2 yo boy not talking, doesn't know yes (nod) or no ( shakes head)

[getstuffed]

Another one of those hysterical posts I'm afraid. Ds doesn't speak, he has said ta a few times, he babbles, won't nod or shake his head for yes and no, not sure he knows what it means. He tries to quack like a duck occasionally, if he sees a duck and his general comprehension is there, he knows bath time, put your shoes on etc. can feed himself and walked at ten months. He smiles and laughs when you'd expect, can wave bye bye, watches tv and plays with his toys. I am becoming increasingly concerned, anyone had anything similar and can advise on the next step? Thank you.

yes i would see your health visitor and ask to be referred to audiology for a hearing test, and to a speech and language therapist.

does he point? or communicate what he wants in other ways?

If you're at all worried then speak to the HV. My dc2 was a late speaker. I remember us going on holiday when he was 2yrs 4m and he couldnt say anything that sounded anything like his sisters name or the word sheep (not sure why these examples stick in my head).I came back from holiday & phoned the HV who referred him in for speech therapy. We had to wait about 8 weeks for an appt and by that time his speech had come on leaps and bounds so we cancelled the appt.

I think its worth getting a professional opinion just to put your mind at rest.

If he's hungry he'll drag his high chair out and rattle it? But then he's hungry most of the time. If he wants you to put a block on a tower he'll put it in your hand and move your hand for you if you don't cooperate, does that count? Thanks.

He seems like he understands quite well, but is using gestures for the things he wants.
My dd was like this. She is now 2y9m, and her speech has improved so much I now understand her.
Don't give in to the gestures, and try get him to say what he wants. I did this with dd, and it's finally paid off.

Thank you, I will phone the hv to ask what's next, presume 8 weeks is about std for an appt. The fact that he won't nod or indicate yes really bothers me for some reason. I'd love to know more about not giving into guestures! I always feel like I never have the time to stand and "argue" with him, great example before, there he is sat on a see-saw with me saying "do you want a turn" for what felt like ten minutes, nothing back so of course I push the see-saw (!!!!!!!!)

We are in a similar situation here although DS 2.3 will say yes , no , mama and dada and a few other sounds such as oh - ow and sh.

We asked for an early developmental check at 2 years and were referred for hearing test which DS passed last week. next step is S and L assessment which I am hoping will not take long to come through.

I totally understand your frustration waiting for sounds. I try to get DS to say 'M M M' for milk or other initial letters for other words will no success. It is really hard when you know what he wants, not to give in.

My dd2 is also 2 and sounds very similar but she does shake her head for no or claps hands for yes. It must be very hard for both of you if he doesn't gesture for yes and no. All our "conversations" are based on questions: "Dd do you want a drink?" "Dd do you want a yoghurt?" etc etc. I have a referral for a SALT assesment but round our way the waiting list is 26 weeks. I've enquired about private but it is VERY expensive so trying to sit tight and hope she improves. She did pick up dh's slipper this afternoon and said "daddy" really clearly but she hasn't said it again since then. Does your ds get frustrated with not being able to talk? I'm really surprised that dd doesn't seem to get that frustrated but I think if I tried to not give in to gestures the tantrums would increase. I would love some tips on how to not give in to gestures.

He actually doesn't seem that frustrated, he so mobile he can get anywhere and get everything, there isn't a lock this child can't pick (bodes well). If a child wants a toy he's got he'll usually hand it over and go and get something else, if I didn't push him on the see-saw he'd of happily got off and gone on his slide. We've not started with the tantrums yet! Pretty much like your 'daddy' example he has said single words and every one has clapped and cheered but he never ever repeats them. It's beyond frustrating for us but maybe not him.

it's good that he is finding other ways of communicating, because that shows that he wants to communicate.

ask lots of questions. if he doesn't reply then don't do it... try and get him to indicate in some way what he wants even if it isn't verbal. you want him to see that there is a reason to communicate and that it benefits him to do so.

so if you're offering him a snack then give him 2 choices. show them to him and ask which he would like. he can then point or whatever at the one he would like.

ds2 didn't speak until just before his third birthday. He'd been under SALT since 12 months and had an op at 2.2 to release his tongue tie. he has verbal dyspraxia as well. He's been speaking for about 6 months but is still missing a lot of sounds.

At 2 he could say mama..... that was all. He didn't even babble, all he said was 'Ah ah ah ah' and 'mama'. Occasionally he'd forget mama for months on end and it was the same when he learned baba and dada, he'd 'lose' them for months after using them for a week

SALT was invaluable for us, they got us some sign language training and that seemed to help immensely, once he realised he could communicate he suddenly wanted to communicate and started trying new sounds.

We've a long way to go yet, and he has huge confidence issues due to the speech delay but he's getting there.

Rushed off to get him either a blueberry or a grape, greedy guts wanted both but picked the blueberry both times, his fav, thanks for that tip, it's a good one.
I don't know what verbal dyspraxia is? Sounds like your little one is doing very well over coming a lot of obstacles though.

My DD was the same, didn't speak at all until about 2.5yrs. Then by 3yrs was speaking far past her peers. But she had a hearing problem and that affected her speaking development. I would say now though, that this has not caused any developmental problems, she has just passed all KS2 SATS at level 6 so she is quite bright. Get his hearing checked. But don't be too worried (hard I know) but we realise that we did not need to worry at the time, we assume now she just did not have anything to say!

thisisyesterday's tips are ideal, mine didnt have more than no,daddy,mi (milk) and mo (mouse) at 2 but is now 2.8 and doesn't stop talking - it did take some stubborness on our part though to get him answering questions, I tihnk I was doing everything for him so he didnt need to ask! We do alot of "what does DS want?" to get him to tell us something ("yoghurrrrt!") at the moment its "Where do you want to go today? park or garden?" and he will shout "I go a park? I go now? NOW? I go a shoes? wheres a coat? yes please!" but it took a while to get there, I had to be hardhearted and hold up a biscuit and say "DS want biccie? say yes please mummy" and I didnt give it to him unless he said something. it was heartbreaking for a couple of days then suddenly he got it and shouted "pleaaaaase" which was amazing to us. now its "sit down, yes please mummy" and so on, but it definately started with making him tell us even though we could plainly see from attitude and gestures what he wanted. Difficult! but you need to do it for his progress as well as speech. best wishes :)

I am far too soft with him, no idea why as I was v strict with dd but he gets away with murder. Time to toughen up and dispense with giving in to the gestures! I also noticed that unless I basically scream loudly he doesnt actually respond from a distance. I maybe reading something after the responses on here but I am glad I've stared things moving. Thanks to all for your help and good luck to everyone in the same boat x

Haven't read all these posts - but i'd double check his hearing DD was a late talker, barly any words untill at least 3 - and it turns out she was hearing impaired (she's not completely deaf) but does have to wear hearing aids.

How are his play skills? Have you seen imaginative play/symbolic play?
Def get referral to SALT.

Agree, talk to your HV and/or GP.

Would get a hearing test to rule out any hearing issues.

Other than speech/language, do you have any concerns bout your DS? How is his understanding in general. Can he follow simple instructions? Do you think he understands what you tell him? What is his play like?

My DD had many words at 2 but was not able to answer a simple yes/no question such as do you want an apple? She Just did not 'get it'. And it bothered me a lot too. She is now 4 and has been diagnosed with autism and a s&l delay/disorder (btw, I am not suggesting this is the case with your DS). But DD had lots of other issues as well.

You seem to be very concerned about your DS. My advice is to follow your instinct and do not let HV to fob you off.

May I ask - when you enquire about imaginative play/symbolic play (not sure what the latter means, tbh) or just play at 2 years, what should be expected? My 19 month doesn't do a lot of imaginative play, although I have no concerns - he has words, points, shakes his head (though can't quite nod! but makes a yes gesture). I'm not even sure what I should see play wise? Could someone shed light?

My older child had speech delay caused by poor hearing. So I would strongly advise you to get his hearing tested ASAP. We had to go through three hearing tests over the space of nine months or so before it was deemed appropriate to insert grommets. After the operation things improved dramatically but we did wait almost a year to get to that stage. Good luck.

He plays but honestly not seen any signs of imagination as such, he likes his lego and loves taking out/putting back in, he loves books too and finding out what's behind the door or flap etc. He goes to a child minder three days a week and she has never seen anything to be concerned about with his behaviour, she doesn't eve think the speech is an issue. The yes no thing really does worry me though.

You can't do this piecemeal - you need a structure. I'd recommend Hanen's "It Takes Two to Talk", available from Winslow Publications from £32. It is not scary (and you can't say that for every book).

I'm not convinced about his understanding. A clever child will use their knowledge of the daily routine and appear to understand more than they really do.

I'm also not convinced about "not giving in to gestures". That would be fine once everyone is sure that the gestures are in place, but you haven't mentioned him being about to point or looking into your eyes to see why you are failing to move the block or failing to come to the high chair. It could be that he needs to consolidate these areas. I don't know. But the SALT sites I've seen tell you to encourage all and any communication.

I wasted months when DS2 was 2 teaching my DS2 vocabulary about naming things - he duly repeated the words when he saw the object - in reality , I needed to be working about six steps further back than that. If I could change one thing, it would have been to buy "It Takes Two to Talk" at 2.0 not 2.9.

Your see-saw example .... It Takes Two has almost that exact example, only with a swing not a see-saw....

I gave my copy away long ago or I could talk you through it now.

The other thing that worked for us (sorry if its already been repeated) was to cut out all extra words when asking questions or repeating back to him.
That way it is easier for the child to hear & begin to mimic.
You may need to break longer questions down in to shorter simpler sentences.

So "Johnny would you like to play with the trains or the cars today"

Would just be " Johnny: trains or cars"

I agree with Lingle.. our SALT always encouraged gestures as a precursor to spoken communication, it is part of communication that we all use.

So i would allow him to point to the train or the car & repeat back to him "train or car" whichever his choice may be.
Until he is able to communicate verbally removing gesture may cause frustration for both of you.
Gesture & sign only ever aids spoken language, it never hinders it.

As the others have said though, I am in no way an expert just sharing knowledge built up over the years with my son

I agree about the gestures thing too, I wouldn't ignore guestures any communication is better than nothing!
My ds age 2.7 has delayed speech and we have been advised to doing signing with him (something similar to makaton), which seems to be going quite well for him so far and they say that signing does not slow down speech it should help it a long, so would have thought guesturing will be similar to that? if you ignore his guestures he will get more frustrated?

But definitely go to hv, get hearing test booked, and get on slt waiting list (someone mentioned 6 weeks i would say that is much quicker than average, we have been on the list more like 6 months+ and group therapy only just coming up now, although apparently he has been top of the list for ages), if he no longer needs help by the time the apt comes up, then its easy enough to just cancel it

When I referred to symbolic play, I meant putting dolly into bed, pretend drinking/eating from cups, making up basic stories with toy animals, etc etc. if he's playing with a car does he run it along the ground and go vroom vroom??

Btw, I second the reccomendations for the Hanen books, I found them very helpful. I would also continue to respond to gestures, communication should be encouraged in all forms. Slow down/simplify your own speech, get down to your sons level so he can see your face.

You should use language one step ahead of where your son is, so if he has no words currently, you use one/two word sentences.