To ask about your late talkers?

[SinkGirl]

My twins are 26 months now and neither can talk.

One has a lot of health issues and is under many specialists. He has a SALT assessment in a few weeks. He babbles constantly but not deliberately.

His twin has no health issues and is doing well developmentally in most areas except social skills and communication. He only says ga or long noises but no other consonants. Still waiting for his SALT appointment.

I’m starting to really worry about the second has he has no input from any medical professionals and I’m worried we are missing something.

Those whose little ones still weren’t speaking at this age, how did things work out?

My DS was a late talker, at 2.5 he was still calling me "ah-ah" as he couldn't form the m sound plus lots of other sounds. He was referred to speech therapy at 3 which definitely helped.

He just talked properly in his own time. He went on to be put on his primary schools gifted and talented register by year 3 and is now 14, very bright and doing great at school. Not a boast but just wanted to show that it doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong.

I've heard with twins that you can often get a dominant twin who walks, talks etc faster. The other twin then doesn't need to speak Cos his twin will do it for him :)

@sinkgirl my nephew didn't say anything other than yes/no/mine until he was three and a half. Child of two highly intelligent barristers, in full time nursery, no health issues. I'm the end we decided that he had inherited the arrogant barrister gene that meant he waited to talk until he was ready! He's five now and won't stop talking. They weren't worried, though they have enough understanding of child development to know it was unusual, I think their HV was happy about his level of understanding.

Im a twin and both me and my twin were very delayed in talking but both caught up once at school. Apparently it seemed that we could interact well enough with each other (babbling) that we didn't have a push to develop anything more for a while.

My 2 both had hearing problems picked up due to low numbers of words age 2. One had grommets, one didn’t. Now 9 and 12 and annoyingly talkative! 😂

When my DS1 had his 2 year check the HV said his understanding was perfect and it was just his speech that was a bit behind so she was hesitant to refer. I pushed for it though because I didn’t want him to be behind his peers. When I say, “a bit behind” he probably said less than 5 words by that point. He first had a hearing check and all was fine on that score. We saw the SALT a couple of months later who said that he was delayed but also what the HV said, then a few weeks later we moved to a different county so they discharged us and told us to go back to the GP for a fresh referral to the local team if we felt it necessary. He suddenly started picking up words and talking more so we didn’t go back. He also started nursery shortly afterwards, which helped I think.

He's 3y 9m now and chats CONSTANTLY. According to the Talking point website, he's finally where he should be. DS2 was born shortly after DS1 turned 3 and when the HV came to do DS2’s 6 week check she commented on how good DS1's speech was for his age. It put me in a good mood for the rest of the day

Oh I should have been more clear - he was 2.5 before he started saying any more than about 5-10 single words.

Were they premature at all, Sinkgirl?

My son had 5 words by 2, was just about stringing 3 word sentences by 2.5 and by 3 was reading 😳
Now he’s 4.5 and is an exceptionally bright child. He has the reading age of a 7/8 year old and is speaking 2 languages fluently.

I was so stressed by his lack of speech at his 24 month assessment, I paid privately for speech therapy and it made a massive difference. I honestly thought something was wrong as his meltdowns at the time we’re off the scale.

He still has them now but he’s an amazing little boy and he blows me away!

i had a non verbal baby till 3 and half then semi verbal(1-2 word answers)till 6
then 6 to now(8)he speaks but not clear but due to many disabilities hes mentally 5-6

do you think there any disabilities there or just late talkers?

i know many non verbal kids at our disability group,5,7 and 15

Op if you were to point somewhere so they look where you’re pointing or do they look at your finger?
Have they ever talked when they were younger?
Have they ever ‘regressed’ in any way?
Do they show distress at bright lights/loud noises/movements in the car?
Do they self-stimulate (fidget with their fingers/walk on tip toes)
I have 2 DS, both late talkers
Ds1 (7) has ASD
Ds2 (5) doesn’t & is neurotypical & quickly caught up with his peers.
From what you’ve said (& I must admit it was the lack of pointing that rang alarm bells) I would be more inclined to guess ASD.
I would love to say don’t worry, it’s probably not, they’ll catch up on their own etc. But the fact is, if it is ASD you don’t want to wait around as early intervention is so important. I wish I’d found out earlier with my eldest.

DS with only one or two words at 2. Passed all HV "hearing tests", but at coming up to 4 had a "proper" hearing test, failed badly, had grommets fitted, hearing back to normal, but by then brain connections had been made and he struggled hearing and therefore saying consonants. Had a large vocab basically of vowel sounds ;-) Speech therapy, bullied at school because of poor speech, lack of interaction meant he didn't have the chance to learn social skills, which has plagued him into adulthood and badly impacted his employment prospects. All a bit of a grim story, really. Moral - if you're worried, fight hard to get him checked.

