Speech delay

[JammyK]

Hi. My ds1 is 2yrs 2months old and he is such a sweet little boy but his speech doesnt seem to be developing. He can say yes, no, oh no, hi, bye, night night and he makes some different animal noises and thats it. The words that he can say arent pronounced properly (i.e. he says my for bye). Like I said, he is lovely but hes very hyperactive a lot of the time and is a real handful. I try to talk to him as much as I can and ask him to point things out in books etc. His understanding is pretty good I think and theres nothing wrong with his hearing. Ive asked the HV about it and she dismissed it saying that hes too young for anything to be done about it.

I am so worried about him as Ive been reading that speech delay could be caused by all sorts of things (autism, ADHD etc). Ive been in tears about this most days for the last few months . Hes due to start pre-school in September and Im worried that he wont make any friends cos he cant talk like most children his age and will he be able to get the carers to undersatnd what he wants. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

boo64 - my dd is doing ok, she still only has a vocabulary of 40-50 very unclear words and doesnt string anything together at all she does seem to be having a bit of a word spurt at the moment and is starting to mimick much more (she said shit in the cafe! lucky for us it just sounded like shhh shhh - LEM makes note to self to watch language!)

lem i wanted to ask you for some tips as i'm still awaiting for st for my ds he is 2.3 and really doesn't say much at all and as your dd is doing st was wandering what would be best for me to help i do repeat what he is having like oh your drinking your juice do yoyu like juice whats that in your cup and he has said it but he seems to say things once then tjhats it wont be pushed so i dont but really would like to be doing things while waiting just to help as i do get people giving us funny looks as he's not talking but other than the talking hv said he is doing stuff some 3 yr olds are just learning to do so he is bright just want to help him

bubblagirl - im not best placed to give advice, im usually lurking around these threads hoping to pick things up. If you look back to by big long essay you will see some of the things that have definately helped DD. It sounds like you are doing all the right things with repeat repeat repeat, it does get tedious (sp!!) and you feel a prime twit but it does work. And i cant say enough how much the choices work and avoiding questions whicn can be answered yes or no.

Its such a worry isnt it, i do think we, as parents are under so much pressure to make sure everything is just so for our little ones. I wish we could just let them be, without feeling they have to keep up, when they are sooo young. Saying that, im pushy as a pit bull when it comes to DDs speech, but you have to be to get your voice heard sometimes.

thanks alot for your help its just a shame other mums look down on your child for not speaking yet he can do many things there child cant i really want to stoop to there level and say all the things he can do that there child cant but i just let them be thanks again

Surely not many mums would look down on a child for talking a bit later than average? Or a lot later than average, for that matter? Playgroups are kind of nightmarish, but I think it's mostly just the awkwardness of the small talk.
Jammy, your DS will be quite young for pre-school? Aren't 2 year olds still playing beside each other rather than with each other anyway? My 2yr1month old certainly can't play with other children yet. He doesn't speak in sentences yet either, and I don't think his speech his clear enough to be understood very well by people who don't know him. Don't mean to dismiss your concerns, and if you're worried then seek advice if only to put your mind at rest. I just wanted to say I don't think he'll stand out a mile because he doesn't have many words at this age.

thursdaynext, you make a good point there about many many children being at differing stages of speech development. I have to say that sadly, some mothers are very competitive and seem to like to compare what their children can/cannot do. It has happened to me once that i had to deal with an indirect but very hurtful jab at my DDs lack of speech, some mothers obviously don't have empathy, or are so far up their own pushy competitive bottoms to realise that this sort of thing hurts. Basically what this woman said, after me confiding that DD ws having problems and had been refered to speech therapy was this, to her DD, who speaks amazingly well, i even commented positively about it to her - she said to her DD, DD don't make silly noises like SYZ, he is nearly a year younger than you, dont be a baby! The boy she was talking about was about 14m at the time and had more speech than my DD, i wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, she knew i could hear because i glared at her and she simply shrugged as if to say, oh sorry you wasnt supposed to hear that

Lucyellensmum, what an unpleasant, thoughtless woman.
And yeah, I know some mums can be competitive. But I do think that if you're worried about something (and we're all worried about our dcs at some stage), then the kind of small talk and comparisons you get at playgroups just for want of anything better to say can maybe sound like people are being unpleasant when they don't intend to be. If you see what I mean, I didn't express that very well.
It's easier to be tactful on MN where you have a bit more time to think and respond.
But anyway, stuff it, if the playgroups are that awful, the weather finally seems better, maybe you should just go to the park .