SPEECH

[henrys7thwife]

About how many words was your DC(s) speaking by the age of 2? And how recognisable were those words, and how often did they use them? My son is just about 2 and says absolutely nothing. He makes this sweet little chirp noise with his mouth closed, gesturing to things. He says hi with the nanny but nothing else with her, and doesn't even try with us.

Have had his hearing tested, no problem. Paed said come back in a few weeks if still nothing, and to be honest, I don't think it's going to spew forth anytime soon.

So, to start us off, my son speaks: 1 word, knowledgeably, but intermittently and only after prompting.

First of all, it is not uncommon for 2yr olds to be fairly silent verbally. I have known a fair few and they all developed speech eventually. Your son could be in this group and he may just need more time.

However, there may be an underlying problem that is affecting your ds's speech. Do you have any other concerns abour your ds apart from his lack of speech? Is he sociable and do you share toys, games and pleasure together? It's good that you've got a paed. on your case in case your ds does need any assessments.

The fact that your ds can say one word is encouraging because it 'proves' he can IYSWIM.

'Hi' - sounds nice and social so that's a good sign. If by gesturing, you mean pointing and engaging with you to get the item for him, that sounds good too. As MMJ says, are there any other problems? Does he engage with you? Does he smile at normal funny things ( that you can understand why he is smiling - i.e smiling socially when he recognises Iggle Piggle or whoever)

Riven, it is so nice to read your message.

My son is 2 3/4 and has about 150 words. I took him to the speech therapist who said "don't worry but do encourage him". I've managed to get him to say "more" in front of the food word he wants but no other "sentences".

What I hate is that I feel I am probably treating a normal child as a "problem" child by getting him into the speech therapy "system". Yet I fear that if I just trust to nature it might turn out later that there was a problem and I could have helped.

I asked a friend who's a psychiatrist if he could be autistic and she said definitely not (he's sociable, makes eye contact, likes to play with people, etc). And I don't think he has a general learning disability because he can memorise long songs, including all the verses - though only his parents would be able to identify what he was singing!

But not being able to talk like the other 2 year olds around us makes such a difference to our lives. I end up treating him like a baby because I can't explain things to him. And he gets so frustrated and finds it hard to figure out the rules. So I feel that I spoil him. I can't wait for him to talk.

Henry7thwife: good luck walking the tight rope between worrying too much and worrying too little! Remember that Einstein wasn't speaking until 3 either.

Hopefully I've got another einstein then.
DS1 2.10, probably has no more than 50 words and the nearest we get to a sentanse is 'tink ooo'

Yep, Einstein would have been in speech therapy if born today.

Maybe we ought to start a late talkers' support group. I shouldn't be so paranoid. His elder brother was really late as well - but of course I didn't have time to worry about him because of coping with a new baby!!

lingle - It does take a long time to get and Speech Therapy so if you have any concerns at all you should at least get into the system. In many cases, the 'problem' will self resolve and your son may never need speech therapy. Some of the things you mention (he's sociable, makes eye contact, likes to play with people, etc). are commonly found in ASD children just as they are commonly found in normal children so they are not in themselves diagnostic indicators. But 150 communicative words is good news so focus on that as a positive feature of his development. Also check that he is understanding roughly what others his age are understanding.

Thank you, I'm going to trust that a psychiatrist who's seen my child once a week or so for all his life would tell me the truth if she suspected autism or aspergers!