What, if anything, helped them improve?
When did they catch up to their peers?
Ds is 2.5 and has a speech delay. I'd say it's moderately bad but not severe as he does have some words and there are certain words he's happy to put together such as 'more wa' (water) and 'go in there' or 'not there' for example.
Nursery (1 day a week) are aware of my concerns and he has been assessed by NHS speech therapist. Both agree that there is a speech delay but have no concerns at all. They say there's a wide spectrum of 'normal', which I agree with, but with every month that passes the gap between ds and his peers widens. What started out as a slight difference is now massive.
There are certain things which really jump out at me:
-Ds won't say full words, so it's 'wa' for water, 'dig' for digger, 'der' for ladder. Again, I know some of this is to be expected but it's for all multi syllable words.
-He just doesn't pick up words easily at all. There are certain words he hears day in, day out, which he doesn't even attempt. Words are picked up maybe 1 new every 2-3 months.
-His pronunciation is extremely unclear.
-He won't say any names at all, apart from mum and da. Not his own, or grandma etc or any of his friends.
-He uses sounds wherever possible, so animals are always the noise rather than the name, car is 'brum'
We have a lot of peers of ds around us that we spend a lot of time with - I'd say about 15 children we see weekly/monthly - so I do feel that I have a good idea of the general level of speech at this age. They are picking new words up quickly and easily, counting, identifying colours and shapes and speaking fairly good sentences. Ds has a few words and that's it. He can count to 2 using his fingers (not words) and I think is grasping colours by matching them up (again not using words).
I don't know what else to do. I'm a SAHP so he gets a lot of my attention on this, and I am doing everything I'm recommended to - narrating his play, modelling language etc. We look at books lots, and also ones recommended for helping speech. We play together regularly.
I just want to help him as much as I can and feel that I'm getting fobbed off. I know there's a wide spectrum of 'normal' but that doesn't mean I just have to wait and assume things will improve - or does it?
From sept ds will be going to pre-school twice a week and I feel that may be a bit of a sink or swim situation. It could really help his talking or he could start feeling left out etc. He already finds it hard to integrate when groups of children are playing and talking, much better 1-1.
He is a bright boy, has a really good memory and communicates well - he uses his own sign language a lot, so he's good at getting his message across. He also understands every word I say, so it's not comprehension that's the problem, he just genuinely seems to find it hard to make the sounds. He didn't babble as a baby, which i'm assuming is relevant.
If anyone has been through similar and come through the other side, any advice or thoughts would be so welcome.