How well does your 2 and a half year old speak?

[ghosty]

Just wondering really.
DS was speaking full sentences and we were having proper conversations by 2 and a bit (I have video footage to prove it ) but DD is taking her time. I am trying not to compare but DS is all I have to go on and I was told he was pretty advanced on the speech side of things for his age.
Bit of background: DD was recently referred to a paediatrician because at her 2 year check (which I only got round to doing at 2 years 4 months) the nurse noticed her fontanelle was still open and quite wide. The GP measured her head and reckoned it was too big (off the scale) so we were referred.
Anyway, paed doesn't seem concerned about her head - she is a large child (98th + centile for height, weight so she is in proportion) and her head isn't obviously large. She took her time for mobile milestones but was still within the desired age range (bumshuffled at 11 months, walked at 15mths, decided she could crawl at 13 months but preferred the bumshuffle). He took x rays of her head and hands and feet to be sure (and since then the radiologist's report has come back with no concerns)
But he was concerned about her speech. She is having a hearing test on Monday (but I am certain she isn't deaf) and will take it from there. He was talking about speech therapy.
Anyway, although I am pretty sure her development is fine (she is bubbly and chatty - although only DS and I can understand her , very on the ball, full of beans, active, co-ordinated etc motor skills seem fine to me etc) I do think her speech is not great.

So - how well does your 2.5 year old speak?

Any answers gratefully received

[Piffle]

my dd when she was 2.5 was non verbal bar 4 words
One year on you cannot shut her up

I found it tough as well as ds spoke very very early pre 1 yr and I had no idea what was "normal" so I just left her to get on with it and she did... eventually...
Understanding is more important initially IMO if you think you see a problem there then def refer..

[mummydoc]

my DD1 had 3 words at 2 1/2 - they were "no,shan't and won't" sometimes strung together to form a sentence! Now 6 1/2 and is fine (never shuts up infact) DD2 who is 21 months speaks fluent sentences and often uses more than one tense correctly in her sentences....I am sure they will both turn out allright...there is such variation.

[KTeePee]

My 2.5 yr old speaks well for his age (improved dramatically around 25 mths) but tbh I wouldn't worry if he wasn't (unless you really felt it was a symptom of something else). The reason I am quite blase about it is my youngest sister was extremely late walking and talking (hv more or less told my mum there was "something wrong" with her) and she is actually very bright. My dad started to give her a bit more individual attention in the evening (not always easy when you have a large brood!) and she started to improve a lot.

I think it can go either way with second and subsequent children - you often don't have as much one-to-one time with them as the first, depending on whether or not the older one is still at home all day, but equally they can speak well at an early age if they try to keep up with the older ones

[Clary]

please don't quote the Einstein thing, he was probably autistic.
Ghosty I agree with blueshoes that progress is the important thing. How was she 6mo ago? Is she a) clearer b)saying more?

[kitegirl]

God, paediatricians (community paediatrician was it?) and their development checks... I am not going to start really I am not... These speech targets are such a load of rubbish at this age. The range at 2.5 is HUGE and child development is not linear - they can come on leaps and bounds in just a space of a month. My ds (2.5) has only just started to speak, HV referred to a paed at 2 yr check up (like you that took place at 2.2) and she was fussing and tutting because he was not putting two words together at that time. Long story but they told me he was probably autistic, I told them to bugger off - like your dd, ds is a lovely, chatty and bubbly little boy, he can name lots of animals and although his speech is very unclear, it is improving all the time and I can understand him just fine! He now says things like 'my bike' and shouts 'no' to everything! . And, he is ahead of most of his peers in motor skills (proud mummy moment - he was pedalling his trike this morning !). Don't worry, what I learned about my escapades with paediatricians was that you know your child best!

[singersgirl]

My DSs were both good talkers, but DS1 was much less distinct and grammatically correct than DS2, who was rather like Tortoiseshell's DD.

We have a friend with an early talking, articulate first son, and another of 2.5 who still wasn't really talking. No one has been concerned about him since his receptive language and general development is all fine.

