20 month old's vocabulary increasing slowly but does not say/complete the full word - Is this normal?

[fimbles]

Hi, my dd of nearly 20 months starting saying the odd word around 18 months. Now she is picking up words quickly, especially from books but won't say the word properly. Example is the following:-

Ball - baw

Bird - Bir

Book - Boo

Bag - Baa

Star - tar

Etc, etc, Hey I've just realised by writing them down, the majority of the words begin with "B". Can anyone please advise me whether this is ok. Her hearing is very good as she always hears dh in the kitchen opening his choc bar!! Thanks in advance.

JimJams , i thought you had a private SALT. Maybe it was someone else.
I can afford it for the moment, but i would nt want for it to go on for months. Thats why i think if he is not up to speed by the time he is 3 , i will let HV refer as well.
I definetly think has made a difference though. (ven though he is not very cooperative when we are there.)
Especially with the exercises, and having the confidence to put a little bit of pressure on him, exactly the opposite of the baby talk programe.

What exactly are the sympotms of verbal dyspraxia? I looked it up on the internet. The little i read
got me worried, which is why i went to a private SALT , rather than wait. She hasnt said anything about it though.

I have a private SALT for ds1. We see her once a week.

Not all SALTS know much about verbal dyspraxia- and they wouldn't usually diagnose it until getting on for 3. The centre of excellence for it in this country is The Nuffield Speech and Hearing Clinic in London.

I suspect ds2 - just becuase his brother has it and it runs in families, and he can say sounds in sme words (eg ee in cheese) but not in others (so nee nah is ah or). He seems to be missing quite a few sounds. DS1's private SALT assessed him. She said he may be copying ds1 (and he has improved since going to nursery twice a week), but that he did need to be referred as he may have it (but we'll need to watch for a bit and see how it develops). I think he probably does have it. Not too worried - just relieved he isn't autistic!

SALT said she was concerned as he couldn't copy sounds in isolation very well (although he was trying- just couldn't do it)

btw babytalk is good for language development but not really speech problems

Thank you everyone for your comments. Very interesting to hear different view points on the same topic. I may look at the babytalk book, but most of all I think I will just use my judgement on when to repeat a word correctly in the right context.

I have found when reading to my dd that if I ask a question during the reading, like where's the flowers, sometimes she will point to it, most of the time she will walk away. Yesterday I did not ask any questions and gave all the answers to her, saying all the words very clearly. when she brought the book to me again (which she ALWAYS does), she herself said, abu for apple, cay for cake, flur for flowers, bu for butterfly. It's a start at least.

I think alot of it depends on their mood and on how tired they are. (seems to with mine, anyway i hope she does't have many problems - too early to say at the moment)

Once again, thanks and may all let u know again in a few months how she is doing.

let us know fimbles

Jimjams, do you think the babytalk book would help us? DD is learning speech and language in the right order/sequence but it is just delayed. So would it help do you think? We are still trying to get into PECS at home, I am finding it difficult to fit into our routine. We are only doing phase 1 at home - drink pic for a drink etc, but she keeps getting her folder out and asking for dinner and tv or pudding and tv(which I have had to let her do!!) so she must be doing phase 2 at school. Let me know your opinion on the book though if you dont mind of course, I have never heard of it!

fio if you have salt input then you'll probably be doing Babytalk anyway. It's all fairly basic stuff. If you saw a 2nd hand one lying around- or could get it from the library then I'd say it was worth having, but not really worth going out to buy. It doesn't cover PECS

Which reminds me must book the PECS course.

Receieved a letter from my MP this morning copying a response she's recieved from the LEA about SALT. I was so incensed with the LEA's letter I rang her office straight away.

Grrrrrrr

lol I guessed it wouldnt cover PECS!!