DS only managed occasional single words at nearly 4, I managed to get an SEN statement at nursery and he had 15-20 hours of 1-1 support and regular SALT input until age 11
At high school they decided he didn’t need TA help any more but still had regular SALT also had a stammer
DS is now 25 did well at university and has a well paid above graduate level job
His speech is fine - however he’s just not a very talkative adult

My dd 15 was slow to talk with only very few words at 2 but did finally catch on before 3. She is a normal talker, not particularly chatty or quiet. However, she does still have problems expressing herself in words clearly, which is a challenge now she is coming up to her GCSEs.

My ds 12 talked early-ish and is much more articulate, and expresses himself very well on paper.

Thank you so much to all of you for sharing your stories. I really appreciate it.

Quick rundown:
Twins were born by emcs at 35+1. Twin 1 was pretty much fine, just needed some initial help breathing and then feeding. Came home about 2 weeks old. Twin 2 had IUGR, was diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder and spent two months in NICU.

Twin 1 has been ahead with every milestone but has never mimicked ever, maybe the odd single clap but that’s it. Has never pointed but does now gesture with one hand. Will bring things to me for help, understands how remotes, tablets, phone etc work. Sorts things by colour and size but doesn’t understand the words or instruction (now understands sit down but that’s about it).

Twin 2 has a range of issues - was slower with everything and had a big regression about 18 months where he stopped mimicking, stopped playing etc. Diagnosed with a visual impairment but we aren’t sure how much it affects him until he can talk. He’s having lots of assessment, portage etc waiting on genetic test results.

Twin 1 is my concern right now in that we haven’t really worried about him because he’s always been further ahead but he doesn’t say anything except ga. He tries to communicate but it just comes out as one long vowel with no consonants. Flaps his hands when he’s excited - does make eye contact but doesn’t seem very interested in people. The twins completely ignore each other even when alone in their bedroom and awake which I find really hard.

HV is coming back out to redo his ASQ on Friday. They’ve already referred to SALT but I think I need to ask for a child development referral as well. I got a book about early intervention for autism to help twin 2 regain some skills and honestly most of what it said sounded like twin 1 rather than twin 2.

Portage gave me some cue cards and they now both understand they need to touch the picture of the bubbles rather than the pot of bubbles in order to get me to blow bubbles, if that makes sense! Am offering choices all the time, sometimes with cue cards (eg drink or snack). I think we are doing a lot of what SALT will initially suggest already.

The twins completely ignore each other even when alone in their bedroom and awake which I find really hard.

Enjoy it while it lasts! Wait 'till they hit 9 or 10, the hormones start working and they're constantly at each others' throats/trying to kill each other. And I only say that half in jest. I wish my two would just ignore each other for a while.

My 8 year is non verbal alrhough he does have some random words, he was diagnosed with asd and learning disabillities at three and a half and has an underlying chroomosome deletion.

DD and DS were both late talkers (and late walkers). Once they did talk, they quickly moved to sentences. Both caught up before they started school. No issues at all with DD. DS has selective mutism so in some situations doesn't talk at all but when comfortable (with close family or friends), his speech is completely normal.

Both mine have been early walkers late talkers.
My eldest prob actually spoke earlier that her brother but did have definite pronunciation problems. Vocabulary was great though.
She was under SLT. Not much progress before school but got one to one 3 times a week at school and made a massive difference. Before end Year 1she was signed off.

Youngest is 4 and speaking loads now although can be hard to understand at times. We haven’t tried for a referral as we don’t think he has the issues my daughter did. And probably between 3 & 4 is when most of his development happened.

Go with your gut - I wish I had tried for a referral with my eldest earlier. But some children are later than others to speak

Mine were both late talkers and both turned out to have hearing issues, have they been tested since newborn? Their language is now fine/slightly ahead but speech still needs some work for both of them. Wishing you all the best.

Thanks all - twin 1 was tested for his hearing as we thought that might be the issue but it was totally normal. No concerns about twin 2’s hearing but he does have a vision problem.

I’m sure one day I’ll want them to leave each other alone but right now seeing all their twin friends having lovely relationships and seeing my two completely blank each other really breaks my heart to be honest.

Will ask the HV for a referral to child development when she comes tomorrow - I suppose if things improve and SALT think he’s fine we can always cancel it, better to be in the system I suppose. Just struggling to come to terms with the idea of them both having problems - I’ve had to battle so hard to get help for the other twin and now I feel guilty that I’ve missed problems with the other because he was further ahead.

I'm worried about my 2 year old. She has a few words but nothing major.

Daddy, baby, hiya, bye, shoes, goggy for doggy and what's that.

So 8 words total. She does however understand instructions and can sit at a table and draw etc. She is attempting to dress herself as well.

I'm just extremely worried about her talking.

Grand I don’t have any advice because my boys don’t do any of that so to me it sounds advanced. If she’s making two word sentences she doesn’t sound behind to me but then I’m no expert.

DS1 was a late talker (as was apparently I) and I took him to a speech therapist. Unbeknown to me - whilst nothing was coming out... EVERYTHING went in.

As I would lament his lack of speech smug git friends would say "be careful what you wish for".

DS2 showed me what this meant. He hasn't paused for breath since 2013.