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AIBU?

Late talker / speech delay

5 replies

Missp30 · 18/05/2020 16:03

Hi, long thread🤦🏻‍♀️
Does anyone have/had any late speakers and have any ideas what I can do to encourage speech? My Ds is 2.6 and only has a handful of words he’s able to say. Very basic words. Ie, mam, up, down, no, spoon, shoes, banana, apple, digger, toes, nose, bed, bath, go, move, more, juice, dog, bye, ball, boo.
Other than that he doesn’t say a lot more. He can understand everything said, follow instructions, knows all body parts, use fingers to follow along when someone’s counting, copy actions to songs.
I give him choices every day regarding breakfast, dinner, tea, what he wants to play/watch, choice of clothes, drink, which he will point to rather than try to say.
He does have interaction with other children, a younger sister (5 months) so no speech as of yet, a cousin who is 2.4 also no speech apart from various words, neighbours children and friends children who are rather older ranging between 4-10 (there is a strong history of speech delay on my mothers side of the family, I was 2.10 months before speaking to words to forming sentencing, my mother was 3, cousins/siblings/nieces/nephews all very much range between 2.5-4.)
I often repeat words when talking about things wanted/needed. Ie, “would you like some juice, shall we have juice in your blue cup or orange cup, do you like that juice”.
We had a referral to SALT which have no concerns due to family history being strong of ranging later than normal. Also ds had a hearing testing back in January and no issues. He has been very forward in physical development, walking unaided by 10 months.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can encourage speech at all? All advice, opinions will be great fully accepted.
Thanks

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Wynston · 18/05/2020 16:05

No real advice apart from the fact my ds was a late talker.......now he doesnt stop....he is 8 and now we have to tell him to stop talking and rest!!!

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ultrablue · 18/05/2020 16:15

My DS now 18 was a late talker, was put on the speech therapist list etc. Then suddenly at just gone three it was like someone had switched on something in his brain and bamn he started talking for England, non stop questions, no speech therapy needed.

Just keep on doing what you are doing....

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idontlookoldenough · 18/05/2020 16:39

Both of mine have been late talkers, around 3 for both of them when it started to really come on, no other issues for either of them, they just couldn’t be arsed till then!

With my first I was neurotic and obsessively googled and bought books and he just did it when he was ready!
From my non expert research the biggest things I found were

-talk to them constantly, when you’re out and about talk about everything you see, you’ll feel like a loon but you soon get used to it! So it will be something like “look at the trees, what animals live in the trees, yes birds live in the trees and they make this noise.....” and in the house talk about what you’re doing eg when you’re getting him dressed or making dinner etc and ask questions as you’re going it, give him opportunity to answer but don’t make a big deal if he doesn’t. If he tries to answer but it doesn’t sound quite right then praise the effort and model the correct pronunciation back so “yes, good boy that’s juice”

-there tends to be more of a worry if the understanding isn’t there rather than the actual speech, so if he’s understanding what’s being said that isn’t as much of a worry. So try games to check like a treasure hunt, “can you find me your shoes, point to the door etc”

-i used to pretend I didn’t understand if they pointed for things then encourage them to ask for it so I’d say “what’s that, mummy doesn’t understand, you what the raisins?”(while they were pointing at juice) not to the point they got frustrated though.

Anecdotally boys tend to be later talkers and there’s some suggestion that if their physical development is ahead then their verbal development is later, both of these things are true for mine, their motor skills were great from a young age and they were both walking before 1.

Does he go to nursery at all? If he does then speak to them and ask their thoughts, you could also ask them to focus on it as they’ll have seen it before and have probably had SALTs in previously and might have some of the activities that they’d recommend that they could start to practice with him. Post lockdown🙄

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Lndnmummy · 18/05/2020 17:00

Enjoy your DCFlowers. Speak to HV if you are concerned but he does seem to have a pretty decent amount of words. You can try and get
More out of them of example if they say “banana”. You go “may I have a banana please mummy?” “Then they may repeat “nana peas mummy” and so on. But try to relax and enjoy Flowers

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cariadlet · 18/05/2020 17:13

My dd was a late talker. She's 17 now so it's hard to remember how old she was when she was actually started talking but it was late enough for me to be asked at a developmental check up if I wanted her to be referred to SALT.


I had moments of panic as she seemed behind other children of her age but kept telling myself that Einstein was famously an extremely late talker! Generally, I didn't worry because (like your ds) she had a great understanding.


I just kept talking to her, singing nursery rhymes and sharing books with her. I also did a lot of baby signing so that she could communicate.


She was definitely talking clearly and fluently by the time that she started school and has had no problems since.

I agree with the pp that you need to just keep on doing what you're doing and try not to worry about it.

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