No words at nearly two with good understanding, anyone similar?

[Bumblingg]

Just wondering if anyone has had a child with a similar profile at nearly 2?

My little boy has no words yet. He points, uses signs, understands lots of what we say, loves pretend play, is really affectionate and has a great sense of humour. He enjoys building things and seems to learn new skills all the time.

He also has some oral-motor issues, dribbles a lot, has an open-mouth posture and a high palate.

One thing that’s been worrying me is that his babbling has been quite inconsistent. He’s had periods where it seemed to reduce or disappear, then come back again. At the moment he’s babbling quite a lot.

We’re currently waiting to see specialists and neurology has been mentioned. There has also been some discussion around whether genetic testing might be needed, which has completely sent my anxiety into overdrive if I’m honest.

Some days I think it’s “just” a speech delay, and other days I end up convincing myself it’s something much more serious.

I’d really love to hear from anyone whose child had no words at 2 but had good understanding, pointed, signed, played imaginatively and was socially engaged.

Did speech eventually come?
Did your child end up having a diagnosis?
Was neurology/genetics ever involved and, if so, what was the outcome?

Just looking for experiences while we wait, as the uncertainty is really hard.

Ds1 had no words til 2.5yrs.

He babbled as a 1 yr old. Which turned to grunting. Which turned to pretty much silence. No baby talk, no animal noises, nothing.

Went to a Salt drop in, was told he was "unusually silent" with a significant delay.

He understood, could follow instructions (put your shoes by the door please for example) pointed etc.

Aged 2.5 he said 2 words. Then the rest came pouring out. He knew all the words to the books we read. The alphabet, colours , numbers etc.

It was like hed been saving it all up.

My niece has something which is basically dyspraxia of the tongue. It means the sounds she makes are hit and miss and don't follow the easy sounds then hard sounds pattern. Also very dribble and often open mouthed. Had lots of intensive speech and language and it is helping. Five now and still delayed but making good progress.

Have you had his hearing checked? Glue ear can be missed even for kids who seem to understand well. Periods of glue ear would explain the inconsistent periods of babble.

Is he able to use different noises during play? Eg. Animal noises, car noise, p p p when popping bubbles, mmm when eating? This would be a good thing to work on as sounds may be easier than words right now.

When you say oro-motor is he also having issues with chewing etc?

Verbal dyspraxia now know as CAS in the U.K. can’t be diagnosed until a child is speaking so it’s a little early to be thinking about that.

Speech Delay js incredibly common in under 2s and it’s a great sign that he’s got so many good underlying skills. For most children they will catch up. At this stage it’s too early to know whether it’s just a delay, whether there’s an underlying expressive language need or whether there’s a speech sound need. It may be a bit of both.

I thought signs counted as words
so in that case he has language, just not managed the motor skills of speaking yet.
can he hear ok? Can he breath through his nose ok? Can he eat food ok? As pp asked can he do animal sounds or anything like that? Or a sound he repeatedly makes to signal something in particular even if it’s not a word you recognise from the English language? That could all give you a clue where the issue is but he sounds like a lovely happy little boy with lots of skills and hitting many of his milestones and it sounds like you’re doing all the right things to help him get there with the rest

Dh didn’t speak at all until he was 2.5. He also didn’t walk either. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Then apparently he just started running and speaking in full sentences.

He is mildly dyslexic and saw a speech therapist a bit before starting school and in early primary. But he’s fine - he’s athletic and very smart, is a company director, no other issues in school and generally did well academically.

I would just keep on with pushing the referrals and keep talking and reading and see how things go. Hopefully he’s chatting away before you actually get to your appointment.

my 28 year old was like this till he was 2 and 2 months old- he went then from absolute gobbledygook babbling to full intelligent sentences in a week - I had literally been on the verge of asking for the health visitor mainly because my elder two progressed in a more gradual way

My DS was the same - he had maybe 5 words at 2.5 years (mum, dad, no, yes) and several signs but that was it. He had full understanding of everything you said, could follow instructions etc but just didn't speak. And then by a month later he just started talking, full sentences, all the words, no issues. It was like a PP says, almost like he'd been saving it all up and when he was ready, out it came!

I recently brought my DS to health visitor for similar - he does have some words, mainly animal sounds. He had less than 20 words. She said even if it is a babble but the use the same babble for an item each time it is considered a word. He has said two new words in the last two weeks so progress even if slow.
He doesn't try words like cup, drink. Banana etc. Has no interest but understands perfectly well.

Has he had ears. tonsils, adenoids all checked?

My DS had good understanding at age 2 though less socially engaged than yours, in that he could not sign (because he was unable to copy) and had no pretend play, although he did have an excellent sense of humour. He didn’t ever really babble and had no words till nearly 6.

I read all the posts on here about children suddenly speaking in sentences at age 3, but it doesn’t always happen that way. My DS had severe speech dyspraxia (sometimes called apraxia) and was unable to form speech sounds because his brain did not know what signals to send to his mouth and tongue. He would not have learned to speak without specialist help.

