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 ?

So if you can see that she can do all of those things and more why on earth would you think she's delayed? I don't understand. As I said before I've got a 28 month old who has no words at all. Your little one sounds really advanced to me. I'd stop googling if I was you because you're looking for problems where there are none

I didn’t think her receptive language was behind until that other mom mentioned it
it was more her inability to answer open ended questions .

I would have thought that they can answer simple questions at 24 months as well (not just following very basic instructions). Mine was able to do these things at just turning 3 (following basic instructions, pointing to body parts etc) and we were told at an assessment at 36 months that DC has a delay of about 1.5 years.

Agree with PP. Model language, don't ask open question and offer choices. That often helps a lot too.

can she respond to questions like: 'banana or apple?', can she correctly respond to with yes/no to question like 'more milk?'

Loving closed choices.

If the finds the responsibility of making choices too hard you could turn it around and say "I was wondering whether to give you a chocolate biscuit or a plain biscuit?". Then she's not responsible for the choice. This is probably more appropriate for slightly older children though.

My boss also does this. I can offer 2 different approaches and their response is 'yes'. It's annoying but generally during to lack of listening and attention.

This sounds like the system working to me. It's good that the more generalist professional erred on the side of caution and referred to someone more expert. The expert is not worried, great.

She sound leaps and bounds ahead of my child who was referred for speech delay at age 2, and marked as behind but not enough for any intervention. Maybe she just doesn't understand why you're expecting her to randomly choose between bunny and dolly. Narrate what she is doing rather than quizzing her, vocalise your thought process as you choose between your trainers and your wellies. By all means keep an eye on her social understanding but I wouldn't worry or pursue SaLT on the basis of what you've written here.

I wouldn't have thought many 24 month olds would be able to answer 'what did you do today?' - it requires more of a concept of time?

I think you are 100% overthinking it. It's never a good idea to compare too much to other children as they all develop different skills at different paces - as long as she's progressing it is fine.

She doesn’t have to go to nursery at 2. But does she gets lots of time with other children her age to play with, like toddler groups and play dates?

Few 24 month olds would be able to answer a question like 'what did you do today?'
I say that as a childminder/nursery nurse of 20+ years who has worked with 100s of 2 year olds.

She's 2. Sounds entirely normal.

Understanding what/where/who questions is more of a 36 month expectation and actually retelling past events nearer 4th birthday.

Yes she can if you can ask her . Banana or apple ? She usually picks one but then she goes and grabs the apple as well .
she answers correctly if you ask her more food / milk ?

What is her spontaneous/self generated language like ? Is she regularly engaging with you to get your attention and to tell you things (even if at very simple level) ? Will she tell you about what she is seeing and doing as well as just requesting for toys/food etc ? Again could be at very simple level not full sentences

Sounds similar to my dc when they were 2.
They had their hearing tested as were referred there as part of SALT pathway. Now wearing a hearing aid and their speech really improved.

Ummm I don't think this is completely true. Repeating words is normal- it's all about whether they understand what they are saying and are using words and phrases in context. Google gestalt language acquisition.

I thought a GLP started acquiring language though chunk of phrases and not by single words ? ☺️

Yes which is sometimes described as echolalia. Like the PP's brother ( and Einstein) who didn't speak till 3 then full sentences. Your DD sounds fine, as long as she is using her language in context and there is spontaneous language not just learnt or repeated words and phrases it is probably fine. I was just questioning the assertion that echolalia and use of learnt phrases are stages in typical language development.

Yes I think so .. for example is she needs help she comes towards me and uses the word “help me “ . She tells me what she sees in books or outside and she request food by asking for it like today I gave her lunch with a sandwich and pork and egg meatballs . She looked at me said “ no” and asked for “ carrot

I’m not sure what you think I’ll learn from googling the term you suggested. As I said in my previous post these are common stages in the acquisition of language and not Red flags for anything (unless they persist rather than are transitory). The equivalence to crawling is good. In normal development most children crawl then cruise then walk. For some time they crawl if in a hurry or uncertain but they leave it behind as being upright proves its advantage (being able to see further, carry with both hands etc etc) but most children outgrow it and if it persists there may be a difference worth investigating. Some of course don’t crawl and instead bum shuffle then progress and fewer still never crawl or walk.
@Firstimemum24 s child as described in her first post seems unremarkable (in a nothing to worry about way).

I think we are agreeing most children repeat words and some phrases as part of normal development. I would not describe that as echolalia ( which I understand as repetition without meaning- like a verbal stim), but I can see some definitions do. Reciting great chunks of language rather than single sentences is not typical, neither is multiple repetitions of a single word.

I think my autistic and slightly speech delayed child would have done none of those things. He referred to himself as I for quite a long time too ("help I").

I would have to disagree.

Ok I don't think this ongoing debate is useful to OP. Your little girl sounds absolutely lovely, try not to worry I am sure you are doing all the right things ( reading, singing playgroups) enjoy her they grow up so fast.

Does your little one still use a bit of jargon when talking fast ?

Oh yes and there are certainly things only we know what she is saying 🙂

Hi OP, I work in a child development service and what you are describing seems to me to be exactly what we would expect a 24 month old to do. Has somebody qualified told you that they should be able to respond coherently to choices at this point? We allow an huge range of timeframes for these things to develop, a few small things in isolation are never a worry and completely normal. Even if they did have the language ability, most 2 yo would want both choices and just grab at both anyway and choices would change.

It’s normal to copy sentences that are heard often when learning by to speak. What you’ve described doesn’t match our description of echolalia where I am based but maybe you didn’t use all the examples… for echolalia we would be looking for quite long sentences of scripted speech with the exact same intonation, usually extracts from books or television shows, and generally we would be thinking it looks like echolalia when it surpasses the ability of the child’s language development and doesn’t match up to what they are able to do outside of the echolalia.

if it’s been reviewed and not accepted, that is because there are no problems that need exploring right now