28 months doesnt speak much

[user1489844432]

I am getting increasingly concerned about my DS speech. He is 28 months and doesnt speak much. He says single words but certainly not sentences consisting two or three words. If he wants anything then is just tends to say mommy/daddy and points his finger at it.

He appears to understand lots but I dont see much progress in learning new words or using sentences. To make it more difficult he is/will be bi-lingual. We speak our native language at home and he gets exposure to English in nursery where he goes full time since 12 months old. He speaks more English than our native language.

His 2yr assessment got postponed due to Covid19 so I am not sure who big problem it is. Any advice would be very welcome.

Health Visitors are still working, can you give them a call for advice? We're waiting on Speech and Language therapy for our toddler who is the same age but they said to call if we need advice.

When he points to something and says mummy/daddy, how do you react? Do you just give it to him? Are you doing anything to "actively" teach him words? Or is it just through talking to him and naming items as you go along? Just trying to get a good picture of what's happening

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It depends really but often we pretend first we dont know whats he is after to force him to say. That never works so then we ask him a question for example 'do you want that green car?' And then he says yes or no. He understands questions well as he says often no if we misunderstood what he is after.

Do you talk to him loads? I almost talk to my daughter like an adult and I think it helps.

Did he or could he have a tongue tie? You can def give the health Visitors a call for a chat.

Oh I just re read the post - bi lingual!!!! Fab. I know three bilingual children and their speech takes much longer, one friend is a teacher and had done a lot of research into bilingual speech development - the short of it is that it’s really common to be “a bit behind” but then they suddenly catch up and there is no problem!

Does he say single nouns like “car” “milk”?

It sounds like he has no reason to speak. If you give in immediately and then ask a closed question, you are not giving him the opportunity to answer in any other way. A better option would be "Green car or red car?" so he has to respond with more than Yes or No.
Sabotage- put things where he cant get them so he has to ask. Put items in difficult containers so he has to ask for help.
Dont ask closed questions. Shall we go for a walk = yes or no. Where shall we go on our walk?= an actual answer. If he doesn't have the language, model it- shall we go to the park or to see the ducks?
Give choices in everything. Not just a "Do you want juice?" but always "Juice or milk?" EVEN WHEN you know the answer already.

He had tongue tie but that got fixed when he was 4wks old. We talk to him loads explaining things etc. Very often he points at things and wants to know the name. Also for the last 6-8wks we make sure we read him a bedstory every day.

Yes he says single nouns. He usually says them randomly but there are also some that he names on demand ie we show him a picture and he names it correctly. He is also consistent with use of his own nouns ie every time he sees a dog he say 'woof woof'

I wouldn’t overly be worried, he sounds a little slower than most but not severely. My LO started suddenly forming sentences around 28 months. Obviously see what your assessment says but if hears and understands and engages in other ways I personally wouldn’t be overly worried

Hello he sounds like he’s doing ok. My son (2) has a speech delay and the speech therapist recommended a couple of things for him.
Pick a word that you are going to over use for a day and say it all the time so it could be hello, up, out, bye, night - anything and just add it in as much as you can.
She also said give two choices ie water or milk crumpet or sandwich swing or slide walk or buggy red or blue paint colouring or play doh etc.
I have found reading has helped lots so maybe you could read him some more books throughout the day (give him a choice of two books) and maybe read a couple more at bedtime.
It sounds like you are talking to him lots and carry that on and try and talk even more if you can. Maybe instead of long sentences ie let’s go over there to play you could say go there and shorten what you say to two or three words.
My son still has a delay but I can see progress and I think he catch up he’s just taking his own time.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and answers. I will look to put them in practice asap.