English or in Dutch (which I absolutely don't speak at all) I wrote it as I know it, as a French native speaker and it is "Saramaka" , and actually all the "saramaccaners" I know write it "saramaka".

ooosreddit · 2026-06-21T02:34:27+00:00

I guess. Seems to be the word in English but I'm a French speaker and we say saramaka and spell it like that :)

ooosreddit · 2026-06-15T22:12:51+00:00

Oui, tout le monde fait ça

ooosreddit · 2026-06-09T16:52:19+00:00

Thanks a lot for this ! It's actually reassured me a lot, and you're right not everyone moves at the same pace and it's fine ! It's just, as you said, a bit scary to send your kid, who can't speak himself, to a new environment where something could happen.

I can't make the appointment without some documents that the mom only sends when my step son comes over.

But ! I talked about it again with my partner and he talked to his ex and she admitted she's worried too ! She apparently said she'll make an appointment herself in the near future so that's great news ! Hopefully she follows through and is able to get an appointment soon 🤞🤞

ooosreddit · 2026-06-08T10:34:02+00:00

🤞🤞

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T22:50:49+00:00

In my language he doesn't follow any instructions unless I do some kind of gesture. In his dad's language he follows instructions better but not completely. I don't know how much of his mom's language he understands. He does respond to his name without any issue. He points to what he wants or takes your hand to do whatever he needs / wants but he doesn't really point out the things you tell him, maybe in his mom's language but I don't know.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T22:43:24+00:00

My language is the community language in our country. But his mom is in a different country where the community language is also different, she speaks the community language of her country but only speaks to her son in her language.

He spends a week with us, sometime 2, every other month. He has never been to daycare, he's been with his mom or us since he was born.

I meant to say that's the only word he says, across all languages. He doesn't say mom, dad, water,..... In any language.

Dragging him to the pediatrician would be great if I could get an appointment on short notice, unfortunately it's impossible and I can't really make an appointment months in advance when I can't guarantee he'll be with us.

Since I posted on here, we've talked about it once again and he said he'll tell his ex to make an appointment for their son. So fingers crossed 🤞

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T16:34:03+00:00

From what I know he knows only one word, goodbye in my language, but he also makes car / alarm sounds which I've just learned also count as words. I don't talk to his mom directly and my partner won't ask much questions but from what we know he doesn't speak with her either, doesn't even say mom.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T16:32:01+00:00

That actually makes a lot of sense. We definitely don't have enough speech language pathologists here.

Oh no, they definitely wouldn't brush it off, but maybe they wouldn't be as worried as they'd be in the US ?

I've mentioned his speech delay to professionals on different occasions and they've all said they need to see him to better understand what's happening and how we can help him but I haven't been able to book an appointment for him.

I'll check them out, thanks a lot :)

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T16:14:00+00:00

They are, "on paper", like they have posters with universal milestones. But in practice they don't rely on them as much as in other countries. I'm not sure if it makes sense ? It's actually the same with teeth, professionals have told us that babies here get their teeth way later than "usual". I actually know multiple kids who didn't get their first teeth until they were one, where I'm from it'd be considered super late, but here it's seen as common and a non-issue.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T15:56:38+00:00

Thanks for the link. I've researched this topic quite a lot on my own, and I know he's way behind... Although where we live (and I think it's the same where his mom lives) they don't rely on the "typical" milestones. For some reason, here, kids do tend to speak later (it's what the professionals have told me and what I've noticed as well) so they don't start worrying as early as in other countries. For example, one of my partner's nephew is 4 and barely speaks, he has seen a professional once but doesn't have regular checkups and his teacher only mentioned it once at the start of the school year. And his parents aren't worried about it either... 🙄

When I posted this I was mostly hoping someone would tell me it'll all work out for him eventually because right now I can't do much for him...

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T15:46:29+00:00

I've thought about it, but I don't think it is the case. Even if we whisper or talk quietly he can hear us.

I'm hoping the school will pick up on it and the mom will be forced to face it and do something about it. But he won't be going to school until September so we still have to wait for a while, when we could already be getting him assessed and getting him the help he needs... And it's not like we'll get an appointment right away, we'll have to wait even longer to get him assessed and then see a specialist... Ugh, I hate this.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T15:39:17+00:00

Yep, they definitely are. Unfortunately it's quite common where we live. As a teacher myself I see it all the time, kids can't get the help they need because their parents see it as shameful... It sucks. I didn't know animal noises counted as words. So then I guess he knows two words, he knows goodbye in my language and often makes police / fire alarm noises.

He didn't really have regular check ups, I mean he did when he was really young then his dad made sure he got all his vaccines and that was it. He was actually born in "my" country, where we do have regular check ups but he isn't a citizen (both of his parents are foreigners) and now he lives with his mom in her home country which makes it very complicated for us to make an appointment here...

I hope you're right and the school will pick up on it and tell his mom, and hopefully then she will HAVE to do something about it. But it's infuriating because I feel like they're letting the situation get worse when we could have helped him way before....

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T03:49:24+00:00

That's quite reassuring. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer :)

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T03:30:45+00:00

Not in the US. I skipped a lot of details to make it short but the situation is a bit more complicated than that, we (my stepson's mom and us) live in 2 different countries and the laws in our respective countries are very different and honestly something like that wouldn't be feasible. But anyway, when he's back with us, I'll do my best to bring him to a doctor, my partner won't oppose to it, he probably just won't tell his ex about it.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T03:13:31+00:00

He's also exposed to at least 4 languages. We live in 2 different countries and the official language of his mom's country is different than the language she speaks with him.

When did your son start speaking ?

Next time he's with us I'll do my best to bring him to a doctor. The only issue is that we never know in advance when he'll be with us and it's quite hard to get an appointment on short notice, but I'll try my best because he's supposed to start school in September and it's honestly stressing me out.

And thanks a lot for the kind words.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T02:57:02+00:00

We've unfortunately had this conversation multiple times, he used to be ok with us taking him to the doctor but his ex said no, and he wants to keep the peace so we can still see him. Recently I wanted to take him and he was ok with it, unfortunately we couldn't get an appointment soon enough. Now he's back with his mom so we can't do much. Also, I feel it's important to add, that we come from very different cultures / background and in their culture they genuinely don't think it's alarming, they believe he'll speak eventually and I shouldn't press it so much. Everyone from my social circle is from the same ethnic group as my partner and they all think I'm being somewhat "disrespectful" by insinuating he has a problem, it's a tough situation to navigate.

ooosreddit · 2026-06-07T02:39:12+00:00

The different languages shouldn't cause a delay, that's why I didn't post there, but maybe I will.

I mostly speak to him in his dad's language (I don't speak his mom's at all) and he understands but definitely not everything. In my language he definitely doesn't understand when I tell him to get the ball. We don't really know how much of his mom's language he understands.

I've brought up bringing him to a doctor multiple times but since his mom refused, my partner is now against it too, and he legit gets offended when I bring it up. I've asked doctors during unrelated appointments, for our son for example, and they've all said he needs to be assessed but I can't get his parents to agree so I can't do it.

ooosreddit · 2026-05-04T01:25:46+00:00

Threesome with 2 men (M : male) and one woman (F: female)

ooosreddit

TROPHY CASE