Speech delay in 2 year old

[MascaraAndConverse]

DC2 had his 2 year development check when he turned 2 earlier this year, and it became clear that his speech and language is delayed. The HV came back to do the assessment again at 2 and a half and he's still within the "black area" as she put it. She has referred him for speech and language therapy and a hearing test.

I am sure this is very common in children, so basically I was wondering if people could share their experiences of this? Did SALT help? At what point did you see their language come along- 3, 3 and a half? What was the reason your child's speech and language was actually delayed? Did you need to see a Paediatician?

Sorry, loads of questions I know! Thankyou in advance if you do answer any of them.

My Ds is 5 and was about the same age when we realised he had a speech delay. SALT have been brilliant, he started off seeing somebody every 5 (ish) months. He now has a therapist go in to his school every week to work with him. He is still slightly behind his peers but he has come along so well. There's no reason for his delay, he had his hearing checked and that was perfectly fine and he wasn't behind in any of his other assessments. It will feel like an uphill struggle but your son will get there xx

Ds is 5 he had a block of SALT a year ago which didn't really do much but begins more intensive SALT in school next week,hopefully with more results.we see a paediatrian once a year for a check up,and a behavioural therapist goes into school to assess twice a year.he is improving very slowly.he has only just started to form sentences, but he's getting clearer. He tends to repeat back what is said rather than answer/interact when put on the spot/feeling uncomfortable/unsure.we don't know why he doesn't/can't speak.but he is happy,he's made lots of friends at school and is improving all the time.

Thanks for your replies :)
I'm glad to hear your children are doing well and are happy! It's very reassuring.
DS is a happy little boy and in other areas of his development he's fine. Physically he's doing really well and he plays alongside other children fine and his problem solving skills such as doing jigsaws are fine too. He does say single words either off his own accord or when prompted, and he says probably one or two 2 word sentences. He can get quite frustrated sometimes and im thinking this could be to do with not being able to communicate with us the way he wants to.
I'm looking forward to (in the best way) taking him to SALT as I'm hoping he will really benefit from it. What types of things will they do with him?

Hi my now six year old had very poor articulation up until around two years ago. It was only really me who could understand him (even I struggled at times) because he was unable to physically make a lot of sounds. His language development was good and he was fine in all other areas. SALT was great although we found the NHS therapy too hit and miss (long waiting lists and then only 5 sessions at a time before being back on the waiting list). We went private in the end and it made all the difference. For us it was mainly about articulation so the focus was on learning to make the sound in isolation, the with vowel sounds, then in a word (at start, middle and end) then at sentence level and finally the sound was incorporated into spontaneous speech. Our therapist also used cued articulation which was an action which went with the sound to remind him of how to make it and also pictures for each sound. In our best experiences of therapy the sessions were made fun by using games bad interaction.
He now never stops talking, which is lovely!
Good luck.

I have one of the Children where difficulties didn't resolve but the speech delay was the first big red flag that more was going on.we now have a dx of autism and learning difficulties. we also got the paediatrician involved when DC was 3. Salt did help a bit but you don't get much on the NHS. is private salt an option?

Yes SLT helped.
Language slowly developed but 2/3 DC would have struggled to ever get language right without SLT.
They were 4-5yo when they had SLT.

The SLT was lots of homework for us both: turn-taking games which first focus on listening skills, and then move to copying sounds. Inbetween can be the stage of specific mouth exercises, I think, depending on the nature of the speech delay.

Sometimes kids have speech disorder which is something else, and needs work on a deeper kind of understanding of how speech works.

... DC never saw anyone but SLT (not even HV).

Reason = bad speech habits, I guess, they hadn't noticed the differences between sounds.

DS8 literally only had 4/5 words at 2. Saw a language therapist who said yes he was developing slowly and to bring him back at 2 and a half if I was still worried. At 2 and a half he was building 2 word sentences, still behind but making progress. By 3 and a half there was no difference between him and his friends. At 8 he is achieving above average in all areas at school. So imo 2 is still c young and there MAY not be a problem at all esp if you can see progress. He sounds further ahead than my son at 2.