2.3 year old and her speech...

[ImNameyChangey]

I'm worried about my friend's child basically. I know it's technically none of my business but my friend has ongoing mental health issues and I am her main source of support.

She's had a VERY hard 2 years. Her older DD has had a difficult diagnoses and now, to me, it seems that her younger DD has some speech issues.

She's not had a 2 year check and doesn't attend nursery...so no professionals about to point any issues out.

Basically...is this normal? Or should I be encouraging my friend to visit the GP.

The DD has hardly any consonants...she has "D" and "B" but that's it I think.

If she wants to say "Can i have an ice cream" it comes out as "an i av i-ee"

And her jaw movements seem laboured...her lower jaw is somehow tense...she understands everything perfectly and can follow quite complicated commands...such as "Get your shoes and then go into the hall and get your coat."

But ALL her words are unintelligible aside from a couple.

Happy Birthday becomes "aa-ee ur ay"

Is this just part of her development. I don't want to worry my friend without just cause but also don't want her DD to not get help if she needs it.

[Jellyandjam]

This sounds like how my son was. His understanding was good and he was very willing to talk but what came out was difficult to understand and would sound much like how you describe. She is still young and words may well become clearer over the next few months but I would keep an eye on it.
Some good things to do to help the oral muscles are things like blowing bubbles, whistles, recorders, etc. using straws to blow a small ball etc.
then just modelling back without correcting e.g when she says about wanting an ice cream say 'oh you want a he ice cream'.
my son went through around a year of speech therapy and now apart from when he comes across a new, longer word he is fine and people can't tell he ever had a problem.
Hope that's of some help.

[ImNameyChangey]

Thank you Jelly...very much. I so want her to be problem free as my friend has had a terrible time of it and another "problem" could just break her really. Even a relatively "small" speech issue could upset her a lot. She's had a bad time and this needs to just pass!

[ShadowsShadowsEverywhere]

It's a 2.5 year check around here so she may yet get a letter/call about that. 2.3 is still very little. DS (my second DC) is 2.1 with very few words, well under the amount that the milestone suggests he should have, let alone starting to put any together. I'm not worried, nursery aren't worried, whilst there are milestones for this age and most kids hit them, quite often some don't and IME it's less of a concern at this age than it is at say 2.5 or 3. I was also told that progress is just as important as milestones, so if a child is behind but making progress week by week then it's less of a concern than a child whose speech is delayed and static. My DD was thought to have speech delay at her 2.5 year check but I refused the intervention because I knew she had been nervous for the HV and clammed up. Nursery said they saw no difference between her and the other kids her age so that was fine.

I'd keep an eye on it, but give it another few months. If there's been no progress by 2.5 then that might be a good time to think about having a conversation with her HV perhaps, but I definitely wouldn't be rushing to intervene at this stage.

[Jellyandjam]

Don't know why there is a random he in the middle if my sentence there!
I hope her dd becomes clearer in her own time in the next few months but if she doesn't, don't let her ignore it as the earlier she gets help the better- waiting lists are horrendous and services can be sparse depending on where you are. We went private in the end.