22 months not saying most consonants

[bitzermaloney]

DS2 will be 2 in 2 months, and the only consonant sounds he can make are 'n', 'm', 'd', 'j' and 'b' - (so he can say 'no', 'mummy', 'daddy' 'baw' (for ball), 'doh' (for dog), and 'joo' (for juice). And those are pretty much the only words he can say - he's never attempted his name, which starts with 'c', or seemed able to sound out any of the other consonants. I am just wondering if I should see the HV about this?

I have a 22 month DS too and I think you've nothing to be worrying about. time for

Mine can't do c/k sounds at all - e.g. cat is 'dat' - and sings the bob the builder theme tune mainly with sort of vowel syllables, "aa ou iii ih?" for "Can we fix it?"

your DS sounds like he is getting across his main messages - ball, dog and juice is pretty much all our little boys need I think! - so if he's not frustrated, don't worry.

My friend at work has two sons (in their 20s now!) and her HV told her she was anticipating all her boys' needs, so they wouldn't even need to learn to speak much. We've tried giving our son about three goes at requesting something before giving it to him anyway - e.g. for "juice please mummy" I'll get "joo peees" and then "peees mummy" and "jooossssss!!!!!" all with a big grin so he seems to be enjoying practising.

Thanks for the reply. I may have fallen in to the trap of comparing with older siblings... ds1 was doing quite complex sentences by this time!

My two DCs were very similar, it seems, to your DCs. DC1 spoke early and fluently, DC2 spoke early but with missing sounds. My HV arranged an assessment by a speech therapist (who, it turned out, had lots of tricks up her sleeve) who said that it's quite a complicated dance between hearing, understanding, and the development of the mouth and tongue to produce certain sounds. One of the most notable words my DC2 had difficulty with was "feather", which came out as "eh-er". He also had difficulty with "s" sounds. She said that sometimes the higher frequency sounds don't get heard very well if there's a temporary hearing problem at the time of learning and processing more complex words.

She had a conversation with him, which revealed some of the problem sounds, then showed him some pictures; whereupon he not only recognised a feather, but pronounced it correctly! She said it was probably just a habit he'd got into and the "incorrect" pronunciation would eventually be overriden by the correct one once all the bits and pieces got coordinated as he developed, which is what eventually happened.

Thinking about it, "please" is quite a difficult word. The "p" sound is quite difficult to get right as it requires a very controlled movement of the lips and breath, and the "l" sound requires getting the tip of the tongue in the right place against the top teeth - and then putting them together. And also, the sound "c/k" is quite difficult. (Thank goodness I'm on my own while I'm trying to figure out what the heck is going on in my mouth when pronouncing those sounds. )

It might be worth asking your HV to do an assessment of both his speech and his hearing. He's probably within normal limits, but it's probably a good idea to flag this up now with the HV in case further assessment is needed. That would provide a snapshot of now, which could be useful if speech therapy assessment was subsequently recommended.

Thanks huggly. You're right, it can't do any harm to see the HV - haven't been for an awfully long time anyway!

Oh dear, DS is the same age and probably makes fewer sounds than that - I wasn't worried but maybe I should be? Almost every word he says has the consonants substituted for a 'd'.

I wasn't worried because of the older sibling thing and because I figure they all get it in their own time.

I am totally guilty of anticipating his needs, thinking about it. Right, tomorrow he is getting 3 tries at everything (good tip Lexi)

Ds is 22 months, babbles a lot but hasn't said too many words. In the last week has learnt how to say shoes, ball and milk so has doubled his vocab!

I wouldn't worry, they all learn things in their own time