Feeling lost about non verbal 2 year old

OP, honestly it sounds like you thinking about this the right way. Good luck.

@Calmestofallthechickens ‘ underwhelmed with this dinner’ 🤪

The understanding is an excellent sign, as it means it is a speech problem not a language one. Perhaps your DS will suddenly start talking as other posters experienced with their DC or maybe he may need some further help.

My DS had no words at 2 and we weren’t sure he understood. He was investigated for autism but that was not the issue. Still no words by 4 but it was clear by then he understood everything.

It turned out that his issue was/is that he has severe speech dyspraxia, ie the bit of his brain that should control the muscles in the mouth and tongue to make speech sounds doesn’t work - he was literally unable to form speech sounds however hard he tried (though had no problem with other oral skills like eating, swallowing or licking - the difficulty is only the speech control area). He has had to be taught explicitly how to make each sound and then blend it with other sounds and has to concentrate very hard when talking. Said his first word aged 5 after lots of speech therapy. He now age 7 chatters away and is mainly intelligible.

Your DS will be too young to know whether this is an issue at this stage but I mention it as something to bear in mind if he doesn’t have a natural explosion of speech. Possible early signs in my DS were that he was incapable of copying any noise or sound and although he babbled it was only vowels and very limited early consonants

Op don't wait for slt Google and read, u tube little technique to help.
Our slt had a little farm with animals and simply got dc to play, in and out the farm, field.. Animal sounds, on over etc

My DD has a language delay. She's 40 months and speech is around 24 months. Some good things I got recommended on MN are:

'It Takes Two To Talk' book
Teach Me To Talk DVD (it's on YouTube)

We're waiting for SALT but I understand the waiting listing is around a year, she's making constant progress though.

My friends DS didn’t talk and they kept fobbing her off though she knew something was wrong when she was about 1.5. It turned out he couldn’t hear he had grommets at 3.5 and started talking straight away after that but was still behind when he went to school.

I have a 2.5 year old who only said a couple of words when she turned 2 - now she won’t stop talking. It’ll happen, sometimes can just take more time.

My DS didn't start talking until he was 5..! We were convinced he'd never talk. It was such a worry for us. We did everything we could...

And then slowly, just after his 5th birthday he picked up a few words at school. It felt like a key turned in and unblocked something in him.

And yes, he is on the ASD spectrum but doing really well and talking LOADS. The questions never end :-) (He's just turned 8) Try not to worry, as hard as it is, and keep engaging with him xx

My dd don't say much until 2 then started to come out with complete sentences.

My ds had speech therapy from 4-6 as he had glue ear, and it affected his speech. I recommend Sally Ward's book, Baby Talk - really helpful with some great ideas.

My uncle didn't speak until he was around 4, but when he started talking his vocabulary was vast.

My best friend didn't talk much at all until she was around 3, and I remember growing up with her and her going to speech therapy as she was missing lots of consonants etc. I was the only person who could understand her, which is quite sweet actually. Anyway, she was absolutely fine and stopped the speech therapy in primary school, I think. She had a baby a couple of years ago and he is now 2,5 years old and he barely says mama, dada and door. She's not particularly concerned as she was such a late talker, but I think the toddler is having his hearing checked as well. He was quite an early walker and generally physically active and it would kind of make sense that he's just not that interested in talking at this point.

I had similar with my youngest DS.

Can I ask what the age gap is between your children? My eldest DS is still terrible at butting in and talking over others (he is being assessed for ADHD before anyone pipes up). That was partially blamed for youngest reluctance to talk, because eldest did it all for him.

My youngest had speech issues on and off until he was 5. He was late to speak, then developed a stutter, then talking stopped completely and then the stutter was bad again when he went to school. I would recommend asking to be referred to SALT and getting help sooner rather than later. Honestly, we haven't had loads of involvement from SALT because of delays in getting him seen. By the time he had regular appointments with the speech therapist in school, he was improving anyway and then covid hit. But I'm glad we at least at some help and support with it.

Some just like to wait until they've got it all worked out, I think. I was very late talking (a handful of words at 3, according to my parents), but was reading before I was 4, so the language development was clearly happening - just not out loud!

