Speech issue?

[worrier94]

So my Little one is 25months now and made no progress in over a year in terms in speaking. He can't say one word. He talks his own language that is completely random.
HV said it was ok a few months ago but she refused to meet us in person.
L.O know what I am saying as he responds (e.g get me your shoes- he brings his shoes)
I read to him, give him choices, reiterate what I give him (e.g do you want milk? Here is your milk), we sing nursery rhymes erc but nothing...

In my area op, there are speech and language drop in clinics where you don't need to be referred. I just turned up and spoke to a speech therapist about my concerns. That got the ball rolling in terms of getting help. Maybe have a look to see if there is something similar in your area.

What about his hearing? I took my dc to the gp and asked if they could refer us to have my dcs hearing checked. Turned out she had glue ear and hadn't been able to hear very well.

Any drop in centres near you for speech and language therapy? I did that with my son (and got excellent advice) back in the day. A small thing to try is to offer choices with more than yes/no responses - would you like water or milk? - for instance. Make sure he can’t just point to what he wants!

To be honest, I didn't find the hv very helpful in terms of this issue. My gp and the speech and language clinic took it much more seriously.

I rang our speech and language department every Monday for months and months until they saw me.

Mine is 26 months and behind with her speech, only has a handful of words. My health visitor said if no progress by her 27 months check then she will be referred for speech therapy.

Try a referal via the GP if you’re concerned?

In our case, the HV assured me not to worry at approx 25mo, but took it a bit more seriously as he approached 3yrs.

We’ve had SALT and hearing tests, none of which have made much difference on their own, he’s just getting older and better at making himself understood TBH.

Lots of kids don’t talk at 25mo so I wouldn’t be overly concerned in your shoes.

If your DC has no words then you should try to speak in single words to them. Tricky I know. So rather than "do you want milk? It should be just labelling the item Milk. Or Holding milk and water, say milk ( waggles milk) or water ( waggles water in cup) The theory is they can't pick out the key words in long sentences. Some children need a lot more repetition to learn than others.

If your DC is making sounds they probably aren't as random as you think, but I felt this too with my DS. There are certain accepted substitutions that happen in speech development. So stop being dop. So maybe speech is coming. I'd try labelling things when out and about and occasionally ask "what's that" then leave a really long gap. So you might say Duck, bird, tree, then "what's that?" pointing at a dog. If your DC says mehhhh you repeat correcting so say Dog or yes dog. You can do this with books, colours, furniture, relatives, toys.

My DS has a speech delay and I've been very reluctant to think it was my fault due to how I spoke to him, but as his main carer, I do realise I over complicated things ( see my how long that sentence is ) It's very hard when they understand proper sentences, but try to simplify. Get Shoes/ Shoes /Shoes on / red shoes/ Mummy Shoes / DC shoes.

My HV was rubbish, but do try. Push for any help they might offer a play based speech course , and yes ask for a hearing test.