Is he a late bloomer? Did anyone else have a late bloomer?

[mscongeniality]

My DS was 6 weeks premature and is now 26 months corrected age.

He has done everything late, sat up 9 months, crawled 11 months, walked 15 months, first tooth at 16 months! But once he reaches the milestone he does very well, for example now he can climb up and down stairs so quickly and most times without even holding the banister.

The only thing I'm worried about now is his language. His communication has been coming on very slow as well. He clapped around 12 months, waved bye around 16 months, and he has only recently started pointing maybe 2 months ago. Now he points to let us know what he wants, and also to point out whatever he finds interesting. For example when he goes out for a walk he always points out the bus and waves to the bus driver, who waves back at him.

He has a few words now, but they are very unclear. Eg, when he wants to sleep he takes me hand and drags me to his cot and says 'seeeeep'. He can say a few words more clearly but most are very difficult to understand. He can also say most numbers from 1-10 and the alphabet from A-F clearly. His understanding was a bit slow as well but now he can understand one and two step tasks like 'pick that up and give it to _' etc.

I know he was slightly premature so that could be why he's taking his time but does his progress seem ok?

So he's coming up to 3 but has very little language, and his speech is unclear. I'd try to get an appointment with a SALT (speech & language therapist).Some areas have drop-in SALT clinics, or perhaps an HV or GP can refer you.
Prematurity is supposed to only be corrected for until the age of 2. This can seem too early (it certainly felt like it for DS) but sometimes the prematurity can be a bit of a red herring, & it's good to have that support in place in case the difficulties persist.
I'm very impressed that he lets you know when he needs sleep!! I've never met a child with that feature!

LongDivision I think you misread my post, he is only 27 months so that is much closer to 2 than 3. Taking into account his prematurity he is about 26 months. I know they don't normally correct after 2 years old but from what I've read, new research suggests that late term premies can take longer to achieve milestones, even after correcting for age.
He has already been seen by SALT and he is on their wait list as a precaution but I'm just hoping that in the next few months his language will pick up. He still has 3 months till he's 2.5.

And yes he has always been a good sleeper thankfully, still takes a good 2 hour nap most afternoons and sleeps about 10 hours straight at night! :)

oh yes, my mistake - I was adding months rather than weeks! sorry!

I've been finding it useful to listen to the "Teach me to talk" podcasts. Some of them are a bit long-winded but she has a lot of insightful information about where children should be at certain ages, when there might be a problem, & what types of activities to do at home. I wish I'd known about them when DS was a bit younger (he's 5 now) as it focuses on the early years.

My post is not in regards to his speech but a number of things you list as 'late', I list as normal. For example crawling at 11months (the time my dd1 started to crawl), walking at 15 months (sooner than my dd1 and DS walked) and most of the other things are all in the normal range. Knowing 1-10 and a-f in the alphabet seems very good to me at this age, I think my children didn't know these until 3 and school age for the alphabet.

Hi, my daughter is 2.5. she's been pretty normal at crawling, sitting ect, walks at 14m ( little later than most friends). Great at climbing! Understands everything, and I would say ( being her mum!), quite bright. Words are on the slow side. She can barely count to 3, says some letters ( she can identify whole alphabet , but can't pronounce then. So 'C' she says 'ee'. ). Strings together several words to make sentences, but much later than friends and doesn't even try and add the little joining words. Doesnt sing songs ever. I met SALT at a drop in last week. Said she seems fine, slower end of normal. Could be genetic component to slower speech. Explained how is she can't yet produce some sounds she will substitute or omit them, so that's why many of her words are reduced to one sylabal ( or even one vowel sound). Said that wait 6 months or a year then she may have caught up or may decide to have some speech therapy. Can't tell at this stage. Not at all worrying.
Hope that helps you as they are similar ages

silverfishlondon thanks for your post!

Your daughter sounds a lot like my son because he is now trying to say more words but only sounds are coming out, for eg. swimming is 'say', teddy is 'tae'. He is already getting private SALT but I took him to a NHS drop in a few months ago and he's put on a wait list. My advice would be to get her on the wait list now because it can take some time. I think in my son's case his issue is low tone (he's very skinny) and so the muscles in his jaw are not strong enough for proper speech yet. The only thing that can help is speech therapy and time. So while I'm not as concerned anymore I think speech therapy will definitely help, earlier the better.