2 years old and can’t walk

You’re not unreasonable to be concerned BUT sometimes it can just happen. My friends little boy didn’t take a step at all until he was about 22
months old then one day he just got up and walked, he’s nearly 3 now and there’s no concerns at all. Another friends little girl wasn’t walking at 18 months and the health visitor referred her to physio, it turned out she had one leg slightly shorter than the other which had delayed her a bit, she had some physio and a raised insole in her shoe and then there was no stopping her, she’s 4 now and if i didn’t know about the difference in leg lengths then i wouldn’t guess that there was an issue.

Maybe speak to your health visitor or GP about a physio referral? Although the fact he’ll walk in the house means it might just be that he doesn’t want to walk outside….they can be quite strong willed!

I also have a little boy who will be 2 in March. He has only recently in the last 2-4 weeks started using more words. If we sing head, shoulders, knees and toes, he misses shoulders and only really does eyes, ears, mouth and nose if he’s copying me. My friends little boy really struggled with speech up until about 2.5year, he only really said mama, daddy and that was about it. They started putting him in nursery 2 mornings a week at 2.5y and his speech massively improved from there and he’s just about caught up to where his peers now. Is nursery an option for you if he doesn’t already go?

My very prem DC was 21 months when he let go of the furniture and stopped cruising. There was an HV clinic at nursery at 19 months and she observed his cautious behaviour and said don't worry. At 20 months, my Dad popped back out of the house to get something from his car. DC thought grandad was going and ran across the room towards the window, grabbing the coffee table in token realisation furniture has been let go of. DC made us wait a full other two weeks before walking in the house and out.

Don't worry - a non prem we know didn't walk until 22 months without being the teeny tiny dot our DC was

Why was it classed as global? Did you DC have other developmental delays or just walking?

Based on the lack of speech as-well then I would push for a referral and get an overall check at the gp.
I think your health visitor isn’t listening properly to your concerns.

I think the not walking is unusual at his age. But alongside his lack of speech, comprehension, and fine motor skills(cutlery skills) I'd be quite worried.

Mine were late talkers but very early movers and both could use a spoon, knife and fork at a year old. I think its rare for them to be slow at everything.

Does he walk around indoors at places other than your home? How old when he started crawling?

My DS didn't walk until he was 23 months, he was premature at 33 weeks but he's 8 now and perfect. Not sure I'd worry to much.

My dd was like this. She could walk happily inside but once we were outside she would either yell or only walk if she clung to me. Then one day we went to a new park and she forgot to cling on and rushed off and climbed a blooming climbing frame. Absolute drama llama.

You can self refer to physio where I am so I'd definitely look into that as a first point. If healthcare aren't helping, self refer to social services and ask them for an occupational therapy assessment and a needs assessment

@Dolamroth is right. Both my children had glue ear which wasn't picked up by the GP. After the first one, we kept taking the youngest for checkups. The first one had real ear infections and got grommets as soon as we realised there was a problem. He had to have speech therapy to pick up the sounds he'd missed - sounds for speech are learnt in a specific order and he had to learn those sounds. He was picked up relatively early.

The second never had ear infections. We did get his ears checked but the GP never found anything wrong. His speech was limited and awfully hard to understand. A speech language teacher said he was developmentally delayed. I took him for a hearing test. I could see the tester's face and I could see that he was failing very badly as she having to really crank up the sound before he reacted to put the marble in the basket.

He got grommets privately within the week as the ENT specialist had a cancellation on her list. The ENT specialist said that the very first thing to suspect with a speech problem is a hearing problem. GPs are very good at spotting an ear infection with a bright red ear drum but the signs of glue ear are much more subtle - a slightly pink slightly convex eardrum. Glue ear waxes and wanes but even if it is intermittent it affects speech development.

My son fooled doctors, childcare staff and his first useless speech language teacher who should have known better. He was very very good at picking up non-verbal clues and probably taught himself to lipread to a certain extent. Yes, he too had to have speech therapy.

While we were waiting for the grommets. the advice was to get down to the child's level without any background noise and make sure the child is facing you when you speak. Speak slowly and clearly. I was shocked to discover my son was so deaf that if he couldn't see my lips he didn't know I was speaking.

