speech development at 2 years old

[Broodymomma]

My son will be 2 on sunday and has thr grand total of 7 words in his vocubulary. 6 of those he has had since about 18 months so only a progression of 1 word since then, Should i be seeing the hv about some help or is this normal? thanks. (he has no problem understanding what is said to him)

Do you have a 2 yr development check in your area? If not, I would ask the h/v.

My ds was very similar and was referred to a SALT when 6 weeks after his 2 yr check he was still not putting two words together. By the time we saw the SALT he was obviously develping fine and was discharged on our first visit. Some children are later than others with speech, just like anything else, but if there is a problem it is best to get a referral off early just in case imo.

Can't offer advice I'm afraid - my son has his 2 yr development check next week (he turned 2 last month), so I'm hoping to discuss it with the hv then.

He has a repertoire of words, a lot of which we understand but I doubt a stranger would know what he wanted. Some words really clear (Mommy/Daddy/Nanny etc), but he has always made animal noises instead of the animal name (if we say 'duck' he just quacks back instead of saying the word!), the same with transport (we say train, he says 'choo choo'), and other words are his own interpretation (Percy is 'puppy', Gordon is 'Nooney' - spot the Thomas the Tank engine fan!).

He seems to have developed ways around not being able to pronounce - he sings theme tunes for programmes he can't pronounce, he calls my Dad 'Dave' as he can't say Grandad!

All the other kids I know are girls a couple of months older, who seem to be talking in sentences. I'm hopeful this is because they're girls or slightly older, but I'm worried there's something up, like a hearing problem or speech impediment etc.

His understanding is fine - maybe he's just lazy or stubborn?

Hope you get things sorted - sorry I can't help. Good luck!

No we only have a 1 year check here then thats it. Have just noticed a similar thread from someone with a 23mth old so have been reading that. DS has had a lot of ear infections in the last year so just wondering if there could be something underlying. I noticed on the toddler section here it said kids will have a voca of 200 words at 2 years old but obviously that varies from child to child but he just seems so slow with his progression. Dont want to doc to think im neurotic as have taken him with things before and was laughed out the room!!

Thanks Lucamom - my ds does not get the animal sound thing either. He says

Brum
Daddy
Yes
No
Cheese
Owch
Mummy (only in last 3 weeks!!)

Thats it!! No animal noises nothing, everything else is just babble. We were at toddlers today and a 18 month old boy came up and chatted away to him using his name clearly just made me wake up the fact he is very slow with it all.

Don't let the doctor put you off - even if it's a tad embarassing, you're best to be wrong than regret it later.

Some folks have told me all seems well, and it's not worth mentioning to the professionals, but my overriding fear is that if I leave it, in the future it'll be too late, and someone will say 'if only you'd come to us when he was 2 we could've done something....'

Don't worry about getting laughed out of the room - he's your little boy and deserves whatever help he may or may not need from the experts, and you deserve to have your concerns taken seriously, even if you've got it totally wrong.

xx

On his second birthday ds could say mum and no. That was it.

Babbling is a good sign, as is the fact that he understands you, but I would still ask the h/v for a referral, even if it is just to monitor and hopefully put your mind at rest.

He is three now, and has totally ruined dd1s and of term show by talking very loudly over the entire thing

I think some children just don't talk much for a while, they listen and understand but are happy getting their needs met in other ways so just don't feel the need to actually talk till much later. But I would take him to see your doctor or HV just in case there is some underlying issue.

I had concerns with ds1 about his speech being a bit on the slow side for a while but then one day it suddenly seemed to click and he came out with a whole string of new, clear words almost over night. He is 5 now and has just done the same with his reading, something has clicked and he is excelling but it took a while.

Lucamom - my ds2 is 2 next month and sounds very much the same as yours! Some words are clear but some are words only we can understand. He can recognise and name more than 15 of the Thomas characters but most of the names would seem nonsense to anyone else! Thomas is Choo choo, gordon - gordy, spencer - bender, james is chas (as in ch from loch or perhaps jas as in J from javier!) and so on. Also shoes are ich which is just a grunty kind of sound but always the same sound! He can now say his sister's name perfectly (Maia) but his brother nathan is mana and for a while was Yaya the same as Maia was. And all his grandparents are 'Baggie', I have no idea why! I think its quite normal at their age for pronunciation to be unclear to anyone other than immediate family on most words. But again if you're worried then talk to someone.

i would do a bit of googling and call up your local speech/therapy department and see if you can self-refer, rather than seeing GP or HV if you feel they won't be supportive. I think this is worth following up, as you don't feel he's really made progress for a while. ask for a hearing test for him too. If he suddenly makes a leap whilst you are waiting for appointments to come through you can always cancel.

