Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help.
After months of agonising over whether my little one is neurotypical, due to various behaviours and delays, I now believe at 22.5 months that she is.
However, despite coming on leaps and bounds in her understanding over the past 3 months, her speech delay persists. (NHS hearing screen came back normal).
She can say a handful of words (although she seldom adds to this very select list) but has difficulty enunciating and repeating.
Re: enunciation - Obviously 22 months you wouldn't expect clear articulation but I would say that hers is so bad that someone who doesn't know her would assume its just babble. What's more, she produces sound at the back of her mouth and sounds like someone who is deaf. (Hope that doesn't come across as offensive in any way).
Sometimes she gets it but as week goes by she loses it. For example, she said "all gone" a month ago like "ahh gaaah" but now she pronounces like "caah caaah".
The other day she started saying chicken (choo choo) and again uses the back of her mouth to make sound.
On repeating -- she's stubborn, so that's hard but i can sometimes get her to play a game of "can you say 'hiya!' and she'll say the word. What strikes me as unusual is that both 'mama' and 'dada' are always pronounced as "baba". Like she can't hear the difference.
I'm trying to see a specialist of course but given the current situation there are long delays. Just wondered if there was any advice from anyone? FYI - All her other social behaviour is absolutely fine, but she is quite 'shouty'.