27 months old is he behind in development?

[fernie3]

the reason for me asking is that i was reading on another forum about a woman who was worried about her little boy of the same age, she though he was behind whereas I thought "wow he sounds advanced compared to my little one!" but I was a bit taken aback when every replied that he DID sound behind!

based on that post :
my son is 27 months

he can say maybe 20words clearly and can point to about 4 body parts.

and says other things but they are very hard to understand.

He doesnt respond to any questions - he couldnt answer if you asked him "whats your name" or " how old are you"

He DOES understand simple instructions like "get your shoes" or "in the bin".

He wont identify pictures in a book although it is hard to tell if he CANT or if he WONT if you see what i mean.

He certainly doesnt know any colours shapes or numbers and cant count etc

He has an obbsession with poking things and leaning on things (this wasnt in the original post but it is something that has been on my mind). he will lean on you constantly it sounds wierd but it gets pretty annoying and seems strange he has to poke things especially people.

He has been in trouble at nursery for the poking.

He is clever in his own way making little ladders to reach things.

He is very rough in his play and although he doesnt mean to hurt people he does by accident, he gets on better with older children because of this.

he is always falling over and hurting himself, I have three children and he is the only one to have been to casualty (he has been THREE times). If is can find a way to hurt himself in any situation he will find it!

I am sure there are a hundered other thigns but the post will be too long then!

does he soudns normal because I was quite shocked when I read about this other womans son

I have an older daughter who was a little more advanced at this age BUT I just put it down to him being a boy? am I ignoring somehting important here????

sophie

Fernie No-one can diagnose your DS on an internet forum but tbh it does sound like it is worth getting him checked out.

Do you have a 2 year check where you are?

My son seems to be a little bit advanced than yours and he has seen a speech and language therapist who has agreed he needs further support. He also has an appointment with a Community Paed comming up because of his 'odd' behaviour.

However, he has 40 words, is starting to put two together spontaneously, knows triangle, circle, square and star and can sort of count up to 14. He is 27 months.

I'm not saying anything is wrong. How would I know? But from what you say it does seem worth flagging up with your HVs.

Good luck.

Does he point or follow you pointing?

Sophie, not sure I can help but didn't want your thread to go unanswered.
I am sure they all develop at different stages. Have you talked to a HV or GP or friend with kids ?
My DS2 is very much more clumsy and constantly falling over than his brother ever was. I have been to the Dr's to look at his hips etc. but she says they are all fine.

I would just go to your GP if you have a concern - what's the worst that can happen ?

There is no point comparing my dd to your ds (she's 21 months for a start!) and the spectrum of normal is huge.

I think perhaps you should get your concerns addressed. Not saying I think he's behind, I am truly not qualified to answer that, but if you are concerned then that is reason enough to find out.

How is his hearing? Has it been checked?

my Health visitor mentioned a few months ago that he seemed a little "slow to speak" as she put it and suggested we re do the check in a few months. we dont have a 2 year check but she is actually coming to our house next monday because I have an 11 day ols baby so we have the new baby check.

he doesnt really point BUT he will take hold of your hand and drag you to what he wants (like to the food cupboard for food!)

sophie

What do the nursery say about him?

All I can say fernie is that our 2 year old questionnaire (in place of a check) asked if the child speaks 30 words.

I think this is a benchmark for raising concerns.

So do get HV back involved. She should refer to SALT if your son triggers the need for assessment.

he has only been at the nursery since christmas (2 mornings a week) but they have raised concerns about the rough play and poking. I have also noticed that he has his own keyworker whereas the other children have one for every three children. when i asked them about this they told me it was because he was "more active".

I feel so stupid now I am always being told how well my older daughter is doing she is always getting stickers for being good and being the nursery" helper". When I read the post I suddenly had all these things click into place in my head that I had been ignoring for whatever reason .

I will def pursue it with the health visitor on monday

sophie

I would get him checked if you feel concerned, but as people are saying there is such a huge range at this age.
For instance snowlightmckenzie says her 27 month old DS can count up to 14 and has 40 words but is only just starting to put two words together spontaneously.
My DD2 is 29 months old and can definately NOT count up to 14 but has a very large vocab and has been making complex sentences like 'You might break DD1s bed' since she was 24 mo.
Go with your gut feeling.

fernie dont feel bad. You were probably waiting for things to get better, which is on the whole the right thing to do with children, they come to things in their own time.

If you were distracted by his behaviour (poking) you may not have been thinking too much about his language.

