Anxious about HV visit for speech delay

[MauriceMossMug]

Tomorrow a HV is doing a home visit (at my request) to see my 25 month old DD and I feel sick with nerves about it. Stupid, I know.

DD babbles and has very, very few words.
The words she does have aren't right, duck is "du", down is "dow", hello is "eh-oh" with the emphasis of all words being on the vowels. The only words she says that others would understand is Mama, Dada, no and yeah. She does make a few animal noises too, "ssssssss" for a snake, "oooooo" for an owl or cow etc.
She can only pronounce a few consonants too, b, d, m, n and s.

When the HV asks how many words she says, I know I'm going to mess up explaining it to her. Truth be told I don't know how many words she would be classed as having.
I know that when she goes "du" she means duck, but that isn't classed as a word, or is it?

Her understanding of words is brilliant and I've spent hours looking for ways to help her but it's just not progressing.

Has anyone been in this situation and can offer any advice?

I really feel like I'm letting DD down.

[Goingthroughnamechanges]

My dd has a speech delay and the SALT would count 'du' as duck. Pronunciation issues don't really count when they're this little. If her understanding is good and she's making good attempts to communicate then I assume they'll mostly watch and wait. They usually just give guidance to parents when the child is under 3. It's all quite straightforward things like getting down on her level, turning off background noise. If she hasn't already they may suggest a hearing check but to me it sounds like she, and you, are doing great. They are there to help, not judge, so I think you'll be reassured that you're not letting her down at all :) good luck!

[MauriceMossMug]

Thank you both.

I think because she tries to talk but can only make a handful of noises is what's confusing me about whether I'm overacting.

She has no where near 50 words. Not even 20. And she certainly isn't talking in 2-3 word sentences like guidelines suggest at this age. She has her couple of words which she uses on their own and the rest of the time is babbling nonsense. It's sad seeing kids half her age able to make sounds that she's never been able to.

I will try my best to explain it to the HV. Hopefully DD will be in a good mood and the HV will see it for herself.

[Goingthroughnamechanges]

I honestly wouldn't worry. Language is an incredibly difficult thing to learn and if any element is delayed it means it will take a bit longer. My dd had 2 words when we were referred to SALT at 2. She now has about 50 so although that's still a big delay she can get her needs known and we hope she will catch up in her own time. Just know you aren't doing anything wrong. In the meantime you could try signing with her too. There's plenty of makaton resources online or ask your HV if there's a parents makaton group in your area

[MauriceMossMug]

The visit went ok.
HV said that the resources are so stretched that the criteria to be referred is very strict and as DD babbles and has a good understanding of words we shouldn't worry.

So I'll try not to worry.
We used to sign and I've looked at Makaton but DD is very bossy good at telling you what she wants even without having words so we don't use anything currently.

We're going to start looking at nurseries, hopefully a couple of days a week will help her along.

Thank you for the replies