Speech delay 3 year old child

[Heartofgoldmumof2]

My DD turned 3 years at the end of June. She has delayed speech. She started using words in April at 33 months old. Her first words were ice cream and cake. She has not been diagnosed with any other conditions e.g. autism and is not showing any symptoms. She is coming out with new words each day. Not all of her speech is clear as she still needs practice and she is starting to form basic sentences when asking for things e.g. Lolly please mummy, more please mummy, help please. My DD is under SALT on NHS we have some basic targets to meet and they will review her in 3 months. I wanted to ask other parents who have experienced this - did your child catch up to the same level as their peers? Also what do you feel made the biggest difference to their progress?

Hi, whilst I don't have any answers, just wanted to say we are in similar boat. Nearly 2.5 and only about 6 consistent words and DD can repeat these lots through the day! I play with her, use short sentences, extend words ect but she just isn't talking yet. Doesn't copy my words either. I'm worried how this is affecting her socially, shes suddenly become nervous around other children which she wasnt before. We have our first speech therapy in August. I think it's the not knowing that's the hardest.

My DD had severe glue ear from birth and had virtually no speech at 3. 1-2 word sentences, very very few words. Most words were mispronounced ('tree' was 'pwee' until she was 4.5). I was a single parent working freelance so I had to relocate every 6 months for work, meaning I could never set up any SALT for her. I did what I could myself, and now at 6 you really wouldn't know she'd had any issues. I was nervous about Reception, as she was definitely lagging behind her classmates then (would say things like 'that's him's scarf' instead of 'his' etc etc), but she's caught up really well.

DS had two words at 27 months. Six months later, you really would not have been able to tell that his speech was ever delayed. His was an unusually speedy catch up, but I believe the majority of children catch up by Reception if not before, particularly if the delay only affects expressive language and not understanding of speech. But it is so true that the not knowing is hardest to deal with.

It sounds as though your DD is doing great, OP. I remember our SLT was more excited about DS's first 3 word combination than his first single words! Combining usually starts once a child has about 50 single words so will happen in your DD's own time, lavender.

I found the Hanen Centre book, It Takes Two to Talk, a really good source of advice and ideas on how to support at home, worth getting hold of to complement the SLT if you haven't come across it already.

My son will be 2 soon and does not say any words at all apart from mama occasionally but this is not in context to get my attention just random I have been very concerned he is my 2nd child and feel this is a red flag as he has never really babbled just squeels a lot to show emotion I am hoping he is just a bit delayed but will catch up

If you Google Leeds speech and language there's an nhs site which has a CSLT toolkit. You can download the whole thing or just pick what's relevant to you but it's about helping your child talk with ideas how to help them. It contains a strategy for learning the word "more" which my daughter picked up from it. (Just give a very small snack, when they indicate they want more you say "more" and give them more.
Unfortunately we are trying it all but it's not kicking in just yet!