Can I also just say, I said the same thinf about my DC - it seems like they're focusing on the physical learning and progress and speaking will come later. And it did. Forgot to add this in my first post so wanted to update as I feel like this similarity is really important

My child was exactly the same, didn't speak at all and then VERY few words. I was seriously concerned until 3, still very worried from 3-4. Suddenly aged around 4 started chatting away, knew SO many words that my husband and I were shocked - stuff we hadn't taught, and have no idea where the information could have been learned! Wasn't until aged 4 that I stopped worrying and became pathetically grateful and overjoyed that DC was talking so much. Such a smart kid (and I'm not just saying that because it's my kid ) but must have been really quietly taking things in, paying attention, processing everything in own time etc. Very active child even when not speaking, creative, I think my DC was spending a lot of time figuring stuff out for themselves. Didn't speak until ready and had something to say.

Albert Einstein didn't speak until age 5! Please don't worry too much. You can search for a condition called Einstein Syndrome - it's a reassuring explanation for why a child is speaking very late. Children with this speak much later than their peers but when they do start speaking, catch up or overtake their peers, because they've spent so much time quietly absorbing information/figuring things out that they end up really smart.

We spend a lot of time focusing on WHEN our kids do things and we consider early to mean smart. But it doesn't - no correlation at all. Kids do things their own way whether we like it or not.

I really cant emphasise enough how little my DC was speaking until around 4 - and how worried I was. I know of at least two other children who were very similar.

If you're really worried, there is an app called gemiini (or something like this, basically the word gemini with two i's in one part gemiini or geminii - it's for children who aren't speaking for various reasons) and I tried this with my son. It really encouraged him to start making the effort with communicating. Maybe you can give that a go and see if your DC likes it too? If not, just give it time

Does he watch CBeebies? If he likes watching TV, have a look at YakaDee. It is a cartoon girl who is encouraging children to say a word. At first the child refuses but eventually has a try. He might respond better to a TV character asking him to try to say a word?
Obviously this isn't a replacement for all the other suggestions and activities, just an additional thing that might help?

OP, forgive me if I have misread but did you say you had an older child? I had a similar issue with my two - DC1 very articulate, talking in full sentences at his two year check; DC2 absolutely miles behind in comparison at the same age (although just about ticking the boxes for the HV assessment). The problem was that DC1 was speaking for DC2 and “interpreting” the babbling etc. so DC2 didn’t get the chance to develop her language in the same way. I was concerned enough to raise the issue with nursery who said it is very common for parents to be worried about a second (and subsequent) child’s speech when compared to the first and that they would have retired to the Caribbean if they had £1 for every time a parent had raised this with them!

Anyway, DC2 is now almost three and her speech has improved exponentially in the last year - perhaps not a coincidence that DC1 is now at school so she gets more one-on-one time? Some PPs have given you some great tips for helping your son to develop his language skills - hopefully these will work and in six months time he will be chatting away!

Everyone will be desperate to reassure you that autism isn't in the running, if my experience is anything to go by. Our GP swore blind my child couldn't be autistic because I could make him laugh. Ffwd two years. My son is diagnosed with Level 2 (moderate) autism.

My boy has just turned two.

I was worried about his lack of speech but doctors ruled out autism but I was still worried about particular traits of his coupled with the speech delay.

Yesterday I saw a SALT for an assessment (I seeked help from SALT when he was 18 months but was told he was too young) and she pointed out he was saying some words but was missing out the first consonant and you really had to listen hard to hear the words. He also did all the animal noises which he's never done for me before.

I asked her about a few other behaviours. He lines up cars like your little boy but she said that's fine as long he doesn't do it rigidly and can transition to other forms of play.

My son also communicates with 'hand leading' more than pointing and I had read this was a sign of autism. But she said this was also fine as he had multiple other forms of communication eg some pointing, reaching, eye contact, vocalising.

Hi - we were you 10 years ago. DS literally only said mama and dada. We were really stressed out but he finally broke through and he caught up fast. Every story is different but don't give up.

Funny story - his first new word was "more", after I gave him a biscuit. We all scrambled to get him some more!

Yep! Mine didn't speak til gone three. He was the same refused to, then one day I was getting him into bed and he just spoke a three word sentence. I was stunned
can't even remember what he said looking back, but he's been a chatterbox ever since.