He isn’t two and he is walking. So you have absolutely nothing to be worried about.

He’s the same age as my son and sounds significantly behind in some areas. You’ll have the two year check soon so you could wait for that or push for a referral now. Can you go privately?

Maybe it's a sensory thing? I would defo go back to the GP and push for them to try and look into it, how long has he been walking inside?

I’m sorry you feel like no one is listening OP, it can be a lonely world as a parent when you have a gut instinct that isn’t necessarily being acknowledged.
Ultimately there may be absolutely no concern, I’ve known 2 yr olds (Ive been a childminder for 12yrs) only say ball, car, mamma, dadda, more, but I’ve always been confident that they understand more than they say, for example, responding appropriately to an instruction ‘Benjamin can you find the blue car’ and then they go and get it.
Does your child express an interest in other children and try and join in? Communication skills are benefitted from lots of social interactions. Often children learn more from one another than they do adults (especially in early years)
I saw another poster said there is no substitute for a book, and I absolutely second that. Hairy Mcclary and Julia Donaldson books were our favourites. If there is rhyme and repetition it really helps children pick up on the cadence of words.
Also narrate everything you do, you may get sick of the sound of your own voice, but just talk, ‘Sally, mommy is going to get you some milk’ or ‘mommy is going to chop you some banana’ obviously the words can be changed to fit the vocabulary you use in your home but it really does work.
One final suggestion, if your child does have any words, repeat them as you hear them and then extend it. So for example your child says Cup, you can then respond ‘yes it’s Kevin’s cup, it’s a green cup’ This gives context and meaning to words

I think it would be a good idea to push for a referral. He will still be behind when he starts school and it will all become massively stressful for him as well as you then.

My son was also behind in many ways, and when he went to school it all became massively stressful and now I've had to take him out and home school him because it affected his MH in the end. I'm so angry about it because nobody listened and he was left to sink.

This sounds a bit obvious OP but - have you taught him where his nose is? Sung heads shoulders knees and toes and all that?

Did he have his development assessment from the health visitor at a year old?

Op - hound them. When something is delayed with my DC I call every day and write to them once a week. It works.

When you say ‘they’ do you mean the Health Visitors? When did you last contact them? It may be a case of contacting them over and over until you get a response. And trying other agencies like your GP.

Have you got any baby signing classes near you? A friend used these and it helped her baby’s communication a lot. Sounds like it was action songs.

@FirstTimeMum0 Ive not used a yoto but it’s not a book. With a book you can point to pictures. Say the words that describe the pictures. Get him to tell you characters. You correct him and reinforce language. You cannot outsource this to a machine. Poetry books for the very young are wonderful. Rhyme and rhythm really help with language. Look at books like “Each Peach Pear Plum” and similar. You should get involved and use picture books - nothing wrong with nursery rhyme books. Using a machine just is not the same.

Have the health visitors said anything about him not talking much or his understanding? It may be worth getting referred for some support, it can take some time so getting on the lists early is a good thing.

It’s good that he’s walking indoors. It could be a confidence issue regarding being unwilling to walk outside.

I agree with those saying get him checked. Not saying many words is common, but if you have doubts about the level of his understanding , then it’s definitely wise to look into this. There’s a huge range when it comes to ‘normal’, but we also need to listen to our gut feelings at times.

The walking isn't a major thing now that he's walking indoors - he just needs to feel a bit more confident. The lack of language and understanding however is a pretty major concern tbh. Focus on that.

The understanding would worry me a bit Tbh. At this age mine would be choosing there clothes and trying (badly) to get dressed, sweeping the floor and loading the washer was great fun to them. If I said let's go out they'd be going to get their shoes and putting on a hat etc.
My eldest never 'performed' by clapping hands, waving, pointing to nose etc when asked but this is a common autistic thing. He definitely knew what they were though. So if he had a runny nose I'd hand him a tissue and he'd wipe it then put the tissue in the bin etc.
Does yours know where things go and look for them/put away? It's more down they understand what is happening around them or due they just drift along/careen alongabt high speed?
It may be a language development or general development thing but it's absolutely within your right as a parent to ask these questions and seel support.