Sorry you have had a bad letter again I really dont know what to say except we are all frutrated. I am mainly frustrated with lack of OT and was wound up because my MIL's neighbours carer who is in his 80's get OT input once a month, advice and equipment. I dont begrudge him of it, but wheres ours?

apparently elderly OT is much easier to get As is elderly care packages from SS etc. As you say so they need their services but we need ours as well. I guess the elderly stuff is easier to supply- the needs are broadly similar etc.

The LEA's letter said that basically SALT was better off coming from an LSA etc. Which to an extent I agree with- BUT they need regular supervision and assessment from a specialist SALT. Ludicrous the SALTs can't work out what;s going on with my son's speech - how on earth is an LSA meant to do it! And how can an LSA be expected to be a speclialist teacher of language to an autistic child, when their language learning is off the wall. It makes me sooooooo mad!

It's like saying we should grab any old passanger and get them to fly the plane cos there's a shortage of pilots. FFS!

We had our second OT appointment in 6 months and ds1's behaviour was so bad we had to bail out! great. Another 6 months to wait then. It'll be the same next time. Strangely enough he needs to see therapists often enough to build up a relationship with them.

DD has just started seeing a SALT, aged 3. She was referred by crap HV who had ignored my previous queries. I have to say that the SALT is lovely and really on DD's level, she listens to our questions and doesn't fob me off. We had to wait 3 months for original referral, then 5 wks for next appt, now we have 6 appts over the next 8 wks.
However, due to lack of comms, DD still has not had a hearing test - on waiting list!! She has an assessment with HV tomorrow which I am not worried about, as I have no concerns other than her speech.
Apologies for waffle, what I meant to say was that IME it is worth seeing HV to be referred, and our SALT is brill so far. And that you know your child better than they do!!!

Hi everyone, thought I'd give you all an update.

My dd is now 2.1, vocab in my opinion very good, can say at loud all the names of pictures she sees in her books, although the ending of the words are STILL missing. It's like she can't hear them. AFter going thru this thread again, someone mentioned if put another letter onto the end of that word ie dog, to become doggy, it helps them hear that missing letter.
Has anyone actually tried/doing this?

My dd understands the majority of what I say, if broken down very simply and slowly and has just this last 2 weeks showing the beginning of joining 2 words together. Examples are Da da gummy (dada coming) siddow (sit down) gumon (comeon) and a few more.

My hv saw her last week and said all this was not enough and she was referrring her to a SALT. I felt really upset about it, but again after reading thru this thread again maybe I shouldn't be as after all it should hopefully help her/me to improve the vocab.

I would be very interested to hear from others about how thier toddlers are coming along.

Thanks for reading.

Spoke to DS1's SALT last Saturday about ds2 (who is 2 and a half). She is assessing him on Friday for verbal dyspraxia (although its a bit early to be 100%). She was completely unworried about the last bit of the word though and said that is always the last to develop (and I remember that from the verbal dyspraxia conference I went to). She was also not particularly concerned that he can't say g, k, or any other back of the throat sounds. I think she's more interested in how his speech breaks down when he talks freely (as opposed to copying when its crap but more understandable). I had a look at some of the stuff I had and reckoned he's in the bottom 3% for speech clarity.

I wouldn't worry about the referral DS2 was referred in January and I've been told it will be at least another 7 months before he's seen. That's why I've asked DS1's private SALT to assess him. Chances are by the time you're seen you won't need it anyway.

Like Jimjams says - ends of words often come very late. They are hard to hear. I did a phonetics degree and acoustically those word endings are very hard to distinguish. They are much easier to hear if they're followed by a vowel - hence the 'g' in dog is often easier to hear in 'doggy' vs 'dog'. But I wouldn't particularly worry about changing what you're doing - just chat to your daughter as normal, if she needs help with pronunciation it'll be done when she's a bit older. The main thing at this stage is getting the message about using language to communicate with other people.

The referral may well not be needed by the time it comes around - but if it does it can only be a good thing. As you say, it'll give you the necessary support.

