Late talking toddlers

[Peggyc]

My little boy is a late talker. He is now 2.5 and parroting everything (even things like : "for gods sake" that I occasionally say...) but not really having conversations just yet... He responds and plays happily with other kids so there is no concern of autism... But the health visitor that saw him yesterday said that despite him having more words than average (more than 200) he should be making little conversations with us.
My question is does anyone else have that and what did they do about it? Has anyone attended Chatter Time and is it any good? I am a bit sceptical.
Thanks in advance.

Watching with interest. My DS is 19 months and although he seems to understand us e.g bring me your shoes. He doesn't really speak......at all....... He does babble and will occaisionally copy if we make a funny noise. Just wondering if I should take him to the Hv tbh.

I haven't used Chatter Time, so I don't know whether it's good.

But I found that how you structure your speech can make a big difference in how easily they pick it up - and the best techniques aren't that obvious (to me anyway!)

I posted on a thread recently about advice I'd pulled from various books [http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/behaviour_development/2346883-Worrying-about-2-YEAR-OLD-DEVELOPMENT here]] When I started consciously doing these things, DD's language improved very quickly.

It's great that your DS has such a big vocabulary. It's a difficult leap for them to move on to combining words.

I wonder whether you might be speaking to him in sentences that are a bit long? It's hard for them to make sense of the different parts of long sentences, so he might not be getting the examples he needs of how to start combining words? The recommendation is to use sentences just a couple of words longer than he is: so at this stage you should be using lots of 2-3 word sentences (missing out unnecessary words), repeating yourself in different ways.

Oops, link fail!

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originalusernamefail your DS is not slow to talk! Honestly, it is totally normal for a 19 month old not to be talking. I have 3 sons and not one of them was talking before 2. They were all over two-DS1 was well over 2 before he talked.
Once they started they picked it up quickly.
I know many of my friend were the same. Luckily my HV is brilliant, really down to earth, she told me not to worry, that it was very normal,especially with boys.

I recently had quite a long chat with our hv about talking as I was worried about my 16 month old not talking,( PFB alert!) She mentioned about keeping sentences short (3 words) and said that even at 3 they only really understand quite a small proportion of what we say, so it's like learning a foreign language where you just pick up key words. She said she's heard mums saying "right, now, it's 12 o clock so lunch time, shall we get your high chair out and have something to eat? Are you hungry? What do you fancy? Isn't that a good idea. Come and help mummy" and all the child probably understood was "mummy". "Lunch!" would have been better. Also ( dare I say it??) some mums convince themselves that they're having all kinds of conversations with their little ones when really they're just talking at them!

Thank you very much for the comments they make me feel better. With my DS he has 2/3 word sentences but he doesn't seem to understand everything that you ask so your conversation with the HV is very reassuring, perhaps I am just expecting too much! They are all so different...

DD2 is now 2 yrs 5 months. She started talking in the last 6 weeks, going from a handful of single words, to 2, to 3, to 4, to 5 word sentences I that time span. She still has a long way to go, but its so amazing to hear her talking after an age of screaming at me ... She too is a parrot and seems to be trying out new sounds by copying us. DD1 is 7 and was and spoke pretty fluently early so all different second time round. We're still on the SALT waiting list and will remain so as her pronunciation etc is difficult to understand unless you are immediate family

No expert here but my DS didn't start combining words till just before he turned 3 and then it was only 2-3 words and very functional stuff, some days he wouldn't talk at all. Other children at nursery were chatting away having proper conversations. It wasn't until he was a good 3 years 8 months that he really "got" the idea of a proper conversation with talking about abstracts and showing interest in another person's thoughts. And now aged 4 he follows the proverbial path of never being quiet.

I was really worried at the time as he was also delayed on social skills. Had been very interactive as a baby but then withdrew into himself aged 3. HV and nursery were both pushing for referral for SN assessment and hinting at ASD. I spent a miserable year worrying but I wish I'd trusted my instincts as I just felt that ASD didn't ring true. Turns out that at least part of the issue was glue ear - his inability to understand what was going on was making him very unhappy and withdrawn at a very noisy nursery.

Not sure that the glue ear was the entire reason for his speech delay as he didn't speak much at home either despite having excellent understanding. However there were a couple of periods, at about age 3.5 and 3.8, when he went through a visible step change in a short period, every day being able to converse at a noticeably more sophisticated level than the day before.

I guess my point is that all children are different and in the same way they walk at anything from 9 months to 2 years, their speech also develops differently and sometimes you just have to wait for that developmental stage to kick in. Do consider getting his hearing tested though, even if your DS appears to be able to hear you at home (which is why it took me a long time to clock the glue ear) any hearing difficulties may be muffling your speech and making it hard for him to catch everything and cotton onto the conversational side.

Just in case anyone is interested in this I went to a "chatter time" session and I didn't find it that helpful unfortunately. Loads of kids, about 15 in a small room, I managed to have 3 minute chat with the speech therapist who gave me advice I had read online ("talk in small sentences") and then a bit of circle time that my DS didn't want to sit through as suddenly the toys were available to him and didn't have to fight 15 kids for a little car.
Anyway perhaps it was poorly run and I appreciate groups like that being there.
(In case anyone has a child like mine, ST said there was not a concern but to keep going to the sessions which I will do from time to time. Didn't feel like she had any 1-2-1 with my DS though so impossible to know if this is definitely the case. From what I am reading unless you go private you are very lucky to get support that is good and helpful. Please note I have extreme faith and belief to the NHS, whenever I or the family have needed care they have been amazing so I am in no way unappreciative.

I've been to those types of sessions before as well, and also found them fairly useless. I suppose if you had a very specific question, or have a serious concern, you'd at least have a couple of minutes with a SALT. I would hope that if they noted something serious, they would refer on. We had those sessions in between blocks of therapy, so at least there was access to someone in the meantime. And maybe it is a way of keeping their eye on children who are at risk of delay, but most of whom will probably be fine and do not need therapy. Oh, regarding your original post: I read somewhere that 2.5 is the peak age of echolalia, so his parroting seems to be right on the mark!

Just wanted to ask if anyone else has ever experienced this. At 2.5 my DS doesn't say "yes" and "no". He clearly understands what the question is so if you tell him "do you want an apple" if he wants it he will say "Apple" (and sometimes please) and if he doesn't he says nothing. Has anyone experienced that? Is there any tactics to deal with it? I know it may seem like a minor thing to some but driving me a bit nuts. I tried to say "Apple yes or no" but doesn't say it back. Thanks in advance.
(Kids are so strange aren't they?!?)