did anyone's dc say their first word very late? (say older than 2?)

[nappyaddict]

If so I mean no words at all. Not dadadada, mamamama, nananana or even anything that remotely sounds like a word? My friends little girl is almost 2 years and 1 month and she is now a little worried. She's never worried about it before cos she thought it would come with time, but now she is beginning to wonder if it is very late.

my dd is 1 and 10 months. she says very few words as whole words. she can say daddy mommy, her sisters name and a few other words that she will say once and then refuse to repeat

she says o-oww when she wants you to open something, and no matter what i do, she refuses to say 'open'

what do you think?

Does she point to things, with her index finger rather than her whole hand?

Does she understand what you say to her?

she understands everything. she does things i ask her, she points with her finger etc etc.
now that i think of it she also says shoes. and a whole lot of 'no'

fiofio was that q for me? i keep waiting to see where it will develop. once she said cookie so i thought that was an improvement, but then she never said it again....

FWIW if she understands what you say, and can point etc it doesn't sound like there is a serious problem. Does she bring things to show you ie shared interest?

My DD2 is also just 2 & says Mum-meeeee & noooo. She babbles too.

However she is very good at communicating. If she wants juice (instead of water) she tries to take the lid off her beaker & bangs on the fridge door. She can get her shoes, lays down for nappy change, knows her head, tummy, hands, nose, etc.

She also points alot - with her index finger (what does that mean?)

I am starting to get concerned...

DD1 is 5 & talks non-stop.

Pointing a lot with index finger is v v good.

It is neurotypical (ie normal).

Children with autism tend not to do it (a la my DS1), or to do it a little bit and then stop (a la my DS3).

Does she understand out of context? ds1 always reacted appropriately to 'get your coat' 'where's your shoes' etc but out of context (and away from nouns) his understanding was zilch.

Pointing ideally with index finger - signs to be wary of include using an adult's hand to point or picking up an adult hand and putting it on the object she wants. If pointing to share interest (eg pointing at a dog) then that's a very good sign that development is pretty normal even if speech is delayed.

I'd refer anyway. I referred ds2 on his 2nd birthday because his speech was stupidly incomprehensible (and he was high risk for lots of things) and he didn't get seen until he was 3 .

ds1 points a lot but with his whole hand, my hand, or his middle finger. He finds it hard to hold an index finger point weirdly. I think he only pointed with my hand at 2 though.

Good point about understanding, jimjams.

DS3 is like your DS1 - he does understand lots of things in context ie if he is at home, and it's early evening, and I say it's bathtime, he goes straight upstairs.

My DS1 has always pointed with his index finger but in comparison with DS2, there was, and is, a very obsessive quality to the pointing. This has carried over into his speech in that he will say things obsessively - not echolalia just making the same observation over and over again. He understands out of context now but did not at 2 years. If OP's child realises that actions - i.e pointing are 'pointless' unless adult is observing, that is a very good sign. I have read that some ASD children may point even if in an empty room which typically an NT child would not do as they know the only real purpose of the point is to direct another's attention.

My son was 4 before he uttered a word, 3 weeks after I had finished a Makaton course. I learnt to sign and he spoke, the little bugger!

gastro - when did he get seen by speech therapy?

He was seen by speach therapy really early, but he was prem and came home on o2, there fore he was allocatred an o2 physiotherapist, who saw him until he was 18 months old and refered him on to his speach therapist ... and all the other therapists.

my ds2 was just after 2 I think. He is now 2.6 and isn't talking as such but has lots of words.
a colleague's dd1 was at least 2.6y (as that was when she came back to work after her dd2 and we talked about it). She is 3.2y now and started a few months ago.

can you give an example of out of context understanding?

what is the difference between pointing with index finger or taking parents hand, cognitively speaking?

taking the parent's hand and say placing it on a fridge or cupboard, or toy you want turned on is sometimes called 'using an adult hand as a tool' and is often seen in autism (NT kids use it too, but perhaps not as often or in combination with other means of communication).

If you point using an index finger and say whilst holding eye contact with another adult then you are showing good joint attention. You understand that you can draw someone else's attention to another object. It's particularly 'good' if you do that just to share interest about something rather than to get something.

Having said all that my 9 year old severely autistic son has lovely joint attention and quite frequently shares interests so it's not something that's impossible for children with an ASD.

You always have to look at red flags as a whole and look at everything the child is doing.

An out of context understanding would be something like 3 toys on a table. No gesture, no looking at the object just "give me the car' (that's 1 key word). We're now teaching verbs out of context. "shake the car'. Again I have to be careful not to gesture etc.

jimjams and cyber will know more than me, but pointing with index finger to a parent shows that a child is aware of the need to communicate to a parent (and wants to communicate with the parent)- whereas taking a parents hand is more using a parents hand as a tool than communicating.

out of context - if your child sees you get your coat and bag on ready to go out, then hears you say - get your shoes, they may get their shoes because they have memorised the visual clues, rather than because they understand the words "get" and "shoes". So to test out of context understanding - you would get a bear and a ball say, and say to the child "get the ball" without pointing to the ball.

cross posted!