When do toddlers start to talk?

[Eulalia]

I have a similar concern to Croppy. Our son is 21 months on Thursday and says very little. A few words consisting of Dada, Umma (mum!), nana (food) and sometimes he says teddy and that is about it. The thing is he used to say more. He said his first word just after his 1st birthday (button) and loved saying it then it just disappeared. He also later said hat but that has recently been dropped too. I wouldn't mind but he 'shouts' very loudly and has also just taken to doing a high pitched scream. I am sure this is just a way of communicating but I don't understand why he isn't trying to use words more. He seems to like the rhythm of nursery rhymes - he says "baa baa" for baa baa black sheep and he imitates the noise of household appliances.

According to the literature he should have 200 words by age 2! What should I do to encourage speech or should I just wait? How should I deal with the screaming? I am saying "I" here because it is generally me that is with him most of the time. Husband tends to want to do things like put him out of the room when he screams but I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. He does understand words and quite complex phrases if you ask him to do something so I guess this is a good sign.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just my experience, but two of mine talked early, DS1 at 10 mths, (and he is now a spin doctor in the govt, heaven help us!) and DD1 at 9mths (she was talking in several word sentences by 16 mths), while the other two were late.

DS2 was over two when he launched straight into sentences, he didn't bother with the single word stuff, apart from mummy & daddy, having discovered that grunting and pointing produced excellent results.

DD2 had at most 20 words when she was 2.5. I have to admit, I was getting a bit worried by then, although she obviously understood what we were saying. Then she began making huge leaps forward, coasting until the next leap. By the time she went to playgroup at 3.25, she had caught up with her peers and now has excellent speech. One thing I noticed is that she developed a stammer every time she made a leap forward, as though her brain couldn't process the information fast enough. Now she is at school the stammer reappears when she has learnt some new skill, not necessarily connected with speech.

I've no idea what all this means, just that each child is different, I suppose.

Hmm .. yeah, Ok, I agree, I think 2 is very young to see a ST. Unless there is a suspicion on your part as well that there is a general developmental problem, and the speech is just one manifestation of this, I don't think a ST would help. In our area, presumably because of lack of funding, ST won't see children that young anyway. When my son first went for an assessment (at 3 I think), he wouldn't co-operate. The ST talked to him as if he was stupid - he was very bright - so after telling this was 'a blue car', and 'a red car', when she asked him about the yellow and green cars, he said "humpa mumpa" and "booma looma" ...! Honestly! He was just bored, and was far too young for proper ST. We got referred for 6 months - which took 10!

I disagree, as my ds saw an ST from around 22 months (he had only three words - mum, dada and up) and it was wonderful. He saw her for about 6 months and hasn't looked back since. He is now almost 3 and just started to say 3 word sentences; his last assessment at 2 and a half said he was going well, his pronunciation and comprehension is good and his vocab only slightly below average, and that he no longer needed ST.

It was really only playing from my perspective, but she knew her stuff and it really worked! She said the earlier they go the better, and the faster they catch up. If you wait until they are 4 or 5 it takes them longer to learn new things or break bad habits (like mispronouncing things), plus they can get teased at kindy or school for talking "baby talk". She also said that how much they understand is just as important as how much they can say!

IMHO, it can't hurt to get an assessment, it would put your mind at ease if nothing else. "

My son is 19 months old and also doesn't talk, but he babbles a lot. He can say "Mum, Dad, and ta," and occasionally he will repeat a word when he hears it, but then never says it again. I took him for a hearing test last week and his hearing is absolutely fine, he could even hear sounds that were barely audible, so at least I feel some relief at that. Apparently Einstein didn't talk til he was 4, (amazing huh) and someone told me last week that their nephew didn't talk until well after 2 years of age, but when he did, he suddenly started to speak in well-pronounced sentences. Like he had been taking it in and storing it up for ages and then one day just decided to come out with it. I wouldn't worry too much about children who talk later than others, just keep an eye on how they are going and have them tested if you think it's necessary.

I have gone through this a couple of times and may well be heading for a 3rd! Oldest daughter had speech therapy and physiotherapy from about 9m old. She had many medical problems and developmental delay in her gross motor skills. Speech therapy at such a young age is less about getting children to say words or sounds, but to encourage them to play using sounds as a part of it. My daughter absolutely loved her sessions, and although she was behind with her development in other ways she raced ahead with her speech, and by the age of two was able to reel off her address and postcode with aplomb!

With dd number 2 it was a different story. By the age of 2 she was only saying mama and dada, the rest was babble. By this time we had moved to bedfordshire (previously kensington, London), and expected the same degree of help - very naive looking back. She was sent to st but they wanted to put her in a group session with other children, and parents were not allowed to sit in! I was not happy with this, but against my better judgement agreed to try it - huge mistake. Dh took her for the session. When the therapist arrived it was not the one my dd had already met. The st grabbed her hand and pulled her off dh without telling dd who she was or where she was going. Dh followed frantically asking who on earth she was, with dd crying at being dragged off by a complete stranger. Despite objections of st , dh sat in on the session, then decided enough was enough and brought her home. We complained to the original therapist and refused to let her go back to the group. From then on she was seen by the original st as an individual, and since then she has improved. She is now 5 and doesn't stop talking! However she does have a problem in making herself understood from time to time, and has had children at school being mean about the way she speaks.

Now with child number 4 (number 3 had no probs) who is 1, we look like heading down a similar route to number 1 child. This is making me very nervous because I know the level of service round here is imho dreadful.

