non talker

[Sassyfrassy]

My dd2 doesn't really talk at all. She is 2years, 6 months and the only thing close to a word is gack (quack). She makes a few sounds, mam, ba, da but not many. We get a lot of pointing, holding hands and taking us to what she wants, putting things in our hands and she is now getting really frustrated.

She never really babbled as a baby and we found out that she had tongue tie which was snipped about a year ago. To add complications we're a bilingual family, I speak Swedish and DH speaks English. I know she can hear and understand. If I ask her to get her shoes, she goes off and gets them and then finds her coat, scarf and hat as well. If you whisper the word icecream she runs to the freezer.

I've persuaded DH that we need to get the ball rolling and have a doctor's appointment next week. I feel really unsure about what might happen and what help we can get, at the same time I worry about her not speaking at all and that she is starting nursery school in september and still seems like such a baby to me.

Does anyone else have experience of this kind of speech delay or know what is likely to happen with the doctor and after?

My dc are older now so I don't know if this is relevant.. Ds had a developmental check up at the age of 2 with the health visitor and she raised some concerns and referred him to the community peadiatrition. If you are going to see the GP it might be worth asking him/her to refer your dd to the community team, input like speech and language therapy could be started asap.
Like I say my ds is nearly 10 now so a long time ago.
Peeps on the special needs board are really helpful.
Feel free to pm me if you want some moral support
tc

Do you have a surestart centre near you??? the staff there are fantastic (much better than any GP Ive ever come across) with things like this. IMO it does sound like maybe a bit of speech therapy might be useful, my son is the same age. However she could just be shy, you may also find when she starts nursery her speech will take off, remember children learn a ridiculous amount of words everyday, long before they can/want to say them.

If you havent got a local surestart, make an appointment with your community nursery nurse or HV as they will be much more useful in assessing her, the GP wont be as knowledgeable and the HV can ask your GP to refer her if its necessary anyway. There is alot of help out there, its gaining access to it that can be the problem.

Hope thats helpful, good luck

Hi, give your surgery a call and ask if there is a speech and language drop in service in your area. We live in Milton Keynes and when my ds had problems with dysfluency we popped along and he was seem by a salt (no appointment necessary) and we went from there with about half a dozen sessions.

I'm sure your dd is frustrated and I can appreciate this as were having this with my 19 month old. Good luck

2.6 is quite old for no words - You really should get a full assessment of her development. Some of the factors, bilingualism and tongue tie could be a partial explanation but you really need to get a better explanation from someone experienced in child development. Will she spontaneously share attention with you ? Can she follow more detailed instructions - 2-3 step ones, 'Go into the kitchen and get the red book from the shelf?'

My 28 month old doesn't say anything either but talks her own jibberish language all the time. She does say "quack quack" and will say "Fi" for "Fi Fi" and a handful of other tv character names but no much else.
She has seen a speech therapist who has confirmed she has speech delay and has been referred for a course of 5 group therapy sessions with other children in a toddler group setting over the next 5 weeks.
I am worried sick TBH. Everyone else seems to think I'm overeacting in the family.
Am also wondering if starting her at nursery a couple of days a week might help.
I read, chat to her all day but it is so fustrating and I end up getting really irritated with her.

Thanks for all the replies.

Willowthecat, she is a very social child and likes to do things together with us or her sister. She often gets a book for us to read or brings over a puzzle or other toys that she wants to play with. She does imaginary play, driving cars around or putting dollies in her pram.
She follows at instructions with more than one step and is good at nodding and shaking her head for yes and no.

Lucilastic, did you need to wait long for your referral? Have you been given any ideas for things to do apart from the therapy sessions?

I understand your worry completely, we do lots of stuff with Katie as well, but she just wont say anything =(

Sassyfrassy, we got referred via the health visitor. I approached her because I was worried and it took about a month to see the speech therapist. We live in SE London.

