Is this normal re speech?

[MulchLover]

A child I am close to but not my own (sorry to be vague - trying not to be outing) turns 2 in about 6 weeks. I’m beginning to have some concerns about her speech.

She has very few if any really identifiable words. She can say mama and dada, but tends to use them to refer to all people and not just her parents. She can make a limited number of sounds / words - like she will make a ‘brrr’ sound to imitate a car and a miaow sound when interacting with her cat, but she can’t / doesn’t say ‘cat’ or ‘car’. She uses gestures (pointing etc) and inarticulate noises to indicate what she wants, and she can say ‘at’ when pointing which we think means ‘that’. She makes a lot of noises but very little that is identifiable as speech.

I’m just a bit concerned that by now she should have more language than this. Her parents have mentioned it to me too as they’re aware of it and getting a bit concerned, but I don’t have kids of my own so I don’t know if this is in the normal range or if she should have more language than this by now.

Does this sound normal / ok, or does it sound like she might have a speech delay?

Thank you!

Sounds similar to my DD... She had 5 words at her 2 year appointment. They sent her for hearing tests. Wasn't properly considered to have a delay until she started school though- they were happy to just watch and wait as she was improving, but slowly.

Well, in normal circumstances it would come up as an issue in her two year check (which often happens much later than two years due to waiting lists). I doubt that health visitors are doing them at the moment so waiting lists must be massive.

My child was speech delayed at there’s not much the NHS will do at the age of just turned two. Some areas have speech & language drop in clinics where you can see a SALT and be referred to further help if they think necessary. But again, they won’t be happening even if they are available in your area.

Not normal at all. The child needs a referral to SaLT and a hearing test. HV in our area are doing developmental checks over the phone but I’m not sure about other areas.

Can you discuss it with the child’s parents?

first, at 2, the check is not that she has xx number of clear words, but xx number of words that are used by her consistently for the same thing, and are recognisable by her parents.

so saying YOW for cat, counts as a word. As does her 'At' and 'brr' etc.

It really isn't that unusual to not have many words at 2. It is the age that language starts to kick in, some a bit earlier and some later. She is obviously on the right track, you'll probably find her language floods in over the next 6 months.

My DS said his first word at 25 months, but had maybe 30 words within the following eight weeks. I don't think it's that rare. The GP was unconcerned.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves that’s reassuring, thank you! None of us are concerned if she’s just taking a little longer than average to get going with language, but obviously if there’s a physical reason it’s better to know as soon as possible.

@Haworthia did your child catch up on their own accord or did you have to wait for therapy to be available?

It could be a problem but I'd also say it's in the realms of normal, especially if she's only just turned 2

The 2 year check used to say they should have 50 words by 2, by the way. (again, 50 consistent words/sounds, not adult clear words)

At 22 months my son knew 50 words. We counted because I was talking about this exact same thing to a friend who was concerned about her daughter. However, all children are different!

@Lockdownseperation I think I could because they’ve spoken to me about it and indicated some concern, so I think I could suggest it would be worth talking to someone about it if services are available.

My son has turned a corner at 2.5, we got him private speech therapy from 2 years old. A lot was cancelled during lockdown but he's making great progress despite that.

Your concerns sound valid, but sometimes they really do just need more time.

We talk to my son pretty much constantly, and leave gaps for him to try and fill himself so as to not 'talk for him'. I used to feel like I was literally talking to thin air, now months later it's clear it was all sinking in, just took a bit longer for him to express his language.

Oh goodness, she’s nowhere near 50! At most she has maybe 7/8 if you count the specific noises for certain things.

Hopefully she’s on the verge of a spurt with it, it sounds like that’s quite common at this age?

Does she understand when she is spoken to? eg will she get a toy when asked? If not, it might be worth getting her hearing checked.
I agree that between 2 and 2.5 can be a period of rapid growth in vocab and language skills, so wouldn't worry too much yet, if she appears to understand when spoken to.
THings to help - read lots of books with her, sing lots of songs (action ones are great), and rhymes. Speak to her all the time -basically a running commentary on life.

Oh and to mention, my son had 25ish words at 2. No two word sentences at all.

Now he's off chatting with 2,3,4,5,6 word sentences, he's negotiating and disagreeing with us too now which is good developmentally.

Amazing progress can be made with endless talking to them. It's hard work, I felt like I was goi g mad describing everything all the time!

I had been worried about this as well.

Dd turns two October.

Says mumma dada, the dogs name, tractor, duck and not much else. Does all the animal noises.

There are fifteen mums from a baby group in a whatsapp group. I asked there.

One was taking talking, which I knew and was causing me the worry.

Four have a lot of words. About fifty and more every day.

The other ten are the same stage as Dd.