Ds has a perforated ear drum one side (long-term very low key ear infectino that the Drs said was fine ) and glue ear on the other. We find that its quite noticeable when his glue ear is worse - when he's been congested or with a full blown cold - his speech is a lot less clear. If you're worried, certainly worth getting checked out.

I second getting it checked out....But, just to say at 2 years ds1 hardly spoke - there was a massive change from 2 to 2.5 where he just talked from nowhere. It could be that it will just suddenly come for your ds

I do sympathise broodymomma. I'm so glad I found this thread! DD is 20 months and has been going to a childminder 3 days a week for the last 4 months.

We hoped that mixing with other children and new people would help develop her speech but if anything its made it worse. :-(

She says Dada and moo and ta (under duress!). She has her own made up words for cat and Polly (our dog). Oh and she says ooo (look) at everything she sees.

Today the childminder told me that next week they are going to do 15 minute observation checks on DD to see who she is playing with, what she is saying (if anything) etc. She kept saying they are not worried, but went on about how she doesn't talk and pretty much plays on her own. (I always felt it was a positive thing that she was able to amuse herself, even from a young age... now I'm not so sure). Should she be mixing more at this age?

She understands everything you say and the CM thinks she is just belligerant. I don't know why but its really upset me :-(

But having read this thread I'm feeling a bit better and think I will go to HV next week just to have a chat and hopefully have my mind put at rest.

I think expecting them to play with another child at 20months is a bit much isn't it? I'm sure Ds was happy to play near someone else - but playing with wasn't acceptable because they invariably both wanted the same things....

If there are no problems with understanding then generally speech should follow in time but assessing understanding in a young child can be difficult. Some ways to test understanding are to ask the child if he can get his blue shoes without the shoes being in his sight and not in the context of the dressing routine, or to ask the child to choose a book from the bookshelf while you are not looking at the bookcase. Children can be adept at using visual cues to cover up lack of language . This visual interpretation is a good sign in itself but typically developing children will tune in on verbal language as well as the other signs.

DS had 10 words on his 2nd birthday. He is 2 1/2 next week and had 10 new words before 10am yesterday

It's taken a long time but something has just clicked.

We had a 2 year check and the HV said that he was fine because he understood everything and was communicating with us through sign language, which only DP and I could really understand.

Well I did think that it was a bit early for playing together given that they don't understand sharing at this age, but I guess I was put on the backfoot by the CM.

Then she said something along the lines of we (DH and I) have made it difficult for DD to speak as we understand her every grunt, and therefore there is no need to speak. Grrr! I felt put out by this - its not as if we don't talk to her - we spend a lot of time talking and playing and trying to teach her new words, or teach her the names of objects etc. I just chatter a load of rubbish to her all time, poor child. She is just NOT interested in repeating sounds, or learning anything new. I guess I just thought she'd come out with it when she is ready (can't wait for that!).

Having doubts about this CM now :-( Altho I must say DD is always very happy to see her and disappears without a backwards glance.. charming!

Don't worry, we were like this with ds and could understand a lot more than anyone else. At 2ish I don't think you need to worry too much that you can understand better than your childminder. However, this should start improving so that you don't need to translate. I do have a friend who did translate, finish off sentences etc too much and this definitely resulted in her language being delayed - so do encourage her to say things herself, particularly if you think that she's just not trying! For instance, if she wants a treat to eat or something, see if you can get her to say the word fairly understandably before she gets it! Bribery is great at that age

I tend to disagree with the PPs who say that all children develop speech at their own pace.

Some do. Others are hindered by ear infections, background noise, parents and carers with unusually fast or quiet speech etc. And so on. Things that can be changed so the child can get on with learning to talk.

Parents and carers often get anxious if a child is not speaking and naturally ask the child "what's this?" and "say daddy" etc. Or they get told to make the child talk by withholding food. Even tiny little children notice that's not normal and tend to clam up.

It's absolutely understandable too that when your child seems behind on speech you want to teach them. You will get the best results if you focus totally on what the child is interested in, providing a commentary on that in very short sentences with loads of repetition. And (the hard bit) never ever asking or telling the child to say anything.

But for both Pollypoo and Broodymama I would say get a hearing check (most common problem), get an assessment for speech therapy (there can be previously undiagnosed problems with the mouth). They won't necessarily treat speech itself at this age but might treat hearing. And read "Baby Talk" by Dr Sally Ward - get it from the library.

oops sorry for the essay, hope it helps.