It sounds to me like your daughter is doing great - good vocab and comprehension and beginning to experiment with word combining.

All the best

And to add to Pidge's message- communication is the key- but it doesn't really matter how clear spech is. Speech really is the least important part of communication. DS2 has never had any problems getting himself understood despite his speech clarity being appalling (I would say he is 100% incomprehensible outside the family) Compared to ds1 who is autistic and cannot communicate his wants and needs easily/at all. You kind of see the difference. If your dd understands the point of communication and interaction then I wouldn't worry too much about speech at this stage (although always worth getting an early referral as waiting lists are so long).

Of course it is normal - she is not even 2 yet!

You could spend along time yet translating for her...

Thanks guys for the input.

Some children seems to "get it" straight away and others have a real struggle.
My dd has started to "sing" and you can just make out what she is saying. No-one else would know what she is saying except me because I know the nursery rhyme. She does alot of copy speech iykwim, not speech from her her own choosing. (hard to explain)
I've read on other threads recently about how quickly some children are speaking in 2 or 3 word sentences before or around the 18 month mark.

I've just been feeling a little insecure about my dd's development recently as all the other toddlers I know were speaking properly at 2 and mine wasn't. I was also getting quite alot of hurtful comments aswell from other Mums/even mybest friend!, like your dd is slow for age etc. It really hurts!

Anyway thanks again.

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DS1 spoke early and clearly. In complete contrast, DS2 did speak between 1 and 2 but everyone said that English obviously wasn't his first language He was basically babbling gibberish. Then he hit 2, started nursery and his vocabulary exploded. Apart from a tendancy to speak like Jonathon Woss (which does worry me a little), he is now clear and chatty at 3. Every child is different and your DD doesn't sound as if her speech is abnormally delayed.

Of course, there will be some children who turn out to have some sort of speech problem but I think 2 is early to make any hard and fast decisions as their abilities change so quickly.

My ds wasn't talking at all at his 2 year check - or rather, was only talking Serbo-Croation, or some other esoteric toddler language. I told the HV I wasn't worried as apparently I hadn't talked till I was 3 (been making up for it ever since, all my friends would sa) - and as a boy, that meant he might be even later. She was happy to leave it at that and for me to give her a call if I was worried. Sure enough, he finally started talking an intelligible language when he was about 3 and 5 months - and is now (5 months later) talking away 19 to the dozen. Missing bits of words (eg s at the beginning of words, so spoon is 'poon), and mispronouncing other words (eg David is Dabid) even though he CAN pronounce the missing bits. Interestingly, he is MUCH clearer when he is talking to his wee firneds at the childminder.

The important thing is he is improving steadily.

They're ALL different - so don't get too worried. If my ds had been speaking as well as your dd at 2, I'd have been proud!

I forget to mention that SIL thinks he sounds Chinese, as some of his emphases and vowel sounds are a wee bit strange! But even that is reducing - although he doesn't have an obviously Scottish accent yet.

Fimbles if by copy speech you mean echolalia it is normal between the ages of 2 and 3- only a problem if it persists after that (or if its being used without understanding.). So for example ds1 (who does have a problem) said "ill get the keys" when he wanted me to open the car boot, nad says "don't press the button" every time we walk past a pelican corssing- but ds2 sounds like a little parrot so I'llsay lets go to granny's and he'll replky "go to granny's?" with a rising intonation like a question. This is very normal.

Thanks again mumsnetters. sorry couldn't reply earlier, major probs with pc!.

Dd seems to be improving daily with the vocab. I am very proud of her its just others seem to take it away from me! I've had to put up with some awful critism (spelling?) and that's why I came on here to get some non biased opinions which are very interesting and reassuring.

When I say copy speech, I mean dd keeps on repeating things from memory at the moment ie songs like the theme tunes from fimbles/tellytubbies and some nursery rhymes. It is so sweet to listen to.

Will review again in few months. Thanks again.