She suggested things we were already doing really...reading to her, singing to her and leaving the last word of each line off to encourage her to say it, building on things we're talking about, "this is a duck. The duck is yellow" kind of thing.
DD2 will shake her head for no only sometimes and says yes only when she really wants something.
TBH I am finding it really hard coping with her as her main mode of communication is still whingeing and trying to pull me around to get what she wants.
We have been offered an "Early Learning" nursery place for 2 yr olds in order to help improve her speech.

DP is worried she'll be labelled though.
I am worried sick.
Not much advice but I know exactly how you're feeling.

sassy - you can also refer her yourself!

I would def recommend starting the ball rolling asap as all areas vary for how long you will take to be seen! My son has severe speech delay and is 3.4 - he has been under SALT for 14 months

Maxybrown, what kind of things does the SALT do with your son?

My appointment with gp is next week, if for any reason they wont refer I will self refer instead. The reason I waited until now is that my health visitor said to wait until she was two and a half. Also, my DH who is stay at home dad while I work full time, would rather bury his head in the sand and thinks she'll talk on her own any time now. And, besides, he says, a speech therapist wont do anything. Bah!

I'll make sure to attend any appointments myself =)

lol, well, he has been seen reguarly over the year by main SALT who did his initial assessment - talked to me about him etc.

He then got offered an expressive language group, which was a bit rubbish - and not really suited to my DS unfortunately (he has no other delay - the gap between his understanding and actual speech is HUGE) he has been sent for hearing tests, cleft lip and palate place at hospital, tested for type of epilepsy and also a paediatrician!! But now he has one to one SALT once a week for an hor - very very lucky! He is now starting to be able to say things (still noweher near his peers) although he is finding it very difficult. My son is slightly different in that he did have some words but lost them all - he most probably has something called verbal dsypraxia.

Some do of course just talk in their on time - I was always being told this, but I just knew something was not right - and it isn't! He never ever ever shuts up though - but no words there at all! (until very recently) he often has to lick his lips before he tries to speak. the SALT now has a very specific learning schedule geared for him, but like I said, he finds it hard and it is very intense - at about 2yrs 5 months he was assessed as having understanding of 4/5 yrs and speech of about 12 months - so even harder because the gap is so big that he has so much he wants to communicate yet can't

Katie did use to say mamma (mummy in swedish) a lot, especially when coming to pick me up from work, but she just stopped saying it which made me feel quite sad =/

It's good to hear that the speech therapy seems to have an impact though.

is your boy at nursery and are they giving him any extra support?

The nursery school Katie is going to is really good at sorting out statements and suchlike before the children start reception, but I do hope it wont come to that.

no he is not at nursery, has been at home with me! (I am usually a teaching assistant, Dh is a teacher)

She my also be delayed due to having two languages (I don't mean that as a bad thing btw!! very envious actually!) but that is alos very common - wonder if that's why your HV wanted to wait a bit. But please don't wait too long as it can sometimes take an age to get seen! Have nursery said anything?

James was trying to say "all gone" when he was 8 months old, he could say quack and woof and was trying to say jack (his cousin) - he lost all of them. Slowly got back woof and quack, cannot say all gone and certainly can't say jack!! She has done lots of oral exercises with him too but he is very very reluctant to do these. She certainly earns her money with him anyway!

Maxybrown, she's not at nursery yet, she's at home with DH. He is a chatty person so talks to her lots during the day but she could definately do with seeing other children more and he has decided to make more of an effort taking her out to groups and activities. I'm a teacher so the only times I can take her to groups are school holidays when they are all closed.

DOG, the support you have had doesnt sound very good at all =/. With some luck the school might have a really good senco who can sort out more support for him.

ah I see! My DS could do with seeing more children too - but there is very little locally that he would actually benefit from or we can afford. But if he gets a place at the sspeech unit he will be there full time, so plenty of time for that IMO!

The toddler group we attend, DS is the eldest there now though as well - that is the thing with a lot of these groups, they are all younger - near me all the older ones seem to have a place at nursery. He is entitled to the 3 hours free a day now but the school nusery he was meant to start at had full intake in Sept so no early places available for him. Then there is a preschool that I am not keen on at all and both DH and I would rather him be at home for a few extra months than attend there. We did look further afield for him (I don't drive though) but the woman who ran it said to "If he comes here he will HAVE to speak" so obviously he wasn't going there!!

