2 year old not talking?

[Wellybobs2]

My DS is 2 (27 months) and he is a bright, intelligent little boy. He can point to colours, animals, follow instructions such as put your toys away or get your coat on, but he just isn’t really talking.
He makes animal sounds when asked what sounds each make, he says ‘yeah’, ‘more’, ‘cat’, ‘ta’,’ga ga’ (grandad) but that is it. No words together or anything. Should I be coming concerned?

When you say he points to colors and animals, do you mean in a book (proximal pointing)?... does he point to animals while out and about (distal pointing)? ducks in the park, birds in the sky, etc?

Yes so for example he has some different coloured boat bath toys and if we say which is the green, red boat etc he points to the correct one. He has a mat with animals on and if we say which is the tiger, giraffe etc he points to the correct ones and he does the same with books. He does but only with birds, he calls all birds “ka ka” (quack quack) so whether it’s a seagull or a pigeon he points and says ka ka! x

That sounds like my son. He's 3 years old he says quite a few words but every bird is a duck, a drink is tea, he does says like where mumma where's daddy. He has his own words for things aswell and uses alot of hand actions and noises for animals instead of saying what they are. No proper sentences like his class friends of his age. He can't even say his name.

@Wellybobs2 what you describe is labeling, i.e. you ask him something and he points to the correct object, this is good receptive language. However, what I was asking after was if he shares with you enjoyment spontaneously. So without any prompts he will randomly point to a far away object like a bird, car or plane, as if he is saying "wow, look at that" to show you (i.e. sharing his interests with you) - the key thing here is that he initiates.

@WonderWoman30 if there are no other development worries then it is just a speech delay, very common between 2-3 year olds. As long as his gesturing is strong (pointing to request/show, showing, giving to share, good eye contact for communicative purposes, seeking praise, etc.) then it should resolve itself out.

We had to take him to a speech and language therapist and she said he had a short attention span and might need attention classes and maybe sign language classes to help him communicate

@WonderWoman30 I wouldn't have thought that a short attention span would impair his speech, so you mean something like ADHD? At 2-3 years old I think I read somewhere that an attention span of around 1 minute is considered very good. In the toddler years actual speech only counts for around 20% of communication, the rest is gestures and eye contact that's why a speech delayed child increases it's use of gestures to compensate - being speech delayed should not impair his ability to communicate in order to meet his needs and share enjoyment with a parent.

Thats what i thought. No child at 3 has a very long attention span anyway. He'd rather use hand gestures then say the words. It was his nursery that referred him as he can't communicate properly with teachers

Sorry I’ve only just seen your replies. Yes he does occasionally initiate it, especially when he’s in his buggy if he sees a dog he will point and go ‘woof woof’ of if he sees a bird he will say ‘ka ka’ as I said before, or if he wants the tv on he will say ‘Mote?’ Which means where’s the remote
I’m just worried if he’s got anything wrong seen as his speech is late.

@Wellybobs2 from what you describe it sounds like a speech delay, they are very common at that age. The tend to clear up by themselves or through speech therapy, but it should not affect the long term view in any way - by 5 years most are at the same level.

@AladdinMum are you a speech therapist? I lurk on a lot of posts and don't usually post myself but I've seen you.

@Wellybobs2
I've just been to a NHS speech therapist run speech workshop. I'm a parent of a toddler with a speech delay too. They said children with a speech delay often suffer from poor attention, like at preschool they would move around the tables and activities quickly only engaging for a few minutes. So I would say, they should be able to engage for longer than a minute even at 2 yrs ?!

The workshop I've just been to suggested taking turn games, for building attention span. Can be as simple as mummy's turn -puts piece into puzzle, DCs turn- puts piece into puzzle. Can be any game or fishing / hook a duck / roll the ball back and forth etc.

They spoke about if your child loves playing cars, add in some people figures to build more speech opportunities into the game and to make it last longer.. so ..
Drive to shops, ice cream van, car needing repair at the garage. Or playing House type dolls games or tea parties, shops. They said if you have a boy, you can use Dinosaurs or Peppa pig toys instead of dolls whatever gets them interested.

Play at their level and you try to speak more when playing with your DC or you can do a commentary on what they are doing. Repeat the same single words a lot in context.

The therapist said words together come once they have about 50 single words. Item words like shoe are the first to come, but also people names. Then you might get the two words together like Mummy Shoe.

I would try to self refer for a speech assessment. You might be able to google to find how for your area or phone your HV team and ask how to self refer. Some areas even have speech drop in clinics and they can tell you the info.

The NHS will probably not offer any actual speech therapy pre 3 years unless other issues, but you are in the system if you still need to be. You might get offered a workshop like I did or a group course. Anything helps in my opinion and hopefully your DC will come on leaps. Good luck

@dogandduck no I am not a speech therapists, I have been along side them while they work, and the exercises you describe are the type of typical exercises administered to children under 3 years old, so basically play based. I specialize in child development, specifically autism.