He had to be taught how to form the speech sounds (eg “put your tongue here and make this shape with your mouth) for each of the sounds in the English language and then do intensive practice daily. This took several years. However as soon as he did learn to talk he never stopped. He speaks fluently in mainstream now although speech will always require some conscious effort and he can stumble if tired or trying to think about a challenging concept and speak at the same time.

Things you might want to look out for

• it sounds like your DS has excellent joint attention and understanding. Make sure you emphasise this as many speech therapists we saw refused to believe me and said that with children who can’t speak it’s because they don’t understand, even though my DS could understand abstract concepts and would react to sad or happy things said on the radio
• continue with alternative forms of communication eg the signing. A speech therapist can assist with this. We used to carry a notebook so he could draw pictograms for us. One can also get programmes on an iPad.
• Does he try to copy you? Kids with ASD can find this hard. We weren’t able to start work on speech until this skill came long (for us aged 4)
• A sign of dyspraxia is that if asked to copy a sound it will come out different every time. However I don’t think dyspraxia is diagnosed till around school age.

was he particularly dribbly? Open mouth posture?

He’s has done animals noises before but very rarely and he struggles to make the right sounds.

He doesn’t say anything consistently apart from ‘yayaya’ and this is always after eating.

when he’s referring to something or talking to himself he says ‘uh’ with speech like intonation.

we have been practicing constantly with the play noises but he just can’t or doesn’t want to try to copy…

he’s been check over by a oral functioning SLP who spotted that he appears to have low muscle tone etc and we’re seeing an ENT to check out large tonsils, adinoids etc

This is next on the list! But he has had a hearing test and came back fine

Was he saying anything at two? Was he particularly dribbly? Open mouth posture?

Does he go to nursery? My cousin was similar as she wasn’t mixing enough and being in situations where she had to communicate (her brother used to speak for her).
She’s fine now.

my ds had a speech delay like this - really didn’t have any words until over age 2 and after that loads of problems - he would sometimes forget words he already knew, and for years he’d use wrong pronouns (“her” when he should have said “she” was the last one to get fixed), he missed the start and ends of words (he will does this age 8 so he’ll say “upposed to” instead of “supposed to”).

Theres lots of good advice online at charities about dealing with delayed speech. The best approach is to get DC’s attention and then carefully repeat back what they said but correctly so they can see the shape your mouth makes.

Worth getting all the tests done and not panicking - if there’s a serious problem, you will deal with it and it is much better to find out what is going on, than not know and under-react as the early years are so important.

My son has no ND or other SEN and now is doing fine socially and academically. So whilst he still struggles to form complicated sentences but he will sometimes chatter - which I encourage - and listening to him talking about nonsense is my favourite thing to do as it took him such a long time to put his thoughts into speech.

Was he babbling at 2? Was he particularly dribbly / open mouth posture?

He was dribbly but I don't remember an open mouth posture (he's 18 now). He did go on to be diagnosed with dyspraxia and at the time they said it can cause late talkers as the coordination of the mouth/jaw etc can be slower to develop.

It sounds like you're getting all the right tests etc but I can completely understand the worry and concern so sending you lots of hugs. Hopefully you will have an answer and a plan soon.

Thank you. I’m trying not to but also trying to work out what’s most likely the issue. And trying to find hope.

when you say he had 5 words at 2.5… when did he say his first words etc?

Yes babbling at 16 months and no he didn’t have open mouth issues if I’m honest

My child had delayed speech. We started private speech therapy at 2 as recognised their understanding was good (could point to colours, follow instructions etc) and we learnt makaton to communicate initially.
they made lots of noise - mainly ‘ee’ type noise so babbling sounds more limited.
first word at 2.5, 2 word sentences at 2.75 but when did have words was almost unintelligible and diagnosed with speech sound disorder at 3 which took another 2 years of speech therapy to resolve.
we were in the very fortunate position of being able to afford private speech therapy as nhs referral took a year. But what made the difference was regular practice daily from us at home or at nursery.

there is an excellent charity called ‘I can’ where you can access a free helpline which might be worth a try. I’d recommend makaton. Lots of free resources to learn- it really helped my little one’s frustration and helped us understand them.

Hi OP, a couple of further thoughts - you mentioned about the speech like intonation. When I play back videos now of DS aged between 3-5 I can see that he was trying to speak but the words (that he was thinking of in his head) were completely and utterly unintelligible. Sometimes one can see things clearer on videos than in the moment.

Also in terms of considering whether dypraxia may be a cause, how are your DS's fine and gross motor skills generally? What age did he walk, how is he with jumping and throwing? Does he fall over a lot and bump into things? Can he use cutlery?

His fine motor is pretty good, feeds himself with a spoon etc.

His gross motor is okay but not great. He walked at 18 months and he’s almost running but not quite. And again he can kind of throw and he’s working on jumping.