Anyone had a child that is speech delayed?

[hogu]

And when did they start speaking?
My 2 year old is 'borderline' delayed apparently which has upset & worried me a bit. He had his health visitor review today.
He's 2 years & 4 months and can say around a dozen words although he says much more it's his own language.

I didn't think my son had a hearing issue either. He could hear the Peppa Pig theme tune from the next room. But he did have a low frequency loss impacting his speech. Glue ear. Whether you think he has a loss or not, get him checked, it can do no harm.

One of ours was the same OP.
He had barely said a word by the age of 3.
My MIL was most unconcerned, apparantly every male in their family has been the same, including my DH, (who went on to get 2 degrees and a PhD)

DS started talking when he was about the age of 3.5, in proper sentences. He then caught up with everyone else very rapidly.

Is your DS very physical? Our DS seemed to put all his effort into that side of things, he was walking well at 10months and was riding a proper bike at 3.5 without stabilisers.

He understood whatever was said to him, just never replied. When he wanted something he would just point or go and get it himself.

Interestingly, when he did start to talk, it was to the cat or to the other children at nursery

Mine was like that, reached full sentences at 3. None stop talking at 4. He literally talks himself to sleep

My DD has been under the care of SALT since she turned 2. She was referred to a specialist nursery class and has made great progress so we are hoping that she will start reception at a mainstream school this year.

Please look up ICan, their resources are very helpful. One of the things that helped us was reducing background noise (I used to have TV/radio on for example but now realise it was too distracting) and slowing down speech. Too much ‘chatter’ is unhelpful as it’s hard for the child to process all the speech. Break phrases down to really simple words so they can process and then eventually repeat. One of my friends was proud of her child with advanced speech which she put down to always wittering on / but for a child with speech delays, that might be counterproductive. Simple makaton signs may be helpful too so the child doesn’t get frustrated at not being understood.

Is your son definitely delayed or could it be a speech disorder (such as dyspraxia as someone above mentioned)?

SALT are more used to delays and may not recognise other disorders. My son went to speech therapy for over a year. I diagnosed him myself but the SALT did not think I was right. I eventually got him referred to a specialist and my diagnosis was confirmed.

Lots of children have delays though.

When my son was 2 years 8 months it was very hard to understand what he was saying. He's now 3 years and 5 months and I can have full blown conversations with him and random people in the street can understand him! Just exploded out of nowhere.

Yes, my DD did not speak properly until the age of 4! She was bright in other ways and we are trilingual in our family, so I wasn't worried at all. She is 10 now and just got into Grammar School.
Neighbours' son could not speak until 4.5 I think. By the time he finally got through the system and NHS delays, he suddenly started speaking in full sentences. They are not bilingual. The boy is now 7 and absolutely fine.