Concern about toddler language

[Ohgodbringmecoffee]

My son is 2 and only says 'no' 'choo choo' and 'beep beep' consistently. His understanding, listening and ability to follow commands is great and he communicates by pointing, head shaking, smiling and 'aha!' which means 'yes'.
Im just looking for a hand hold really, I know he's behind but i was wondering if anyone else had anything similar with a positive ending? Should I push for a speech and language referral?

Mines a couple of months older but similar. I’d like a salt referral but can’t get one until the 2 year check has been done and they do it quite late where I live

I find the 'I can talking point' website really useful. Ds1 had delayed expressive language with some difficulties with producing letter sounds. We started speech therapy when I self referred him at about 2 year 6 months. A lot of it was the SALT assessing and advising and then me doing the work at home. It took quite a few years and lots of hard work before his speech was clear enough for everyone to understand and he also has additional challenges. However he now talks all the time (sometimes too much!!!) and has been put on the gifted and talented programme for his maths.

My DS is 20 months and he says hardly any words. We get ‘doggy’ ‘no’ and ‘okay’ on a daily basis and if he’s in the mood he may say mummy or daddy but not very often. My friends babies are all far more advanced at similar ages which does concern me. Boys are generally later than girls to speak and I think they leave it for a while before allowing a SALT referral.

We didn't need a referal to SALT as they had a drop in clinic that we just took d's along to and the SALT team took it from there, maybe ask at your health centre?

Has he just turned 2?
Both of my boys only had a couple of words before 2. With the eldest I was a bit concerned as it seemed other children that age were talking loads.
By 2 1/2 with both of them they were talking in sentences. It just seemed to happen really quickly.

Hi there. My son 3.5, has had very poor speech. My other 4 children developed very well.
Like your son, my son had superb understanding from a very early age, but practically had vertically no speech except ‘more’ and brm for car. Health visitors took me seriously and before he was 2 referred me to SALT. They declined the referral twice!! Eventually between 2.5-3, they finally sent someone round who tested him and agreed his delay was severe. She also admitted that they made a mistake and could have come to assess my son far earlier. We were then added to a waiting list which was incredibly long. It’s such a painful process. To then be given a sheet each week for 4 weeks!!
My son now attends nursery and so The nursery are supporting him. SALT were appalling to be quite frank. From what I’ve heard it depends on who you have. Roll your sleeves up and invest time into pushing for the assessment.
My son started nursery in Jan, and it’s been really tough as he hasn’t been able to communicate with other children. His teacher has been superb though and finally, my son is coming in leaps and bounds in terms of speech but he is still very much behind. His 19 mth sister is rapidly catching him up and speaks with clarity.
I found so many people told me not to worry right up until he was 2.5. This is rubbish. Whether there is a reason or not for speech delay, your child needs support.

My 4 year old (5 in January) was a late talker. When she started nursery at about 27 months, she was still babbling and saying mama, dada, gaga and about 3 other words. She got referred to SALT from her 2 year check but took about 6 months til someone saw her because the speech therapist was going on maternity leave. The speech therapist came to visit her in nursery once every few months. She'd ring me with an update & what I can do to help. Now at 4 year old, she's fine. Tbh she progressed more with speech when she went to nursery.

My current 2 year old (3 next month) is ahead of her. But this week her nursery manager said about referring her to speech therapy. I thought she was fine but from what she was saying, I think it's cos some of her words aren't clear. She said it's best to be done sooner rather than later, I've read that online too when I was researching speech and language stuff with my first daughter.

Has he has his 2 year check yet? If he has and his speech was fine, ask at his nursery or ask your health visitor where he should be at. It depends how far into 2 year old he is. If he's close to 3, I would definitely be asking cos my 2 year old says more and she's getting referred

My son first word was at 3. I knew early on that his speech was behind so we started home taught makaton on YouTube. We were referred twice and got signed off after first meetings as apparently they said it was fine 🤷🤦 he's now nearly five and started school and they have said it's a really big problem and they shouldn't of signed us off as clearly he's very behind but his school are gonna give him extra group lessons with his speech. I would just say from my experience don't let them fob you off and keep pushing for help. Health visitor have also be rubbish. I don't even think I had a 2 year old check and we've just recently gone through a austim referral and they turned up on my door and saying it's our fault because we decided not to send him to nursery and I'm a qualified nursery nurse so we would learn at home ect!!! 🤦🤷

Thanks. He turned 2 on Monday and ive called SALT abd a therapist is going to call me apparently. I'm fully expecting a fight. He does nursery 1 day a week but im hoping when he moves up a room next week he'll improve

SALT may suggest waiting til his 2 year check or they may see him before. From my experience, the 2 year check seems to be the starting point of checking language development. If SALT do say they want to hang on til his 2 year check, don't worry. He may suddenly start talking more in a few months. The 2 year check (incase u don't know) happens between turning 2 and 2 years 6 months, depending on your health visitor.

It's good he understands things too. Thats what I have been getting told about my 2, understanding commands and stuff. I'm not sure why it's a good thing, but it is 😊

When I went to pick my 2 year old up from nursery today, the nursery manager said they've been doing the referral. Her key worker showed me the form but I didn't get a chance to read what their concerns are with her speech. I had to rate on a scale of 1-7 how concerned I was. I put 2, they put 5. Ask at his nursery aswell how they think his speech is for his age. I see them as more expert at it than me 😊 They're trained, I'm not 😊

@Joyce2014 it’s so shocking how let down our kids have been. I also feel as though are sort of patronising in their approach to us. Are you reading to him? Make sure you spend 5-10 mins a day playing with him. No shit Sherlock!!! ......I hadn’t thought of interacting with my child at all

Seriously, I’d imagine the parent who aren’t interacting are the ones NOT asking for help. The parents screaming for help are obviously the ones concerned and have run out of ideas!

"Have you tried talking to him?" - singularly the most irritating question asked to parents of dc with a speech delay. Along with " oh my dc spoke early, but then I'm always chatting away to them!!".
The SALT team were great with us op, so it must vary depending on area, they took my concerns seriously from the get go, saw ds every 8 weeks or so for months on end, liased with his pre school etc. My ds started to say odd, unclear words at 2.9 ish but progessed very rapidly . He started reception last year and had pretty much caught up in terms of his speech clarity and vocabulary, SALT discharged him last year but said we can go back if we have any other concerns.

My nephew barely said a word until he went to nursery FT at 3. At home you understand what they mean so they’re less inclined to try sometimes I think. I’m not ruling out any PP comments but just my experience that sometimes especially if they have older siblings that do the talking for them, that they can just be a bit slower at making the connection about why it’s important for them to use their words x

My DD was behind at the 2 year check (she was 26 months) and got referred to SALT. She was just saying a few random words and they were unclear, In our area, the waiting time was just 1 term. We then did a SALT group x 4 of 30 minutes each and a follow up one to one. It definitely helped my DD and made her start talking very quickly after that. Not sure if she has “caught”‘up yet but once they “get” it the progress in just a few months is huge. So if you are worried, refer. It is also possible that your child will suddenly start talking. It can be difficult to know at just 2 and the differences between children at that age can be huge.

I'm in my 30s now but very similar to your child, I hardly spoke at all before about 2.5.. I had very few words.

I now have two degrees, work in a professional job that involves public speaking and presenting. After about the age of 4/5 you'd never have known that I was a late talker.

Being a late talker doesn't always mean there is a big problem, your child might catch up.