Speech delay - lots asked before but just need some words of wisdom

[Suea76]

Hi Mums,

My LB is 22 mo the this week and barely says any proper words. He makes about 6 animal noises when seeing pictures and verbally asked, he says our dogs name, mama, car I think bye and ease (please) and Ta.
His hearing is fine he points and things drags me over to things and follows comands, go get your shoe's mummy's shoes, put plate in dishwasher etc.
Is this enough as I know his 2 year check is looming and our health visitor isn't re friendliest and he changes childminders a month before his check so I am really worried.
OH thinks it will all come in time but I'm just concerned I need to be doing something now we read every night play games and sing nursery rhymes all.the time he does the actions.do you think private speexh therapy is required?

He might catch up on his own, he might not. Because of long waiting lists, I would ask for him to be referred to speech therapy. Just in case. I would also ask for his hearing to be formally checked. I wouldn't think about paying privately for SLT at this time.

You can look at games to increase oral co-ordination and strength. Such as who sucks up the spaghetti the fastest; holding a pencil between the top lip and nose the longest; lots of blowing bubbles. There must be tons of other games if you google.

Also you might want to think about makaton. Signing has been shown to help stimulate all communication.

He needs a hearing check, you can't 'know he's fine' since subtle hearing loss can affect speech. I'd contact HV and get this arranged, and ask about drop in speech therapy sessions in your area, there's often something at children's centre etc that you can self-refer to. Your OH may well be right, he may just be a late talker, but you are not losing anything by getting him in the system now, if he suddenly makes lots of progress then it's all good.
I'm currently trying to decide whether to get private speech therapy for my DD, 24m and has mild speech delay. She has a neurological condition that puts her at risk of speech problems so it's something we've worked hard on, and she's not currently delayed enough to trigger NHS SALT. There is a big gap between 'would benefit from some help' and 'bad enough to get any' and SALT provision seems to be v patchy. I know friends with effectively non-verbal children about to start school who don't see anyone for months at a time.
The talking point website is helpful.

Thanks for the reply we do the games and blow bubbles in the bath every night.
They won't refer for SLT until he turns 2 I asked a couple of weeks ago.
Not really thought about sign recently I tried when he was younger but never took to it will start again at the weekend.
Thanks again

Get a hearing test !

I was in the same position as you a few months ago , I thought my ds would jist pick it up when he was ready to .

Turns out he has glue ear and has an appt in 3 weeks to get a date for grommets

I too thought that his hearing was fine but they say it's like he hears under water

Our boy was the same. Then he hit two and half and you can't stop him talking!! I think sometimes they go at their own pace. He attends nursery and I asked if he seemed slow in speaking and they said each child is individual. HV check confirmed this.

Yes that's enough and more will come. My Ds is 4yrs and can't do any of that I know it's hard when people say it will come but if he's got understanding it really will come

Another vote here for the hearing test. I thought my 2 yr old with delayed speech had good hearing because he would turn his head to noise, even if it was very quiet, but turned out his ears were congested and although he could hear, the clarity wasn't good enough for him to be able to copy sounds.

My daughter was very similar to your son. She had no animal noises and no words, but there was apparent understanding. Once my daughter turned two everything kicked in. We had a hearing test as apparently it's fairly common in speech delayed kids that they're missing some frequencies, so although the my appear to be able to hear fine, they're missing the subtleties that let them figure out speech.

We had a couple of group speech therapy sessions and they helped so much. 7m on she's still behind but talking more each day and she's coming on really well. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions!