Speech regression or am I over analysing?

[SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough]

DD is 22 months. Was a very early talker, and has been speaking in full sentences for a long time (cant remember exactly but before 18 months). Since Christmas I've noticed a real drop in her speech, she seems to be talking unclearly (I've never had an issue understanding her before) also saying things like ballerinary and mousey which she hasn't previously as well as lots of made up words. Before Christmas she was telling me stories, now she seems to get distracted halfway through and ends up talking complete gibberish. Mixing up 'you' and 'i' and sentences not making grammatical sentence when they did previously. She has no problem understanding or following instructions, is learning and using new words. Her hearing seems fine.

Does this sound just like a phase or am I right to be a little concerned?

It does coincide with a growth spurt, molars, potty training, a marked improvement in her second language. Only other thing of note is that recently she has needed me to fall asleep whereas before Christmas she had no trouble falling asleep on her own.

to be honest it all sounds totally normal and developmental. She’s also still finding her way around language. Mine randomly developed a stammer when he was 2/3- he just had too many words in his scrambling to get out at the same time. There’s zero trace of it now at age 4.

There is a good chance it is related to progress in her second language. I would still contact the HV for advice. My DS regressed with language, he is autistic, but he did have other signs and wasn't bilingual.

If she's bilingual and improving in the second language then I wouldn't be concerned.

I don’t think you need to worry. Things like ‘ballerinary’ can be really normal experiments with grammar that lead to further development.

Just popping in to say that 'ballerinary' is a pretty good word for a two year old. I might start using it.

On a serious note, I'm not an expert and I think it's hard to tell. It might be your DD's reaction to getting more proficient at language, or her second language getting embedded (and so the grammar is getting mixed up, especially if she's good at whole sentences). Both of these will be temporary though. I think the worsening clarity and the 'you' 'I' swaps are something to keep an eye on (but she is very young).

I think this is more normal in bilingual kids than single language children as their brains start to separate the rules for each language. You’ll be best looking in bilingual children groups for how to best deal with it.

I think language acquisition isn’t linear, my four year old makes mistakes in English that she wasn’t making a year ago. Or sometimes phrases things in her french way instead of English which she never used to do. So for example will say “these are the shoes of mummy” where are she used to say “these are mummy’s shoes” apparently the languages don’t separate in the brain until around age six. My two year old completely mixes her two languages when speaking to me or her father but doesn’t with family members she knows only speak one or the other.
All of that to say, she sounds like she’s doing amazing and don’t worry about it.

Thanks for the responses which are already reassuring. The 'you' and 'I' 'me' 'your' is driving me crazy at the moment (although today she is pretending to be a character so will only respond if I address her in third person🤦)

Honestly, she dropped the words 'onomatopoeia' and 'deciduous' into conversation last week and casually asked her friend if she would be 'her bosom friend' 😅 That said, the change, grammar and pronunciation, has been quite apparent which is why I have gone into worried 'could it be autistic regression'- mode.

It does coincide with a growth spurt, molars, potty training, a marked improvement in her second language.

She’s got a lot going on. I don’t think you need to jump to autism.

My child was early talker and did regress with language due autism. But they stopped using it to communicate and went in on themselves / started to look through me. Started dragging me to things instead of asking. Stopped all social language eg mum, please, thank you, goodbye etc. The regression went on several months and it was like the autism symptoms were appearing day by day. Look at MChat but if still normal social interest and back and forth interaction I’d be less worried. Very advanced / genius type skills would be a sign of autism - many of us thought our children were geniuses before realising it was more autism focus / special interest / memory trick. DS picked things up visually but not orally so he could collect lots of nouns as he could read very early but he stopped learning language just by hearing it. Is she more interested in things or words or patterns than in people?

Thanks for sharing. It's a real mix. She learnt the names of 50 countries, their corresponding flags and where they are on the map in 2 days. She loves letters and numbers and is able to read level 1 and 2 ladybird books with a little help. She loves people....asks where is X? Always wants to show people things "I'm going to sing the three times table to x because x will like it'. She does say hello and goodbye but I have hammered that on as much as please and thank you.

That said she does seem to be going in on herself a bit. Talks to herself under her breath and will nod as if she is agreeing with whatever she is thinking. She has started putting her hands out like she is pushing the air and I'm not sure why ? Perhaps try ING to move me somewhere? It's hard to pinpoint. I don't know whether she is just figuring stuff out.

She sounds incredibly advanced for not even 2! I wouldn’t jump to anything at this point but hyperlexia can be a symptom of other stuff going on. It is very unusual to be so lexically advanced at that age, I’ve never met a child that age who is anywhere close to reading books or using words like onomatopoeia(!) in normal conversation. In itself it wouldn’t be a red flag but I would keep a close eye on social development and other stuff generally and see how you go. When she’s using these advanced phrases, are they used in context or are they repeated from things she has heard, such as lines from books etc?

She is probably quite advanced in a few areas but she is my first so I have nothing to go by. She is using longer words correctly and in context. Individual words are fine, sentences are harder to make out, when reading pronunciation is spot on.

