Is this speech delay in a 24 months ?

[Firstimemum24]

My 24 DD has lots of words , uses 2 / 3 word sentences to express her needs , can answer simple where’s , what’s question by either pointing or using the correct word , who’s simple question but can’t make a choice between two options . If I ask her open ended questions like : What do you want or which one ? She answers yes . She can’t understand questions like “ what did you do today etc
she can understand instructions like : get dolly and bring it to mummy , put food on the plate , take your socks off etc . She uses a bit of jargon as well .
she also has some learned phrases . If something scares her she says “ don’t worry, it is all good “ that she learned from us or if she throws a toy she looks at me and says “ sorry “ . I know scripting and echolalia are a red flag that needs looking into . I have expressed my concerned to the HV who put in a referral to the speech therapist and paediatrician that was denied on the basis that there is nothing atypical in her language development.
am I worrying too much ?

Gently, yes, I think you’re worrying prematurely. I would reassess in about 6 months time - by then she should definitely be able to say simple sentences other than learned phrases. Time will tell

On the basis that there is nothing atypical in her language development, yes, I think you are worrying too much

Sounds pretty normal to me.

Kindly yes you're worrying too much. For perspective I've got a 28 month old with zero words. That's delayed. She sounds fine and is still so little she's got tome

At 24mths this is normal. They copy words as they are learning to pronounce them, it’s different to echolia which is noticeable in older children who should be chatting independently ie 3 and 4 year olds.

It sounds as if your child is currently progressing well. Keep chatting to her and introducing new words and experiences. Delays can be caused by lack of back and forth interaction with adults and too much time on tablets too young so the words they hear aren’t socially related. Plenty of nursery rhymes, action songs and stories as these embed patterns of language.

Thanks ☺️ interesting point . She doesn’t use tablets but she doesn’t go to nursery , never been . I wonder if it’s related !

I wouldn't worry. She will learn in coming months if you just keep interacting with her. My DD is now 2y9m and she has developed so much during last 6 months. I talk a lot with her/to her and I can see its impact on her sentence structure and vocabulary.

Don't worry not going to nursery is not an issue. Just make sure you spend lots of time chatting to her and giving her space to answer.
If you're attentive with her you'll be likely better placed than nursery to improve her speech as she will get one on one attention.
I used to blab away to mine about all sorts of rubbish.

Memories of dds are hazy now, but I did notice that Gdcs’ speech suddenly ‘exploded’ quite soon after 2.

MiL once told me that eldest BiL barely uttered until he was 3. She’d been getting very worried, but once he started, it came out in whole sentences. He’d just been taking it all in and biding his time. He went on later to win a scholarship to Cambridge.

Your dd sounds fine to me.

My DD is 2 at the end of the month and she talks a whole lot less than your DD but a whole lot more than her big brother did at the same age. I wouldn't worry at all right now but agree with PP about revisiting in 6 months to see how much she's progressed

She sounds exactly like my 23 month old 🙂 and I'm not worried at all and neither are nursery. In fact nursery tell me how good her speech is. She can answer a simple 'wheres the car?' type question but she couldn't tell me what she did at nursery.
She will say pre learned phrases such as 'there it is!' but can also put 3 words together of her choice. For example 'mama baby sleeping'.
I don't think you should be worried at all.

At two my DD had 5 words.
She wasn't actually considered speech delayed until 4yo, as there was just enough language development for them to just want to keep watching... (we moved when she was 4, new area was a lot more proactive!)

Echolalia and scripting are part of normal language acquisition not “red flags”. You might just as well say crawling is a red flag.

thank you ☺️ I guess I am a bit concerned about her inability to choose between two options . Like if I ask do you want bunny or dolly ? She first gravitates toward bunny but then grabs dolly as well 😏

Definitely worrying too much . At 2 our eldest could say about 10-15 words when he did decide to talk ( by 3) he spoke in complete sentences - it was as if he wasn’t going to say anything until he could say it all .

If she’s not talking at all at 24 months, that’s a concern. What you describe is completely normal.

Check points at 24 months are:
Around 50 single words can inc. animal sounds
Putting 2-3 words together eg more milk, daddy gone
Following simple instructions like sit down, get your shoes, where's your nose.

She's exactly on track and you've been told so by professionals, so don't worry.

All that means is she wants both.

It's very hard to assess at this age - and even a speech development expert would need to spend several sessions with your dd to even begin to know if there was an issue or not . The closest second to this option is to try to observe the speech of her peers - can they do and say the things you are concerned about ? I know many people say 'don't compare' and 'they all develop differently and it's all fine' but these people have no real experience of parenting a child with developmental challenges and they just think they are being helpful and re assuring. Also people tend to be very cautious about expressing agreement that there could be a problem with a child's cognitive and social development in a way that they would not be if the issue was physical - if your dd had a raging temperature, they would not say 'oh in the old days no one bothered about fever, all my kids had extremely high fevers and i did absolutely nothing, and they are all fine now', they would advise medical attention. Unfortunately, it's extremely hard to get any professional input from an NHS speech therapist, even if your dd was completely non verbal, they would put you off til 'later'. If you have a niggling concern, it might be worth asking around about a private assessment. Or look online for Hanen resources - 'It takes two to talk' to get advice on games and strategies to enhance language development in young children.

It's not so much the amount of words but the receptive language which is more important at that point.

OP, her understanding sounds slightly delayed. Can you self refer to SALT for an assessment? I had a child with a number of words at that age who was able to follow simple instructions but not able to understand language beyond that. We also had the scripting/echolalia. HVs are unfortunately notoriously poorly trained to understand such a differentiated language development. Our HV blocked referrals for over a year. In the end, I got referred via GP.
You will probably get a lot of 'dont worry, the develo all differently' responses here but most posters have no real life experience of brining up a child with a language delay/disorder...I would listen to my gut here.

Also, had the heating been checked? Can she hear well. This is usually a first step.

Child has not been assessed by SALT and a HV will have no clue about disordered language development though...

thanks ☺️
In what way does it sound delayed ?

I have also been to the GP and was given the same outcome .
They said her understanding is on track for her age

Maybe I haven’t been too clear on what she can do and i have found this article regarding receptive language in 24 months and she can do all of the things listed : Understands “Come here” and “Sit down”
• Identifies several body parts
• Follows one-step commands during play
• Understands some early prepositions she understands on )
• Finds familiar objects not in sight
• Chooses familiar objects from a group on request
• Understands familiar action words
• Attends to and identifies familiar pictures

Rather than ask 'What do you want, or which one ? ' expand that and ask
'Would you like a plain biscuit or would you prefer a chocolate biscuit ?'
Then she can copy what you said and pick the option she prefers 'chocolate'

Likewise when asking 'what did you do at nursery today?' add some options of what she might have been doing 'did you play outside, or did you do painting or did you do some dressing up?, and then pause for her reply, and she'll likely pick out something from what you've said to use in her reply.

Won't take long and she'll soon pick up on what you've asked with her own replies.
Then once at school you'll start getting the reply 'Nothing' 😂