Oh DOG is the SALT at the preschool any good? Can you fight for anymore help?

I'm sure that children in bilingual households are known for delayed speech. They often then start speaking both languages simulataneously (and yet separately if you see what I mean).

I'd get her checked out but please try not to worry especially as she understands so well. I know I'm just one person but I didn't speak at all till 3.6 and then came out with full sentences. I did very well at school and university and was considered "one of the bright ones".

Hope you get your fears allayed soon and she starts talking.

My DH didn't talk until he was three. DD was about 2.5 when she started talking (I remember that when she was 2 and DS was born she didn't/couldn't say 'baby'). DS is now 2y 8m and is not really talking beyond a few words - we have our first SALT appointment next week.

I've seen this book recommended on MN before, and I've read through the free bit on google books and will try to get hold of a copy - I found the ideas in it very helpful and noticed a change quite quickly. Maybe mostly in how I perceive DS and his use of language.

Also I could have got a SALT referral at a children's centre drop-in, through my GP or health visitor, or through DS's pre-school. In the end I asked for it at his 2.5 year check - up till then I kept thinking he was just being like his sister, then I a saw a video of her at the same age and she was putting 2-3 words together and I realised how slow his progress had been.

I know DOG I am so glad my Mum was with me as I might have thought I had misunderstood, but no I def hadn't! I did say to her, "he is not just being awkward, he has severe delay, most probably speech dyspraxia" she was a bit odd though.

Glad your DS likes new SALT, that's good!

my eldest has only just started to speak in proper sentences at 3.6 mo . I pushed for SALT, they were good but just said to give her time, read stories etc. No hearing problems, she understands everything, she just appears to be a reticent wee thing who doesn't want to get words wrong.

The breakthrough for us was nursery, she has come on in leaps and bounds since going 5 mornings. Your early placement for nursery might be a good idea.

I found it very stressful but she did it in her own time. Hopefully your wee one will too. :)

How old was you DC when she started nursery homeagainhomeagain?
Mine is just2 yrs 4 months and has been offered funding for a nursery place or a childminder (10 hrs a wk) to help with her speech.
Thanks.
Glad your little girl is coming on well. :)

Sounds very similar to my son and we only have one language at home, he too lost words.

But in the last 6 months we have gone from him having a total of about 7-10 single words, no sentences at all to literally 100's of words and 4/5 word sentences too. So he was just turned 3 years when his speech really started to improve.

He is now 3 years and 6months old, it's amazing, he's still about 1 year/18 months behind his peers but the difference in the last 6 months is astounding.

I was told that as long as their understanding is there and they are communicating with you somehow, ie pointing etc, then usually they will catch up in the end, especially children with 2 languages at home.

To help with frustration we used makaton and also lots of gesturing/miming

As for speech therapy, well he still hasn't had any, despite being on the waiting list a whole year now, we went to one assesment (which was a complete waste of time) during which she said 'yes he is delayed, we will book him in for some sessions in the next few weeks', have heard nothing since, that was 2 months ago

I have just been trying to help him at home, after looking up various techniques, just spending some one to one time each day doing what a speech therapist would be doing anyway during sessions.

I meant to say, he has been going to pre-school since sept, so for about 4 months now, he has definately improved during that time, even over the last 2 weeks for instance I have been amazed at the progress, he is just coming on in leaps and bounds now, but how much differnece him attending pre-school has made, who knows, maybe he would have improved that much anyway.

Pre-school haven't been helping him specifically with his speech, they keep saying they can't help until they find out what the speech therapist is doing during sessions with him (he has been on NHS speech therapy waiting list a year now and no sessions have so far materalised), then they will concentrate on that obviously absolute rubbish, and we have had words just before christmas the outcome of which is that they will now be helping him on a one-to-one basis each week, why should he be missing out on help just because the NHS speech therapy is prety much non-exsistent nowadays around here.

Also try posting on the special needs (children) board, there are some very helpful speech therapists on there.