So I guess my message is that speech therapy does work, but it depends on the type of st you receive. Make yourself aware of all the different options on offer and pick one that you know is best for your child's personality, don't let them decide what is best based on a 15 minute assessment of a child they have never met before.

Lou33 - thank you for your posting, which couldn't have come at a better time. Tomorrow dd goes for initial assessment at the ST clinic (in Bedford!)and the group sessions you mention would not be appropriate for her at all. Actually, I can't see how they would be beneficial to anyone - what would a toddler learn about speech in what would probably be a very noisy and chaotic environment, and without the comfort and support of their parent(s)? If they did manage to learn something, how could they follow it up at home if the parents were not involved? Or have I missed the point? Anyway, it sounds like something to avoid.

I'm glad you read this in time then! The appointment we had wasn't in Bedford itself, but I would think the area probably held pretty much the same type of therapy all over.

You make the same points that I did at the time, and we were proved right.So do not let them try and persuade you differently as you know your child best. I think group speech therapy may only work with older children, and even then only if you had a perfect class of children who never got distracted. Seemed ridiculous to me then and now!

Good luck with your appointment, I would be interested to hear how you think it went .

A slow talker doesn?t necessarily mean a bad talker as regards mispronunciation ? I think that has to be made clear. My son is 2.7 and hardly talks at all although says individual words. His longest sentence yet is ?night night Mummy? although I?d say he had about 50 words, although some he has used for awhile and then discarded. However the words he does say he says very clearly and properly ? he doesn?t always get there ? for instance ?clock? he has problems with the ?cl? bit but it is actually quite a difficult word. He can say ?tractor? properly though (a proper Scottish boy he rolls his r?s!). He certainly has never used baby talk and actually seems to have waited until he knows the word properly before saying it.

Also many slow talkers know hundreds of words as can be shown by them pointing to things in books or going to fetch things when asked. It just seems that they don?t think it is that important to say them. Many adults don?t speak much but of course one doesn?t notice this because they have to talk in many situations but there are wide variations from the chatty, verbose to the silent types.

I do think 2 is young for a ST and it seems in our area the HV also agree ? they used to do a general assessment at 18 months but upped it to age 2 as it was found that kids change so much at this age. The age 2 assessment hardly covered speech. It seems concern only arises around age 3. I think you know yourself though if your child is improving or not.

My 22 month old has a lisp which is really cute right now esp. when he says please and yes but does anyone know if it is something you grow out of or would speech therapy correct it or is it just an endearing part of his personality. He can't quite manage 'cl' so for clock he says 'cock' (unfortunately). The other day we were coming out of the lift at the supermarket and a couple of students (girls) were on their way into it when he pointed at one of them and shouted 'boobies'. God knows where that came from.....

I think he will grow out of it... there are plenty of things DS is saying much better than before. If you felt that it wasn't improving at all in 6 or 8 months than maybe it's worth looking into. There are plenty of kids who hardly speak at 24 months anyway !

Lou33 - Thanks for your interest. I went in there all geared up for a fight (and there was a mix up about where the appointment actually was - their mistake, not mine! - which didn't help - grrr) but deflated pretty quickly as the therapist was very good. I felt she listened attentively to what we (dh & I) had to say, was thorough and careful in her assessment of dd and gave us some useful advice to follow up at home (although it's too soon to say whether it will be effective!). So, as you say, it all depends on the individual therapist.
I hope you have better luck (and that's what it appears to boil down to) than before, if No. 4 needs ST.
S-t-P

Can anybody help me, my little boy is 2 and a half and he is a bit behind in his speech, he says plenty of words but does not pronounce many of them well. We are about to book up hearing tests, although we know he hears well, and also a ST. My HV agrees that he is below average for his age but what is "average". Advice from anyone who has been down this road would be greatly appreciated. I know he understands everything I say and is a very very bright little boy.

frida, we went through something similar with DS1 at about the same age. He went for hearing tests, appointments with a doctor at a Child Development Centre and ST. It turns out that all it was was a slight delay and possibly some hearing loss due to cattarh (is that how you spell it?). He is now 3 1/2 and his speech is basically normal for his age and I now wish he would shut-up sometimes . All the best I know what you are going through you can't help but worry by what you say he sounds fine, try not to worry too much, if nothing else the tests will put your mind at ease.

Frida my ds sounds very similar to yours. He's 26 months old, says a lot of words (some of them clear, some of them not very clear) and he still talks gibberish a lot of the time with a few 'proper' words thrown in. He had a hearing test last year and it came back fine, so he has no problems there. He also learns very quickly and understands so much of what I say. So, basically, I am interested to hear what advice you get because I also wonder how clear my ds' speech should be right now. Best of luck.

36 months is a good point to check for accuracy of pronunciation.

At 2 my youngest had no 'language problems' - i.e. had wide vocab, and put together lots of words into sentences, but had some sounds missing, and was therefore hard to understand. But by 2 yrs 9 months he was much much clearer, and could say all his sounds, and mostly did.

My eldest was the same, except that at 3 he still had whole rafts of sounds completely missing - s, sh, f, v, p, t, c, g, h, ch, r, l, ...! He was very bright, had huge vocab., big imagination, and no-one could understand what he was saying. (I could only understand about 50%). He finally started regular speech therapy when he was nearly 4, and made huge improvements over just a couple of months.

(Unfortunately he reached a plateau, and for the past year has not made any progress, and still can't say c, g, or r.)

Anyway, hope this helps, and yours manage to speak more clearer by themselves by the time they are 3.