Speech - 2 year old

[happygilmore]

I had a 2 year check for my DD this week, basically a strange questionnaire and a chat with the HV. Apparently DD was just in the range to be referred for SALT, although we decided to leave it for the time being and check her in 6 weeks. I'm a bit worried now I should have pushed for a referral as I know how long they can take. The reason I didn't is I don't personally think she needs extra help, but I'm worrying now that I'm wrong. Please can you have a read of this and see if she sounds OK for her age?

• She is talking mainly single words, although has started putting 2 words together recently. (I think she may have been doing it a while ago, but her pronounciation was too difficult to understand).

• She has started saying mine and I, but doesn't really say you or me yet

• I've panicked today and counted the number of words she says, and it was over 400. She understands loads more and can follow instructions. Most words are nouns but she's just started saying things like on, off, over, etc

• She can point but isn't very good at following a point

• She often misses the start or ends of words e.g. scarecrow is crow. She can't say some letters very well - L and F in particular. Some words pronounced quite differently but we're familiar with them so know what she means.

• Her ears have been tested and are fine.

Thanks!

Yes with time, they learn to self-correct, you would need a SLT to check their speech sounds against a checklist for age to get a properly informed opinion, but basically there are very few sounds the SLT would expect to be said consistently correctly at under 2.

My 20 Ds only has two words. He's been seen initially by the SLT who wasn't hugely worried as he's being raised in a bilingual household (although they have referred him for a hearing test).

I'm worried though. If we were on our way to 400 words I wouldn't be!

Sorry, 20 month old.

God I hope this doesn't happen to us. Our LO is 22 MO and doesn?t really say any real words - Teddy (sort of), Noooo (No), Mum-mum, and animal noises such as mooing, baa-ing clip-clopping, hooting owl, cockerel and a generic bird-call noise etc but no real words except teddy. I thought this was normal. She says probably 50 "words" that mean something to us as we know what they mean, but noone else would know, as they are only an approximation of the actual word she thinks she?s saying. We understand most of what she says and she understands just about everything we say though, and she can follow instructions to the letter and magically always hear things we don?t want her to! Always for instance overhears the words biscuit or ice cream when whispered from the other room! Recognises several written letter shapes saying "Duh" for D, "Guh" for G etc. But cant say any proper words really except teddy and even that sounds more like "tedd-oy" and other people do not know that is what she is saying. She appear to be able to sing quite well and likes singing "Baa baa black sheep, but cant sing any of the words except Baa so it's Baa baa all the way through but the tune is definitely there. I hope this is all fine. I had thought it was, but I'm now worrying that it isn't afterall and that LO ought to be more coherent and should saying several linked words etc. but I cant see that happening for months to be honest.

Gourd, if she knows what she means, and you know what she means, then it's a word. I'm always baffled when people say their toddler doesn't really have any words and then rattles off a list. Animal noises count.

She didn't say anywhere near this many words at that age. At 20 months I think she probably said something like 15, at 22 months, probably 50 at a guess. It is only in the last couple of months that her speech has improved a lot - she now is at the stage where she repeats everything you say, hence so many nouns.

Gourd your DD sounds so like my DS2! Almost exactly the same mix of animal noises, total approximations (boomboomber for helicopter!), singing in tune but without the words, couple of letter sounds etc. In the last week he's just started a few more vaguely recognisable words, but most people still wouldn't have a clue what he was saying. He's 22.5 months. I'm not worried.

Well this just shows how advice and checking varies by area as my DS had his 2 year check about a month ago (he is now 2.1). We didn't have questionaries, it was all through a nice what with the HV. She asked if DS spoke as she hadn't heard him at the appointment, she said at 2 they would be looking for them to be saying about 50 words and starting to put 2 word together- which your DD is well above from what you've said. HV said she preferred it when they did the checks abit older at about 2.5 because she said they really come on alot with speech from 2 to 2.5.

Your DD sounds about the same as my DS and like most other kids of that age that i know.

Yes, it does show the difference between areas - we don't get a two year check .