[arfishymeau]

My DD didn't speak at all, and by 2.4 I was really concerned about it. Suddenly at 2.5 she started to speak in full sentences, and now at 3.5 she has a much wider vocabulary than a lot of her friends.

All of the advice that I had up until then said that if you are sure she can hear, and she's pointing at what she wants, then you are ok. Most people also pointed out that Einstein didn't talk until he was 5.

I'm sure your DD is absolutely fine - although it is difficult when everybody else's is talking. It makes for a hard extra year when you have to try to work out what they want.

[blueshoes]

Methinks dd 2.10 has been slow-ish on the speech side. At her 2 year check, the HV said to monitor the situation. Now she is speaking in 4-5 word sentences, pronunciation still unclear but clearly progressing in leaps and bounds. I can sense that she really wants to gear up on the speech side because she listens when I verbalise.

Eg I ask her what happened at nursery and she tries to tell me. Then I put in simple words what happened (the carers would have given me a run down at the pick-up). And I can see she is listening and storing it up.

Speech is one of the most variable between children developmentally. Some seem to pick it up from telly and others (like my dd) need to work at it. But so long as there is progress at whatever pace, I am not inclined to worry at this age.

[CaptainFlameSparrow]

We have "I bursty" rather than firsty.

The best thing ever was giving DS an unusual name... she says it fairly well, but people always say "What's your brother called then?" She tells them, they look at me inquisitively and then when I repeat it they look like "oh, I did hear it right"

[Bozza]

DD is 2.2. She has a pretty large vocabulary with the most regularly used words quite clear but others not so good. So there are lots of words everybody can understand but also quite a few that it takes me to decipher. She has just started saying "I do it" instead of "my do it". She is starting to put more words together but not speaking in complete sentences. She is ahead of where DS was but he did have glue ear/grommets and probably caught up by age 3.

[ghosty]

He sounds like a cutie gladbag . And his speech sounds fab ... much better than DD.
DS used to get me and you mixed up too ... He would say, "Carry you please mummy" holding his arms up to be carried. My niece did the same and SIL and I guessed it must have been because they heard, "Shall I carry you?" ...
The name thing is not something I have seen that much .... DD is very clear on 'MINE' but she rather than 'me' she says 'ma' as in 'my'. Her clearest sentence to date has been "Ma Woody tat ma did bite my" which translates as "Woody, my cat, bit me."
Other sentences are, "Ma firsty, ma want ma dink"
"Where ma bag gown?", "Where Daddy gown?"
She says gown for gone, won't say off - insists on OPP "Soos OPP peas" ('Shoes off please')
"Den" = again
But mostly we get by with "Blah blah blah Woody blah blah bag blah is funny" from which we may make out that Woody (the cat) has climbed into a shopping bag and DD finds that amusing.

[Clary]

Ghosty ds2 is 3.4 now but when he started at his pre-school last Sept (he was then 2.6) his teacher told DH she could only really distinguish mummy and daddy one first getting to know him IYSWIM.
He said quite a bit more than that but it wasn?t very clear. Dd at 2.5 was very clear, ds1 didn?t say very much at all IIRC (it was a while ago lol).
DS2 fwiw is much clearer now tho some sounds still tricky (someone is domeone, ?swing? the other day was ?ding? so I thought he was saying ?thing?, and ?f? is tricky which is a shame as it?s the first letter of his name....)
That?s a great post from tortoiseshell. What a difference between her 2. I recall DS1 (who had some SALT for pronunciation issues) saying black as ?bwa? - he was about 4 or 5 - while DD, then 2-3yo, was sitting there saying ?black? perfectly.
lol at digger for sticker/basket for plaster, I so know where y're coming from.
A pal has a son who is 3 in Sept and he might say "Buzz Lightyear is at my house" but it would come out as "Bu Li i a my hou" but I can get the gist and he's getting much much better all the time. Yr dd sounds fine tbh.

[gladbag]

My ds (who is 2 1/2) speaks fairly clearly, and in sentences, but makes a lot of grammatical mistakes, which I assume is age appropriate. He still refers to himself by his name rather than using 'I' or 'my' ( let's say he's called Sam, he'll say "Sam really like go park now, Mummy", and "Mummy get Sam's train out please"), and he refers to himself as 'you' rather than 'me' (eg "Come on mummy, get apple juice drink for you please," meaning for himself).

