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Behaviour/development

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27 month old not talking...

5 replies

MiauMau · 26/05/2014 05:42

... I shouldn't really say not talking. He is very communicative, through his own little language, facial expressions and gestures we can understand what he says around 70% of the time. He makes really long speeches in his own language and it really does feel like he is trying to tell us something.
There's only 18 actual understandable words that he uses on a daily basis (a few more if you count animal noises) and some others that we have a feeling that he's says but can't confirm because we only heard them once or twice.
I must point out that we are Portuguese and only speak Portuguese in front of him unless there's a foreign person present and that we live in Canada and he has a Canadian nanny who can only speak English.
People keep on telling me that boys develop later than girls but, both my husband and one of my brothers were very advanced by his age and I myself was an early talker.
I do have another brother who has Asperger's and this keeps always ringing a small alarm bell on the back of my mind. I tend to rule it out because ds is extremely sociable, with great eye contact and loves being hugged so much that he would hug any random stranger if we'd let him.

OP posts:
NickyEds · 26/05/2014 06:17

Have you had his hearing checked? We thought my niece was a little late talking and it turned out she had bunged up ears! Once she had gromits(spelling???) put in she was better but still a bit reluctant- when we knew that she had a word we would make her use it. For example we knew she could say "juice" and "please" but she would just point at the juice or fridge so we'd make a big show of "I don't know what you want!" until she asked for it. TBH though she just seemed to "get" it after a while-certainly by the time she started school she was a better talker than her brothers who had started to speak earlier.

MyNameIsSuz · 26/05/2014 06:31

I think it's more likely to be the bilingualism, bilingual children do often develop speech later (but when they do, it's amazingly good for their brains). I have a friend in exactly the same situation - one language at home, English at nursery and with friends - and her 3 year old is only just starting to catch up.

chocnomore · 26/05/2014 06:55

bilingual children do not talk later than monolingual DC. this is a myth (some bilingual children are just late to talk, just as some monolingual children are).

OP, have you had his hearing checked recently?

How is his understanding? any worries there?

MiauMau · 26/05/2014 07:15

chocnomore I was only able to get an appointment for August (been chasing this up since February), and only then will he be able to have a speech therapy appointment.
His understanding of both languages is great actually, it has been since we came here and I started working.

NickyEds the few words that he can say he uses them well.

I have been reading about bilingual children and the latest studies do point out that they develop at the same rate as other children. I don't think that being bilingual is the main issue here, I would break my heart if it was as most of my family doesn't speak English and he wouldn't be able to communicate with them.

OP posts:
KittyandTeal · 26/05/2014 07:19

If he is learning 2 languages at the same time he will be verbal later (there's lots of research on it)

That doesn't mean stop speaking 2 languages with him, keep going, he will really benefit but you might need to accept that he will be fluent a bit later.

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