From your later posts OP it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out she was autistic - she's not yet 2 and using words like onomatopoeia and reciting the 3 x table? Reading before she's 2? Hyperlexia is strongly associated with ASD - about 84% of kids with hyperlexia are on the autistic spectrum according to Google.

DS has ASD and talked to himself like that, still does it occasionally as an adult. he says it feels more 'real' than just thinking it in his head- I think he means more concrete. The hand pushing could possibly be a form of stimming. She sounds amazing OP!

I mean what you describe is off the charts for a child not even 2.

Honestly, I feel a bit on my own. It's reached a point where other people are noticing and commenting, even when she is being shy (at home she is that ten times over!). At the moment she seems to be racing ahead but not without her own challenges. Yesterday she had her first full blown tantrum lasting 60 mins until she fell asleep without lunch (which is unheard of as she is a real foodie!).

And here I am getting excited because my nearly four year old boy is just starting to say more single words. 🫣

I wouldn't worry about it.

My son is also bilingual, and up until about 3 and a half to 4 years old, he would go through patches of being better or worse in one of his languages. This generally depended on the level of exposure he was getting to each. You say that her other language has improved at the same time as their English has declined... I would imagine that isn't a coincidence, and I'm sure you can find something that it traces from.

Has she spent time with a family member of the second language more? Started watching a show or playing with a friend more in that language? Started exploring a new hobby in that language, etc.

At 2.5 my son went with us to the U.K. for 6 weeks in the summer, and by the time he came back to the country we live in, his other language had declined dramatically, just purely down to a shift in daily usage.

Luckily the fluctuations in usage have less of an impact as they get older, and now at 5, when my son's balance of spoken language use shifts, it doesn't seem to dramatically impact his overall ability in that language, but it was quite a shock when he was younger to see how quickly one of the languages could deteriorate if we used it less, even if just for a few weeks.

I don’t think you are over reacting as those are not typical things to be interested in at that age and the memory skill is exceptional - DS is exactly the same he memorised all that sort of information and finds it much more interesting than interacting with people. It’s good she does interact but is it one sided and only with adults who will predictably do as she asks?
The truth is getting autism formally recognised is a very long wait now and the support would be poor and nothing you couldn’t read up on yourself. The best thing if you want a professional opinion would be to get someone who specialises in autism in early years and applied behaviour analysis to do observation. They are pretty much the only professionals who would work with a child that age - despite all the science saying early help (and underlying cognitive ability) make the biggest difference to outcomes. Or find a speech therapist that specialises in autism.
if she was in nursery with other children would she fit in? Are other children just going to walk off when she wants to sing times tables.
The tantrum may be because things aren’t predictable or she’s overwhelmed. The thing about a times table is the order is always the same. It’s very reassuring in a world that may seem confusing or chaotic. There is no downsize to using resources like visual timetables, timers etc resources that would help an autistic child won’t harm a child that turns out not to be autistic.

@lxn889121 really interesting, thanks. It's just me with her and I use both languages interchangeably. There was a time when they were on par but then English naturally took over. I have been weaving more of the other language where I can. She is choosing to sing more in the other language as of recent and using some every day expressions without prompting. I was expecting her to focus a bit more on the other language but was not prepared to see her decline in English

Thanks for this. Again, it's still quite mixed. She gravitates towards adults but I think that is because they talk to her. She does love her little friends, she knows all their names and wants to play. outdoor is better because they chase each other about, play with sticks etc. because you're right, her 'games' are a bit niche. She's chill with changes to routine but also thrives off structure. She follows instructions most of the time, but has her moments. Ie. Just doing her own thing.

I‘m not an expert, but I do have a bilingual child, now 9. A boy.

He seemed to have fits and bursts in each language. There was a significant stage around 3 where he stopped saying structures properly in English and trying new variations- almost as if previously he had been using a template parrot fashion and now he was trying to solidify the rules in his brain, and testing what did and didn’t work.I vaguely remember reading about this kind of shift at the time.

Ever since, we‘ve had short phases of him mixing his language structures depending on which language exposure had been strongest. German uses some tenses differently to English and I‘ve noticed his German sometimes has English word order. It’s essentially what’s known as Language 1 interference, just unlike my adult learners he has two language 1s…

Actually, he’s doing it a lot less now.

He also had a long and tiring phase where he’d purposely say the opposite/ mix parts of speech around. It drove me mad and lasted nearly 4 years, but I think it was him just having fun with language and rules that he recognised but couldn’t express.

He’s completely bilingual with an astounding vocabulary and range of expression in both languages.

True Bilingualism isn’t as easy as many assume. Many kids don’t manage it.

Yours sounds very bright and linguistically able. Keep an eye on her, but it may well just be linguistic gymnastics.

She sounds like she is on the autistic spectrum- she sounds like she would fit old ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ diagnosis (no longer used) . Very advanced language , hyperlexia. She sounds so sweet though! Does she pretend in her play at all?

She used these words correctly in a sentence or just repeated them?