@Seeline

Does she understand when she is spoken to? eg will she get a toy when asked? If not, it might be worth getting her hearing checked. I agree that between 2 and 2.5 can be a period of rapid growth in vocab and language skills, so wouldn't worry too much yet, if she appears to understand when spoken to. THings to help - read lots of books with her, sing lots of songs (action ones are great), and rhymes. Speak to her all the time -basically a running commentary on life.

My son is also getting his hearing checked, and checking for glue ear but was all cancelled because of damn covid.

Op, does she notice aeroplanes in the sky? And can she recognise a theme tune to her favourite tv show or similar?

The average child should have about 50 words at 2 with girls tending to be a little more competent than boys. There will be children either end of this scale.
There are an increasing number of children with a delay in language and communication. For example, certain pockets of the NW (England) those children are becoming the norm.
If the parents are concerned speak to the HV. They will prob arrange a hearing test first to rule out any hearing issues.
In the meantime environment can help. Small children have to learn to tune into sounds to distinguish speech sounds from environmental sounds, something that we take for granted. Turn of TV, radio, background noise to allow her to focus on language instead. Talk to her about everything using simplified language, to expose her to words eg, “Look socks! One sock, two socks!” Two blue socks. Shall we put them on? Where do they go? On your nose? On your hands? Show me! Yes your feet! Poo stinky feet. Let’s put socks on those stinky feet! One sock on, two socks on. Nice warm feet!” Written down it seems excessive in reality it maybe adds half a minute on to putting socks on but also provides lots of rich language including naming, counting, questioning, listen and response, positional language, descriptive language.
Share books and join her in play describing her actions extending her language by one word level. If all she can say is dog, you repeat back dog and ad a word. “Yes dog, happy dog!”
Hope that helps

@icedaisy

I had been worried about this as well.

Dd turns two October.

Says mumma dada, the dogs name, tractor, duck and not much else. Does all the animal noises.

There are fifteen mums from a baby group in a whatsapp group. I asked there.

One was taking talking, which I knew and was causing me the worry.

Four have a lot of words. About fifty and more every day.

The other ten are the same stage as Dd.

All the distinct animal noises count at this stage

Thanks so much everyone - it’s actually comforting to get such a range of responses because it shows that there’s a lot of variation from child to child.

I’ll mention the reading / singing etc to her parents. They’re good at reading to her already by maybe they could try to make it more interactive so there’s space for her to get involved too.

She does generally respond when she’s spoken to - she can follow really simple instructions like ‘get your cup’ most of the time. I think partly it might be that she’s very hyper and easily distracted, so she’s possibly just not focusing very hard on the immediate situation a lot of the time.

At 2 not having significant language is common, but it tends to be when the referral process starts (it takes a while). Both mine had delayed speech, with dd1 she was diagnosed as autistic and finally got speech between 4&5, very clever but quite obvious issues. Dd2 was thus being watched carefully and at 2 had no speech so was referred thinking she was the same but actually she developed speech fine around 2.5 and has no issues other than dyslexia

Concentration and distraction is also my son's problem, but one we didn't want to leave unchecked because I didn't want school learning impacted in the future.

A lot of the speech therapy games work on concentration, especially on tasks they may not necessarily want to do.

It's all good learning

@IHateCoronavirus

Thank you so much, that’s really helpful advice.

I think lockdown has not helped her - she’s only had her parents to interact with, and both of them have had to balance it with working. She was supposed to start nursery in March but it was delayed and she hasn’t started yet. So she hasn’t had the opportunities to develop her language that she might have had if she had been seeing friends / family / nursery etc.

In order to help her progress, her are some things to do.

Repeat back to her what she has 'said' so when she points at the cat, and says yow, say - that is a cat.
When she wants something and says 'at' say Do you want the train? here is the train.
Keep the sentences short and simple, 4-5 words max, and repeat them.

Give her simple choices. Do you want apple juice or millk? Show both and when she points at milk, say - Milk, you want milk. Encourage her to say milk, and try to get her to reply milk rather than point.

Build up her passive language, and make sure she has it! So, send her to get something from another room or ask her to pass something. Can you give the car to mummy? Repeat - Car, mummy wants the car. Then praise when she does it, again repeating the word.
Getting her to use this language is an important step - where is the teddy? can you find the towel? Mummy needs the potatoes and so on.

make a record of which words she has, and add to them as she adds to them, to see if her language is growing or not. This is all useful if you do need to refer later. (and an encouragement to see she is progressing too)

Oh really @campas that's kind thank you. I did not know that. Well in her case I would say she is good at that as any animal she will do. Not the name of it but the sound. Only really interested in animals nothing else!

@steppemum thanks so much, that’s really helpful. I’ll pass this all on to her parents.