3 yr old, slow with speech, any handy hints?????

[OzJo]

My ds is 3yrs 3 months, has an older sister who is very talkative, and he tend to be monosylabic with his speech...or gabbles alot. He can and does run to full sentences but not often, only when he really needs to. He is fine with his comprehension, and can hear well. I've read posts here before about how to help kids along. I'm trying to read more with him, and repeating basic sentances to him, running commentery type stuff. Anyone got any tips as to what's useful?

We had speech therapy for our DD, as by three she barely spoke. We developed a thing where she talked through soft toys, as she was so self conscious.
For example When reading we would ask what 'teddy' liked about a picture etc and she was happier to express herself through teddy until her confidence took over, and now we can't shut her up.

Thanks for that hammerhouse...Ds isn't really shy..I hadn't really thought there was a problem till we had friends stay recently, one's a teacher and announced that ds had a speach problem and we whould get him to see a speech therapist. He goes to a really good daycare where they got someone in to talk to him, and they think it's borderline, but might as well make the referal as it won't hurt. He does babble alot. I'm sure by the time we get to see someone he'll be more coherent. I'll try the teddy thing, see if it makes a difference.

Agree that "It takes two to talk" is brilliant - particularly as it doesn't have any scary milestone charts in it! It is published by the Hanen foundation.

Tclanger - interesting what you said about "eat lunch then park". So should I avoid saying "park after lunch"?

I would second "It takes two to talk".

Has your child had a hearing test? My son's speech was very delayed due to glue ear. Its a simple problem to treat and worth getting an audiologist to check his hearing.

ooh that's exciting TClanger. We are having a bit of an "explosion" at the moment (3.2 months). He answered question "what you are eating" correctly three nights in a row and we now have nine whole two-word combos! But we've not yet moved on to anything outside the present moment. He still guesses all that from routine.

can't wait to get started.

There's no hijack, it's a really usefull discussion about language developement! I'll definately try and find the book ( actually have a child free morning tomorow, so plan luxurious book browsing anyway) We're in Australia, so hope that doesn't mean it's hard to get. Interesting about the say less, listen more. I've thought that the running commentary would be a bit overwhelming for him, and will definately try to keep things in the right order.
I haven't worried about his hearing as he seems to respond well....I haven't noticed any delays there, but will certainly see about getting it checked. He is prone to ear infections, but we are masters at picking them up quickly, ( have spent a bloody fortune on the GP to get them checked whenever he has a cold)...and they seem to be easing up as he gets older.
OK, time for a large G&T, mindless tv then bed.....( it's 8pm here )

agree with TClang's point about the ordering - first x, then y - as that comes in handy later on, for sequencing, basic awareness of time. So I'ld say - "McDonalds, then playground, OK?".

I found that the running commentary stuff was useful - if kept to very simple language. Generally Hanen recommends a combination of comments and questions to keep an interaction going.

Oz - think you are definitely doing the right thing accepting the referral. Especially since he's had ear infections in the past I think you should definitely ask for a hearing test too.

About the book - try ebay, or you can order directly from Canada (www.hanen.org). I've found it useless looking on amazon for it.

No luck with the book here, my mum is coming over from the UK in about 5 weeks, is it easy to get over there? She could bring a copy with her....or I'll have to track it down on the internet.
Got a copy of the referal for the speech pathologist today. It says his receptive language and concerntration are OK, but 1:1 conversing appears to show difficulty, limited sentence structure.....sums it up pretty well. He strugles to string the words together sometimes ( he can do it, I've heard him chatting to other kids in full sentences )....
Let me know about the book......

Thanks Tclanger, I'll order it. My mum was recommended a book " How to talk and kids will listen so kids will talk to you", but having googled it it seems more a broad approach to raising your kids, not really a specific focus on language developement ( that said it looks good, might get mum to get it anyway).. The " it takes 2" book will take about 3 to 6 weeks to get here, any handy hints while we wait?

Ignore the last post, just found a childcare library that has got 4 copies in stock! Can nip down tomorow, join, get a copy, then photocopy the buggery out of it! Good stuff...