34 month old hardly talking coherently

[Ozziewozzie]

I’m desperately after some advice, as from the health professionals, it seems the advice is incredibly conflicting.
My 34 month old barely talks. His understanding is excellent. No concerns at all regarding and other aspect of him. He’s bright, warm, active and can follow complex instructions. He literally understands absolutely everything we say. (We are a family of 7.
Ds never babbled. I raised this back then, but advised it will come. At 16 mtgs, only one word ‘more’ not even mum it Dad. Hv sent Lets talk assessor round who spent the whole visit saying how confused she was to be assessing our ds as it was far too early. He’s now almost 3. He can say mum dad, but only a handful of words coherently. He can’t say and 2 sylabull words. Eg, his brother is called [redacted], ds will say Lee. He will either make an attempt to say the first part of the word or second, but not all. He doesn’t t say even the most basic of words ie train, car. Instead he’s developed sounds for them. He’s only just started saying 2 words together but if I’m honest it’s few and fair between, ie more peeese. He possibly knows about 30-40 words but the majority are far from the correct pronounciation ie dark is yar. I understand him really well but always repeat what he’s tried to say with the correct word. Has anyone else experienced this? Im worries as he starts nursery in April and although he’s really confident and sociable, the other children won’t have a clue what he means. I really don’t want him to become isolated. Any advice welcome x

This post was edited by MNHQ

Is he still been seen by SALT? If not get another referral and another hearing test.

Rushing out so only time for a brief post.
Children need about 50 words before they start to properly join them and improve pronunciation. Pronunciation issues are not a concern at this age but his talking (words and sentences) is delayed. It is a good sign he understands well, 60% of children who understand well catch up, but obviously not a guarantee. A SALT referral would be good. I'll check back later when more time.

Thanks for your responses Jackshouse and BendingSpoons. I’m presuming SALT is for Speech and language team. He’s not been seen by anyone apart from that one time back in June. She just it was far too early for her to test him as it was likely he would fail and I would then become more concerned. She then did the bag with toys in test and he understood absolutely every aspect of it. I have the same lady coming round today for a Lets Talk assessment again. She actually called me yesterday to ask if I still needed the appt as she had recorded in June that I had no concerns. This was absolutely not the case at all. The hv has referred us 4 times now as she agrees his speech is delayed, yet to very little avail. I have 3 older children all of who learnt to talk really easily. Ds has loads of stimulation and interaction. If ever we don’t quite understand the word he’s trying to say, he just stands there and repeats it over and over until we get it. We can’t even fin him off by saying ‘oh yes, that’s right’ He needs is to repeat the word he’s trying to say. We always say the correct word, and he is then completely satisfied.
I guess I just wanted to be forearmed for the appt this afternoon as although ds is not in the least bit frustrated, I do worry about other children giving up on him. He can’t even say his name, [redacted] or has he even tried to. If you or other kids ask him, he just says nothing.
He’s also really tall, in ages 5-6 clothing so you can imagine how people assume he’s much older than he is. People for a while now have been assuming something is wrong with him.
He passed his baby hearing check. It has t been done since but he hears the slightest sound. I’m no expert but I would be really surprised if it was to be his hearing.

This post was edited by MNHQ

www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk have a booklet called "universally speaking" that has excellent information on speech and language development from birth to 5 years. It's free to download. Hope that helps.

hi due to his age its unlikely he will get regular SALT but they could teach you some really useful strategies you & family can do everyday to develop communication
check out:

www.talkingpoint.org.uk/sites/talkingpoint.org.uk/files/stages-speech-language-development-chart001.pdf

ask your assessor ti demonstrate some strategies today
good luck !

Hi everyone.
The Lets Talk Assessor came round and she agreed ds definately is well below expected rsnge for speech. She said his understanding was brilliant. He managed all the tasks asked of him perfectly. She’s now referring ds for a hearing test as a precaution and also to SALT. Waiting list 16 weeks but in the mean time, we can go to a group once a week specifically for young children with similar language delay. I’m so relieved we can do something more now. I really appreciated your comments. It’s so great to not feel like a neurotic mother!!
I realise most children catch up, but with ds, it’s not just lack of words, it’s how he’s talking and making sense of words. Yet he understand absolutely everything all of the time. Assessor agreed she hadnt come across this often before, so time will tell. Big thanks once again. X

Glad it went well and you have a plan. Good to have something straight away and when you do see the SALT they can give more specialist advice.

Sounds a bit like DD2 - who had the understanding, had the vocabulary but couldn't articulate it, and the bits she did were really really unclear and hard to understand.

In her case it's verbal dyspraxia (she also has "standard" dyspraxia as well - it was me trying to get to the bottom of her speech difficulties that lit the lightbulb about her coordination and sequencing issues as well). She did her nursery year communicating, but like you say - very unclearly and limited recognisable words - but it didn't seem to affect her socially with peers and started her Reception year with probably about 50% intelligible speech. End of Reception and she was fully intelligible, albeit with some sound substitutions - but it hasn't impacted her in terms of picking up phonics or reading interestingly. Because of the work school did helping her she bumped up over the threshold for NHS speech and language (and she can do things like "give teddy the blue cup" till the cows come home) so we're now having private speech therapy working more on her remaining issues which is slightly immature speech, and some problems with pronouns and verb tenses and just generally structuring her responses.

Thankyou ReverseTheFerret
It’s exactly along the lines I’ve been thinking. It’s not just a case of his words not coming along, it’s how his forming them. It sort of doesn’t make sense or have a pattern. Yet ds understand is really great. We’ve tried so many different tactics without forcing the issue. It’s really reassuring to know your dd2 coped with nursery well. I must admit I was beginning to worry. At least now we have the relevant referral in place. Thanks so much again x

Hearing's the first thing to eliminate though - more than anything else, if you need to go through the system trying to get onto SALT waiting lists (they're horrific - get on them as soon as you can - you can always get OFF if things suddenly click) it's the first thing they'll ask you and try to bounce you back for so pre-empt it and get it checked and then you can say "nope, was checked on X date and was fine"

Trying to remember how DD2 said the words she did at that point... we had things like "fik" for drink that sticks in mind - but she had the understanding there - she was in the snail group and although she couldn't say "sn" so said nail, if you asked her if that meant you needed to get a hammer and bop her on the head she would howl with laughter and say "No, not nail... NAIL!" so she obviously had the understanding of the differences.