Don't fret now. You have a plan.

pretty sure my dd1 couldnt count or didnt know many colours at 27 months and her vocab wasnt brilliant. but she is completley fine. so do be encouraged it could very easily just be he is developing at his own pace. always worth checking things for peace of mind but have an open mind as to whether there is an issue or not.

Hi fernie, I had always felt my dd a bit slow compared with others. She would have been like your ds at that age, even with the slow speech. Your list would have applied to my dd up to the point where you say your ds pokes and leans. She did go through an aggressive pinching and biting phase a little later, but came out of it after a few months.

She is now 5 and is doing fine in school.

Although I knew she was slow in comparison, I felt she was just doing things at her own pace, because she did eventually catch up later. If your instinct is telling you something else, do get it checked out just in case. FWIW, nothing you described sounds particularly alarming, but it is the whole picture which is more important.

You must get it checked out now because you're worrying about it and it won't go away until you get a proper answer. Don't assume the worst before you go though. Good luck.

Alot of the things you say he can't / won't do may well seem that way because of the lack of speech.

My ds2 said nothing at 27m. He said next to nothing at 30mo (certainly not 20 words). He had just turned 3y and now won't stop talking - and all the things I thought he didn't know / couldn't do before are now spilling out of him that he can communicate (colours, shapes, counting etc etc etc).

It will do no harm to get him checked out, and if help is needed then it is better to start trying to get it earlier rather than later.
But try not to assume the worst along the way.

don't worry about the colours/shapes/counting yet. Think it is worth getting checked out, as it sounds like you and nursery have concerns. Might be worth backing up any instructions etc with gestures/pictures/photos in case he doesn't always understand what you are saying.

Hi fernie - i have had similar concerns about my DD in the past. At 27 months she wasn't saying many words and not stringing two together. I posted on here LOTS about it and people said, awww LEM you'll soon be posting that she doesn't stop talking - guess what She doesn't stop talking!!!

All children are different. Do you find that your elder children tend to do his bidding for him?

I would definately raise your concerns with your HV and ask for a developmental assesment - this is what we did with DD, although my HV was more concerned because she lost words at about 18m. HV left it up to me to decide if i wanted a pead referral so i had it. DD did really well in the "tests" and the pead didn't feel the need for any further assesment, although she did have speech and language therapy for a while.

There are a few things you have mentioned that i would flag up as they can be indicative of some problems (but don't worry, my DD did most of them too!).

• The not pointing definately (although the fact he will take you to stuff he wants probably negates this, still mention it)

• His falling over and bieng accident prone

• poking and finding it difficult to interact with his peers (how is he with his siblings?)

My DD was slow to speak, even at three she was considerably behind her peers - now, you can't shut her up (3.6) and she says really big words too [proud] "mummy, what's condensation?" bless!! But it happened overnight, pretty much since xmas. DD is at playschool every morning and has come on in leaps and bounds since starting.

Be good to be reassured but i honestly wouldnt be panicking or anything at this stage.

To pick up on what total chaos said - definately do the gestures. I used makaton signing with DD, it made the world of difference - its the sign language that justin uses on something special - its brilliant and easy to learn and really got my DD talking. She would learn the sign then say the word - brilliant. Forgot about that

I also have a late talking ds now 2 1/2 and he can't count to 14 as well but was beginning to combine words by your son's age.It isn't uncommon for boys to speak later.

You are looking at other comminication (non verbal) as well at this age.It is quite important to mention to HV if your ds doesn't point (particularly to share interest - such as pointing at a tractor say and checking you are looking) as is if he is dragging you by the hand to get things.These can be significant indicators and should be followed up.

Oh yeah, the SALT sent me on a free makaton signing class.

Can you explain why the pointing and leading are important?

A child in our family is just like this, and it's difficult to raise it without sounding as though you are giving put-downs, especially if other children of a similar age are chatting away.

By the way I do agree that they all do their own thing in their own time, especially boys. They don't always seem to need to do what anyone else wants!!

lack of pointing is one of the flags of autism, but that on its own is not considered significant.

OP - you haven't said anything else on yoru post that would make me even consider autism though so please don't worry. Im no way an expert but have read alot about it due to my worries about DD and TBH your DS sounds just like she was and i was convinced there was a problem, seems i was wrong - thankfully

I only know because of my ds being late speaking but these can be ASD flags so should be checked further.

''He DOES understand simple instructions like "get your shoes" or "in the bin".'

Would he understand the instruction away from a visual prompt - the shoes or the bin ? I think you should push for a full paed assessment at this stage. It's great that he can point to body parts but you need advice on how to build on this strength. Lack of pointing and using hand dragging at this age needs to be looked at. I am not trying to scare OP but complacency is not always the best policy esp as early additional help can make so much difference.