Referral for 15 month old

[eyesbiggerthanstomach]

I am worrried about my 15 month old and not sure how to go about getting a referral for a speech therapist. Do I need to see my GP or a health visitor?

DS turns 15 months in a few days and is saying no words. He says mama dada etc but not meaning mummy daddy. So it is just babble. I would say there has been no progress for many months. He does now what he did at 10 months.

There is no pointing of gesturing but he does initiate peek a boo, clap, pass toys to us. He doesn't though understand commands other than no!

His key worker said he wasn't meeting his communication milestones but isn't worried yet.

He has always been the last to do everything and still isn't walking. It might seem premature but I didn't spot when he was very young that he had a head lag until the health visitor visit and a referral was made to a physio. This helped him enormously and I would like to get any problems looked at early on again.

Has anyone had experience with speech therapy at this age?

From what you've said his communication sounds normal for his age so you wouldn't get any NHS speech therapy at this point.
What did his key person say?

Why don't you go and see your HV?

I'm told I didn't manage a full sentence until I was 2.5 and I was being assessed by the NHS for being deaf.

Apparently I started talking one day and pretty much didn't shut up after that. I did well at school, went to uni etc. Kids develop at different rates.

That doesn't sound particularly unusual for a 15 month old.

Though obviously see you hv if you're concerned.

The early years expectations is that by about 20 months he:
Responds to the different things said when in a familiar
context with a special person (e.g. ‘Where’s Mummy?’,
Where’s your nose?’).
• Understanding of single words in context is developing, e.g.
‘cup’, ‘milk’, ‘daddy’.
Uses sounds in play, e.g. ‘brrrm’ for toy car.
• Uses single words.
• Frequently imitates words and sounds.
• Enjoys babbling and increasingly experiments with using
sounds and words to communicate for a range of purposes
(e.g. teddy, more, no, bye-bye.)
• Uses pointing with eye gaze to make requests, and to share
an interest.
• Creates personal words as they begin to develop language

My son is coming up to 2.5 and nursery have only just put a referral to SALT in, purely because the waiting list in my area is 20 weeks. I would wait until he’s at least 2 before panicking too much.

that doesn't sound too unreasonable but the lack of progress could indicate a concern. I'd start with your HV and go from there

Thanks all for the reassurance. I think if referrals aren't made at this young age I will leave it for now. The key worker at nursery said we would look at things again at his next review in 2 months' time. If there is still no progress I will contact my HV.

However, it might be worth getting a hearing check.

Too soon to be overly concerned, as long as your child has already had their hearing checked

If there are delays generally you may want to consider asking for a referral to a paediatrician who can then refer on to various agencies. I would look at getting a hearing check as that is likely to be done anyway if there was a referral to a speech therapist.

My DS didn't say anything at 15months. He's now 20 months and is starting to say words and is picking more up as we go along. Still doesn't say mummy or daddy though.

Dd2 was around 18 months before she said anything, her elder sister was nearly 3, dd1 was diagnosed as have asd but dd2 was just a bit late!