Positive stories of slow speakers, in the absence of any other concerns?

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DS has recently turned two. I’d say he has around 15 words, which I know is under where it should be. He has combined two words only a couple of times.

I would be so grateful if anyone who has been the parent of a child who was slow to get started with speaking - in the absence of other developmental concerns - would be able to share how things turned out.

How old were they once the words started coming? I keep waiting for the ‘language burst’ but it never seems to arrive. Thank you in advance.

Have you had his hearing checked? We thought our son could hear fine - when checked he had mild to moderate hearing loss caused by glue ear. This was described as being able to hear if the room was silent and the person talking to him was stood directly in front of him and had his attention. So basically never in day to day life. If you haven't I'd absolutely start here, either privately or with a GP referral.
My son's speech has now caught up and he has fewer words than your son.

Hi @Gingerbreadseasoniscoming thank you for your message. Yes, we recently had a hearing test and all is okay. Hearing fine and no indication of glue ear.

Mine was the same at 2 but possibly fewer words. His 'explosion' was around 4 but had speech sound issues until approx 7. He has almost 2 years of speech therapy.
His understanding was always excellent, very compliant and now, at 11 is an exceeding reader and his understanding of vocab and language is excellent. However he is autistic (low support needs) and like every other part of his development, he always refuses to do anything until he knows he can do it. Hates struggling or making mistakes so he just waited.
As a nursery teacher and SENDCo I'd refer to speech therapy to get the ball rolling before nursery. Additional funding is available in nursery without an EHCP but not beyond. Early intervention is best.
My concerns were ignored multiple times then COVID hit so never received any support and ended up paying private.

One of my children barely said anything at age 2, said child is now a perfectly normal speaking teenager but, being honest, that means nothing as the next poster who comes along may tell you that their teenager is still non verbal.

You know both outcomes and all the ones in between exist and hopefully yours will be a good one but please don't either catastophise or stop checking things out because of what happened to other children. There is no correlation.

Dh didn’t speak til he was 2.5. He also didn’t really walk til about then.

He is perfectly fine. He is mildly dyslexic and I don’t know if that had a part to play. But he did well enough in school and uni. He’s now a high earning company director. He’s better with numbers than words still, but manages (fortunately, he married me and I am good with words but not numbers 😂 I’m a writer and copyeditor, so I just double check any important documents before he sends them).

My son didn't utter a word until he was 3 - no baby talk or babbling.
I had his hearing checked. All fine.
Once he was 3 he started speaking in complete sentences.

Under 10 words at 2 year check.
Just applied to Cambridge Uni, with 4xA* predicted at A level - all STEM.
English hasn't been a strong point, and there is dyslexia in there but he's doing great, and is an all round decent kid too.

Thank you all. Yes, I know it could go one of many ways. I also wondered about phonological processing / sound discrimination issues so potential future dyslexia.

He has a great repertoire of signs (perhaps 50) so easily communicates his needs. I would just love to hear him ask me a question or tell me what he wants.

I think this might be part of it - he has an effective method of communication that most kids don't have. He doesn't need to talk, and we all choose the easiest option in life.

DS1 didn't talk until at least 3. Not a single word at the age of 2. He barely had any words until after 3 and he wasn't potty trained until 5. He never had a single first word. His first 'word' was when i picked him up from school ad he said 'Oh, it's mummy today'. A complete first sentence.

Okay, so he has autism as it turned out. But he's in Alevels, is a whizz at English Literature and French. He got a suite of 8s at GCSEs. He talks all day long now. Sometimes I have to say to him 'Shall we all just practice being quiet?'.

Yes - DD was a slow talker. Sounds very similar, she had aboit 15-20 words at 2 and only because I counted the animal noises she could make as words! She never really had a speech explosion, it just gradually improved. She did have a short term of speech therapy at school to help with certain sounds. She is now 10 and very confident and articulate, you'd never know she was speech delayed. Bang on average in all subjects and a confident reader.

My son was the exact same. Pointed and mumbled until nearly 3 then it was like someone turned the tap on. Does he understand you? Can he follow instructions from you? If his understanding is ok I would t worry too much.

My dd2 didn't talk beyond babbling and the odd "mummy" until nearly three. She is also an August baby I was worried about her being so young in the school year. By the following year she started school at just 4yrs 2wks and was fine.
She's now 28 and a electronics production engineer. She's the cleverer person I know and is the go to person in the family to sort out most problems!

I distinctly remember going to a good friends daughters 2nd birthday where my friend and her DH they were tearing their hair out about their daughter just not speaking at all… come her third birthday they were reminiscing about the quiet they’d enjoyed when she didn’t speak said daughter is about to start secondary school and while might not win the Nobel prize for physics is doing absolutely fine

One of my grandchildren was a slow speaker, with fewer words than usual at age three. Possibly as a result of being brought up bilingual? Anyhoo, at age eight, he is in the gifted group in his school. (Proud grandma, blatant boast 🧓🏻)

All this is DMs comparing. I suspect their DC are at nursery and 'have to achieve' the milestones. Stop putting pressure on your DC, it's childhood/babyhood. Would you be worried if you never heard of milestones?

It's important that their hearing is not impaired, they understand certain instructions etc. Let the DC play. Our DS would do lots of things my friends child didn't do: Friends DS lined his cars up in colours, models and sizes. Mine would like lots of chaos and speed. Friends DS is still into cars and is very well off due to this. Mine is a lovely person and not really into all the car stuff!

One of my DDs didn't put two words together until she was over 2. Even then, progress was slow - I can remember her at two and a half still communicating largely in one and two word sentences. She understood what we said to her, and was perfectly capable of making her opinions known. Once she started talking she never stopped...

She is dyslexic, but has a STEM degree, a masters, and a solid and interesting career.

My DD (now 5) didnt say anything until she turned 2 and struggled from 2-4 to produce the correct sounds. In her reception year she was referred for speech therapy in school and by the end of the year they discharged her and her speech had completely caught up to her peers. She's now in one of the more advanced phonics groups in her class and is reading fluently. I was fairly worried about it when she was a toddler but I can see now that I shouldn't have been!

My daughter was like this until 2y 3 months when she suddenly came out in sentences. She's 33 now and can hold her own on stage and in a law court.