how clear should speech be at 2 1/2?

[Fio2]

was just wondering because my ds justs waffles on constantly but sometimes his speech is hard to determine by others. infact alot of the time I feel like his translator. He just misses out letters like please is peas and so forth. He seem to understand evrything and IS talking but can be a bit shy and not answer peoples questions sometimes. I am just wondering if I am worrying over nothing. I know it will only be a few weeks of speech therapy if there is a problem so I am not worried worried if that makes sense!!!

My daughter is 4 and non-verbal so this is a whole new ball game to me!

Sounds fine to me fio2 (if "peas" is an example of a badly pronounced word- l's in that position are hard to say and often not inplace at 2). Definitely soundfs much clearer than ds2 who I would say is 100% incomprehenble to strangers and about 70% incomprehensible to me) DS2 (2 and a half as well) is being assessed tomorrow so I can give you a clearer idea then. I'm going to be quizzing the SALT a bit

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thanks jimjams! hope it goes well tommorrow. Yes I think L's are a problem for him. When asked his name it sounds like 'wee-wee'

and he gets confused counting so its 1, 2 , 4 6, 3 ,7 is this normal too? (i am totally lost honest!)

thanks twiglet

Sounds normal to me. When ds started nursery at 2 I noticed during his settling-in that the staff were relating to him as to a non-verbal child, paying no attention to his speech. I knew that his speech wasn't particularly clear, but it was only then that I realised just how unclear it was. I had a talk with the Principal, and the staff started listening to him and learning to understand him. He only became clear to the 'average' person around his 3rd birthday. The first things that got clearer were the 'stock' phrases that he heard and used all the time: greetings, 'What's your name?', etc.

The counting sounds normal too. It merely means that he has no concept of what the numbers indicate yet, they are just a list to him at the moment.

At one point my ds was proudly announcing to everyone that we were going home 'to our fuck' - flat . Took him a week or two to get it right!

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At 2.5yo children are so different with their speech, and your DS sounds just fine (from your description) to me too. At 2.5yo some children's language is mainly imcomprehensible to anyone beyond immediate family.

I've just posted on the other "speech" thread about how ds didn't start talking intelligibly until well after 3 - but that we had expected that as I was late to talk.

But now, at 3y 10m, he's talking 19 to the dozen. Not all words are complete, but he is intelligible, has good sentence construction and a wide vocabulary.

I'm impressed at the counting - I'm over the moon that ds has just shown me that he can count to 8 - but even now he sometimes swaps the numbers (althugh I suspect he is now doing that deliberately).

Prettycandles - ds also has some embarrasing mispronounciations: Fat Controller comes out "F*cking roller" and "Baby fox" (we see them in our garden regularly) comes about "Baby f*k

my dd (2y6m) still says "bunts" for buttons and "c*nts" for curtains

Phew! thanks ladies I will shut up about it now, dh keeps saying I fuss too much. Amazing how he can say 'naughty mummy' sooooo clearly!

I feel so inexperienced with 'normal' child development

Thanks 4 the thread, Fio. My DD is a matter of weeks older, & she is equally incomprehensible. DS spoke fewer words but more clearly, at the same age.

Fio, I just took my ds twins, same age, to the HV over this. I am not too worried about their speech but their communication with others might be a problem when they start nursery in January

They also say peas etc. which HV said was completely normal for this age as some letters are quite hard for toddlers. They are being refered to a speech therapist just to be checked, HV thinks they are doing well but can see my point about their lack of communication with others. I just don't want them to suffer the humiliation of peeing themselves because they haven't asked to go (I know it sounds silly)or being isolated (just the two of us!) Basically, if you are worried see your HV even if it just to set your mind at rest as they do have a little test they go through with them. (Basically asking them questions, pointing to pictures in a book to see if they recognise items and names of items.)

fio2.. my dd spoke very well really early on... but ds who is same as yours has been gibbering and finds it quite difficult.. I think personally he hasn't had nearly as much 1-1 attention that she did... so am now trying to rectify with a bit more quality book time etc before bed.
He is also totally different in almost every respect- so I guess it through us a bit.. (you think coz u have 1 child u will have experience.. it's just not true.. sometimes you learn a whole new load of things from number 2 (or 3 or even 4!!)

My DS 2.5 sounds similar to yours. He has been assessed as having a mild speech delay but is progressing every day, so am not worried any more. He can not tell you his name though.( but he has an unusual name ).

Fio2 If I ever see normal speech development in a child I think I will pass out with complete and utter shock (or fail to recognise what is going on)

My SALT has a chart she is using with ds2 to see which sounds should be in place by which age. IIRC By 2 the sounds m, p, b, d and t should be in place and able to be said in all positions in a word (so for example ds2 can say Mum (m at end and beginning of word) but not ama (m in the middle). She's bringing DS2's communication programme when she comes to see ds1 next Saturday so I can try and get the list from her. Or at least have another nose. Some sounds are sensible substitutions - so for example ds2 can't say t at all, but he often uses d instead- which is the same but voiced- os that's a good substitution- sometimes that goes to pot though. She's also borrowed a book I have which gives centiles for sounds development so I can look that up for you next week as well.

LOL jimjams it is getting harder and harder to tell what is 'normal' and what isnt and whether it is all merging into one! Ds tends to copy all the stuff off dd I DONT want him too aswell. Like hand biting grrrrrrrrrrrr

hanks everyone for your help. I think I am tending to worry more about him as I have less input from other people now as he 'used' to go to nursery but now he is at home all the time and I havent been able to get him a playschool place. ho hum

Ah we get ds hitting his head with his hand But he doesn't do it hard like ds1 so I tend to ignore it!