Speech in 28 month old- what should she be able to do/ not do

[ButtonPatch]

My daughter can say words for things that are there in front of her, in her books etc.
She cant answer questions unless it's a couple of words like "no juice" or "more please". A lot of what she says is babbling or not in context, instead of telling me what she wants even if she knows the word she will spout a load of gibberish then point and shout "that one!".

I keep being told off family members that shes doing fine but the health visitor has said shes concerned and is referring her to paediatric?

My friends son is 30 months and can only say 3 recognisable words to others, he has just been referred to speech and language.
She went to some speech sessions in our local library put on by the health visitors and the main things she seemed to mention were like going back to basics, talking through everything you’re doing, saying what objects are out loud and encouraging her to use her words by before giving her what she wants getting her to repeat the word back to you.
It sounds like your little girl is doing just fine, if she knows the word but doesn’t say it she is probably just being a lazy toddler 😂
My daughter is 2y 9m and can speak in full sentences but still sometimes refuses to say things if she’s tired/being a toddler basically!

I wouldn’t worry too much yet :) xx

Thank you for responding

I've been breaking everything down into simple sentences and have forced DH to speak slower and more clearly because he's a mumbler haha.
The hv said dd was too repetitive and didn't interact just repeated sentences back. But thats sort of how I've been teaching her oops.
I'll take it with a pinch of salt yet, hopefully she'll start putting it all together into sentences soon

I’m sure she will, if she’s got the individual words it’s only a matter of time. I can’t remember when my DD started speaking more than 2/3 words at a time.. it just happened!
Oh just remembered another thing the HV said to my friend was ‘giving them time to respond’ , I’m guilty of this, I ask her a question then if she doesn’t respond in a couple of seconds I’ll ask again 🙈
Some HV are harsher than others!! Yours sounds a bit like that, repeating things back is how toddlers learn surely?! I don’t know, some HV make you worry about things rather than reassure you I feel! X

Repeating things back is called echolalia and it's completely normal in under 3 year old children and is definitely how they learn vocabulary. Over the age of 3 echolalia can be a sign or symptom of autism. Your daughter is not yet 2 & 1/2 so for your hv to be focused on that is a bit preemptive in my opinion. If I'm honest I can't remember what my sons speech was exactly like at 28 months so I can't compare for you but I do know that he barely spoke at all until 23 months (just mama, dada, juice, dog) he is now 3 & 1/2 and speaks fine however has some mild echolalia and is on the waiting list to be assessed for autism due to this and some other social symptoms.

I remember my daughter was a gibberer, as I called her. She’d shout in frustration, she knew the word she didn’t know how to say it though. Her speech improved by time she was at nursery and though she had some difficulty it was the nursery staff that arranged my daughter to attend speech therapy not a health visitor..she was about 3 because she started nursery then and she had like 4 sessions before they said there was nothing wrong with her speech.
I’m suprised the health visitor is being like that considering your daughters 2 years old.

It's hard because I can see her thinking and she tries to tell me but it is jibberish most of the time. Today she was playing with snail shaped buttons.. stacking them as always and she told me they were "splocks" snail blocks.
Nobody else can tell what she's saying I think mostly because they don't listen. The jabber the health visitor heard was her mumbling the shapes and colours of the blocks on the table.

I'm still believing it's a phase, until a couple of weeks ago she responded to her name every time, answered simple questions and was speaking clearer. I feel like she's being awkward mixed with having an information overload.
It just hurts that at 2 they're trying to label her, the only label i want her to ever have is her name.

as long as you understand her that’s all the matters for now.
Children develop at different rates. Some get the hang of things quicker than others and some don’t.
If kids all developed at the same time they’d be no need for nursery’s and kids would be starting school at 3 instead of 4 or 5
She will get the hang of it eventually but don’t force her.. just take her to speech therapist and get her opinion..hopefully she will tell you the development of kids

And btw a snail block= splock, absolute genius! Rather than take a tantrum like most 2 years old because she couldn’t say it she just made her own word up, how many 2 year olds can do that? Your kids more clever than what a health visitor says

Dd is 8 now and doesn't stop speaking, she had some speech and language therapy but was also diagnosed with autism

Hi sorry to ask but is she considered verbal , like level 1 ?☺️