Speech delay at 22 mont. What should we do next?

[ARandomFridayIn2012]

DS1 is 22 months at end of the month. He was born at 37+5 by emcs due to reduced movement. He was very alert and responsive at birth and I had him with me for the first night in hospital. He had trouble feeding and a midwife wanted to check his blood sugars which ended up being unreadable as they were so low. He spent 16 days in SCBU being treated for his low blood sugars and all was well and he came home.

He generally hit most milestones to do with fine motor skills and babbled lots but crawled fairly late at 13m and walked at 17m, there's been no stopping him since

However it's his speech me and DH are starting to worry about. He says mama dada baba but not really to me, his dad or his little brother. He constantly chats to himself and us making lots of different sounds and intimations, if he watches a video of himself saying mama dada he will copy it and most of the time will copy us saying it but that's it. He won't copy other words.

He understands a few simple commands like "get your drink", "give (brothers name) his drink", "where is daddy?" etc.

He also is very observant and copies things we do like wiping things up or cooking (he copies with his toy kitchen and food).

What should we do next? I don't want to leave it til his 2-2.5year check.

If it makes any difference he has very waxy ears and hates having them cleaned, any tips there?

Hi, haven't got lots of advice as we're kind of in the same boat. Not exactly the same situation as DS didn't have any of the birth isssues you mentioned but he is 23 months and not really saying any words.

I went to see the health visitor just before Christmas and she arranged for him to have his 2 year check bang on two years rather than at 2.4 which is the norm here. I also contacted my local children's centre (Sure Start). Initially I just phoned to ask if they had any books on speech and language I could borrow but they arranged for DS and I to attend a rhyme time group aimed at children with speech issues or other additional needs. I went along for the first time this week and the support worker was very helpful and explained that she can help us refer ourselves for speech and language therapy if necessary. She is also going to work with us each week to try and bring on his language.

Some websites that i have found useful
icancharity.org.uk/resources
www.scanlonspeech.com/
thelittlestories.com/blog/

Sort of in the same boat here although ds is only 13 months. But HV was concerned at 10 month check that he doesn't babble so will be coming back to follow up.

Interested in your mention of the waxy ears, my ds also has this. Would be interested to see if anyone comes along to say if this is a pointer to something.

Hope things improve for you soon

Ask for a referral to your local speech and language therapist teams - either via GP or many where I am do drop in (London). Also you may have a hearing issue - either can refer for that, so just ask. My child has been under their care since she was 18m. I spent ages worrying and googling and wish I'd just gone to a specialist first.

I would ask for a hearing and SALT referral as they can take a while to go through.

It Takes Two to Talk by Hanen is a very good book for helping children to talk.

Re waxy ears, a paed told me that waxy ears in children don't usually affect their hearing but if you are worried about it you can use olive oil drops to clear it - it works very well.

Watching this closely my daughter is 22 months and says a few words and grunts for everything else. But the words she does say only we recognise what is being said, no one else would have a clue !!!!

My child was similar but never babbled. I expressed concern as early as 12m but doc said some children just don't have much to say! In any case we got referred and started salt c 28m and while his speech can still be indistinct, he has been discharged and seems to be doing fine. He was discharged at 4.7y.

Sounds like your child has more positive signs than ours so try not to worry. They said to us it was hard to tell who would come round and who wouldn't and he came round quite late, he was gone 4 to be honest. We were really worried. However they always said he seemed to be understanding fine but was having difficult expressing himself and that that was a good sign. They used Hanen techniques and a lot of it was teaching us techniques for engaging with him.

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies ladies, will get to the GP and ask for a SALT referral. Will check out our children's centres for any additional help, will have to take DS2 with me also but anything that helps!

Hope your DC get sorted/make progress soon too

Many children centres have drop in speech therapy sessions - so you can get advice there. Also ask your GP for hearing check. And I agree with asking for SALT referral - even if just in case, as it takes long time for them to get through.

From having 3 children, they all started out with very waxy ears and it got much better with age. No speech or hearing problems.

Why not ring the health visitor team?

Speak to HV and children's centre first. 22mo is young to speak a huge amount, that's why the 2-2.5 year check is when it is! You might find he suddenly starts on sentences, our kid did around 2yo when we at thought she was "behind" other kids her age.

We are in a very similar position. (The reason I'm on here today) My DS is 22 months and only uses 2 words correctly. 'No' and 'dadda'. He babbles a lot, and understands simple instructions but does ignore me quite a lot, although I think it's selective. He was born early too, and spent 10 days in scbu. He was unable to latch on & had to be bottle fed. During his first year i noticed he was always about a month behind the milestones, but he got there in the end. I am also wondering if my DS has a hearing problem, because he's had 3 ear infection and a ruptured ear drum over the last 4 months. The last doctor I saw dismissed this concern of mine, but I think I may get a second opinion.

one thing you can do for sure is request a hearing test.

Do it for pragmatic reasons:they will insist on ruling put hearing issues if you have ongoing concerns later. So it is worth having it now even if you are sure the child can hear

I agree with above - get his hearing checked, see what the SALT referral process is like, and if you need to get into the system.

DS1 had none of the concerns round birth, but had 6 words (across 2 languages) at 25 months. Around 2.5 he just started spouting sentences. So for him, it was fine. When he wanted to understand, he could (me opening the biscuit tin as quietly as I could, he heard, "DS upstairs for bed" wasn't heard tho :)

So, it may well (and probably is) nothing, but its worth getting in the system, incase something does need actioning in 3-6 months.

Thearty1 I would definitely be pushing for a hearing test in case your child has glue ear. Mine is only 16m and is under watchful waiting for glue ear. She has only had a couple of ear infections but the two are linked. Plus we were referred for the hearing test at 9m as she wasn't making any consonant sounds. Hth

Ps "selective hearing" is classic comment about glue ear children.

Thanks ladies!

Completely agree with getting the referrals in place. Just wanted to mention the following DVDs, the Oxbridge baby one is more focused on younger children, but dd 21m still asks for it, and it has a good parents section about teaching your child to talk. It's short and contains maybe 30 new words and seems rather low budget but for some reason my kids have loved it and learned from it.

The second one is the Sookie and Finn DVDs which I've heard recommended but haven't tried.

Don't know if they'll help at all but may give you something to try while you wait.

Thanks for those links, will take a look.