He does use new words all the time now, but I often struggle to understand him at first , like yesterday he kept asking for things and tacking "foridges" on the end...not a clue, til I realised he was saying "for ages" as in "Sam not see Nemo fish for ages" - he wanted to watch it

He wasn't saying anything much at about 18 months, and then only a few single words, but his speech has really taken off since he was 2. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

[ghosty]

LOL CaptainFS
Nemo ... sorry didn't mean to have a go at your PILs ... Just a bit bitter about mine you understand

[CaptainFlameSparrow]

Sorry - my reply was to the plaster...

[CaptainFlameSparrow]

Now that is my DD! It didn't help for ages when "guck" was one of her few words and it was stuck and duck - my mum got sooo confused.

Now she has "miss" for kiss and miss, and when she says "I miss you" she gets all stroppy with the reply of "I missed you too" rather than leaning in for a kiss.

Her clearest sentence has to be "NOT FUNNY!!!" though when people are laughing at her

[Nemo1977]

ghosty they are not being horrible just worried about him getting upset as he can be very hard to understand. At home he will get most things he wants so frustration is less. As others said though they tend to be advanced in other ways..DS is physically very advanced and capable of doing things that most other 2yr olds would find difficult.

[ghosty]

And you Nemo ... bout your PILs though ... that is pants .... My FIL is hopeless too ...

[ghosty]

Thank you Mercy - I am not hugely worried, just was wondering how everyone else's 2 year old was doing .... it is helpful to hear these stories

[Nemo1977]

DS is 2.9yrs and doesnt speak as well as his peers. I have always said he talks like a teletubbie because it is like half the words he is trying to say are missing. He only started talking at just turning 2 and he does have a large vocab if you can decifier it. I understand a lot of what he says because I am with him 24/7 but other people dont. PIL have even said they havent had him to stay overnight because they wouldnt understand what he was saying.

[ghosty]

Alexsmum, we had a similar thing the other day ... DD was standing at the cupboard pointing up shouting, "Basket, basket!" or it sounded like basket ... more like 'Barstet'. I kept saying, "There is no basket up there, what basket!"
She was beside herself getting really upset and crying and screaming at me. So I took her off, sat her on my knee on the sofa to calm her down and she held up her finger where she had a tiny paper cut, "Basket mummy, ma ouchie ma dinder"
Now, DS would have said, "I have hurt my finger, can I have a plaster please!" but how was I to know a 'Basket' was a bloody 'plaster'?????

[Mercy]

Ghosty, we also have video footage of dd at 2.5, her speech was very clear with good vocabulary. Her speech was always commented on by other people - and still is.

ds is now 2.5 and in comparison, his speech is indistinct and his vocab. limited. He speaks in three word sentences a fair amount but there are still a lot of single words, pointing and grunting. He does get very frustrated when I don't understand what he's trying to say.

[CaptainFlameSparrow]

DD has always been a bit slower than others with her speech - not many words and those she did have were only understood by those close to her... I was worrying, but suddenly decided that worrying wouldn't fix anything.

At 3 she is still behind a lot of others her age - she is chattering a lot and getting clearer by the day, but still nowhere near as clear as other 3 year olds.

I try to look at her interaction with the rest of her world, her hearing is fine I am sure, she seems to be intelligent enough - I think she is just devoloping different brain areas ahead of the speech part iyswim?

[noonar]

both my dds have very advanced speech- full sentences by 2, and clear, too. am not posting to boast, put to point out that the normal range is huge! Their 2 cousins, both girls, also perfectly normal were'slower', but things soon level out, in most cases. in my exp, you often get 21/2 yr olds speaking at the same 'level' as some 2yr olds or even some 31/2 yr olds.i bet your dd is ahead of the game in other areas. they're all different. dd1 for eg,slow to potty train. my freinds dd1, on the other hand has few words but could play for england!!

[alexsmum]

also i do still have to ask him again sometimes .for example the other day he was asking for a digger and getting very frustrated with me, when i tried to give him the digger.turns out he wanted 'sticker'