looking for some advice/reassurance

[bigspender30]

My ds is 2 and a half and his speech is not as clear nor advanced as his peers at toddler groups. I know kids develop at their own speeds and they are all individuals etc. He says certain words clearly and asks for "Telly on" or biscuit now. I am just worried as all his friends are talking in proper sentences. Sorry for the ramble. Hope someone will put my mind at ease

I'd keep an eye on it, although it's probubly fine.
My daughter has a speech disorder whereby she understands everything, and uses long sentences but it's mostly unintellegable. She has been having speech therapy once a week for 8 months, and progress is very slow.
I'd have a word with your HV or doctor to see what they think, also speek to the nursery. The nursery mentioned to me at parents evening that they were concerned about her speech. This was when she was 2.5.
I'd try to get him on the waiting list for speech therapy, if they suggest it ASAP as waiting lists can be long. It's best to be on the safe side. Good luck.

thanks. I think I will call the HV although they are so difficult to get hold of

I know, we had to go down to the clinic in the end.
Don't worry though, what my daughter has is quite rare. It's to do with co ordinating the mouth, tounge and soft pallet.
Is he becoming frustrated at all ?

not really. He is quite good at letting us know what he wants. Have been putting the occasional tantrums down to age but perhaps it is frustration

Sounds o.k then.
My daughter used to go red in the face trying to make us understand, it was very upsetting for her. She still gets like that now, but not very often.
I think it's a very frustrating age for them anyway, even with good speech.

Hi bigspender30, do you think his hearing is ok? I think one of the things they look for if speech isn't progressing (not that I think that, he sounds ok to me) is to do a hearing test but at that young age it can be so hit and miss... Say chocolate really quietly behind him and see if he responds that sort of thing.

And also sorry to hijack a little bit but mummyloveslucy does this mouth tongue soft palate co-ordination thing have a name? My cousin is having a load of trouble trying to figure out what is going on with her daughter's speech (she's 3) she kind of swallows her words at a certain point and basically you have to learn to understand her language. It really really frustrates her too as she has so much to say... She's become quite dependent on her big brother (only 4)translating for her and won't go into the playground at nursery school without him . She's having speech therapy but they are still not sure what the deal is.

just tried the "chocolate whispering " jellybelly25 and he heard me loud and clear!

haha, then you can prob rule that out then! You could speak to your HV about it if you're still concerned, and just really encourage him to talk about stuff, not that I think you wouldn't be doing that already. I'm sure he'll pick it up the longer he's mixing with other kids and other people. If he's putting words together that's a good sign. When did he start speaking generally?

he was saying the usual dad and mum before he was one. I think I am just being over concerned. He says things like "Dad playing" and putting two words together. How do I encourage him to have a more conversation like chat with us? If we ask him something he tends not to answer but I would love to be able to interact more with him.

Jellybelly - This is from the Dyspraxia Foundation's factsheet on Verbal Dyspraxia, which lists symptoms- my DS3 has this (was diagnosed at 4, has had a lot of SALT intervention and now at 6 is nearly always intelligible ):

Speech characteristics
? A limited range of consonant and vowel speech sounds
? Overuse of one sound (favourite articulation)
? Vowel distortions
? Inconsistent production
? Breakdown in sequencing in words, particularly as length increase
? Errors of omission and substitution ? idiosyncratic substitutions may occur
? Glottal stop insertions and substitutions
? Voice difficulties affecting volume, length, pitch, quality
? Resonance difficulties affecting the overall tone of the speech
? Prosodic difficulties affecting rate, rhythm, stress, intonation
? Unintelligible speech

All a bit technical, I know, but it might ring some bells - or at least rule something out for you! Verbal Dyspraxia is pretty uncommon and lots of children just have delayed speech which a bit of SALT intervention will sort out quickly. A good SALT can work wonders.