2 (nearly 3) year old speech/hearing

[SolitaA]

Hi,
Before lockdown it was brought to my attention by a number of people that it was very difficult to understand my son, and that he had a muffled tone to his words which may imply he required a hearing test.
A few comments from his preschool about "aww it was lovely he tried to join in some chatting with the boys today" etc which made out like he was a late speaker. And then when I asked my mum's opinion (expecting her to be like no he is perfectly fine) she admitted that she really struggled to understand him.
Since lockdown we have obviously spent a great deal of time in each others company and he talks a lot. saying sentences, asking and being inquisitive, but yes his pronunciation is well off. I understand almost all of what he says but now he can see my mum again she thinks his pronunciation is even worse than before, but that he does speak a lot more. I have to translate everything he says.
Should I be brushing this off as developmental and he will catch up or should I be getting him checked out?
He has an older sister who is 5 and a younger sister who is 18 months (who probably speaks as well as he does!) Could it be a middle child/boy thing?
TIA

I would be asking for a speech and language team referral.

So do I go to GP to ask for one or contact health visitor?

I’d contact your health visitor and they should be able to refer you to speech and language and also audiology to check his hearing

I would push Gp for hearing test as glue ear can cause muffled speech. Also push for speech therapy referral. We had this too nit speech therapy and grommets sorted it

Thank you. I just don't like wasting peoples time and wasn't sure they would entertain speeche issues in a. 2 year old.

Just by way of reassurance, my son’s speech was very unclear up to the age of three and a half. He spoke in long sentences but he was hard to understand. One day, on a train, he just looked at me and started speaking properly. I have no idea of how or why.

It's not wasting anyone's time, in fact early intervention is really important and will improve his chances of speaking clearly more quickly.

I would start with health visitor too.

Definitely not wasting anyone’s time!
My son has hearing loss and wears a hearing aid (he’s 3), he’s not yet speaking other than a few words which aren’t yet clear. It was the health visitor that made all referrals for us x

Yes I would ask for a referral to audiology, might as well ask for speech and language too because those referrals can take a very long time. Mine had glue ear they think, he is three now and only I can understand him but he’s getting there as his ear has cleared up

Definitely get it checked. My son spoke loads at 2 but just had a couple of sounds missing (pox instead of fox, cape instead of cafe). We visited 3 audiologists before he was diagnosed with hearing loss, he went on to loose all his hearing and have cochlea implants fitted. I don't say this to scare you , he is fine, very independent , speaks 3 languages and off to uni to study another. Your son may have a different issue but it definitely needs checking.

I'd definitely get it checked out. We are in a similar situation with a slightly younger dc. Discovered she had blocked ears back in February. Have had some drops and things since then but I wasn't sure they'd been all that effective. I did contact my gp through their online system a few weeks ago and they wanted to see her and have referred on to audiology. I was worried that it was almost a bit trivial with everything going on at the moment but they were happy to see her.

I work in early years and early intervention can be so helpful. And the health professionals we work with are always happy to check out any concerns. Many council areas have online info about their speech and language teams which sometimes have guides about when to refer/be concerned. There's also talking points online development checker which I've found really helpful in helping me decide where my dc is at. But I'd definitely ring gp or health visitors if I was concerned.

If you are concerned it is always worth checking things out. Early intervention is so important especially if there is a possibility of hearing difficulties.

With my ds we self referred to our local speech and language therapy service, we also got a referral to a hearing test from the GP. We did not really think ds had hearing difficulties as he seemed to understand what we said and followed basic instructions but it turned out he had intermittent glue ear which affected his hearing of some speech sounds.

There is a great website ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/ that has lots of info for parents concerned about their child's speech

At 3 you definitely shouldn’t be brushing this off. He needs his hearing tested and a referral to SaLT.

My DD hearing was checked at 2.5 yrs when I realised their was an issue, nursery and GP were adamant it would be fine as her speech was advanced for her age but we were still referred. She has some hearing issues.

Thank you all so much for your help. I have spoken with speech and languahe dept today who are going to get paediatric assessment of hearing and speech sorted for us.

It's so interesting to hear other stories and thank you for the website recommendation too. 🤗🤗

That is fantastic. Ds1 had very limited speech and was very unclear when he was a toddler. We worked very hard with guidance from the SALT and t made a huge impact. Some of the SALT services have fantastic resources on their websites. I will find some links for you.

That is fantastic. Ds1 had very limited speech and was very unclear when he was a toddler. We worked very hard with guidance from the SALT and t made a huge impact. Some of the SALT services have fantastic resources on their websites. I will find some links for you.

www.hacw.nhs.uk/childrens-speech-and-language-resources/

@lorisparkle thanks for the website

Just came on here to say definite hearing test needed. My DS had very bad hearing and had muffled speech when he was 2/3 and he used to always ask us to look at his face when we spoke as he had been lip reading. We had to tell people what he was saying. Felt so guilty as I had got caught up with his other health issues which the hospital were dealing with and hadnt thought it was an issue. When he got his hearing test they said he would have been walking around like he had fingers in his ears. Once he had surgery he was a different boy.....hope it all gets sorted for you

Just to update, I got a letter from the children's hearing clinic to say no clinics running due to covid so it's going to be delayed for some time. I am concerned because I think his speech has got worse since I posted this. I took him to meet friends again today at a playground and he doesn't communicate in public at all he goes all shy and looks like he is concentrating. I'm wondering if all the background noise is too much and he can't hear people talking to him. I imagine private hearing places maybe don't test under 5s similar to opticians with eye tests?!

No you can get private test - will pm you

Get it checked - speak to your GP about your concerns and don’t downplay. We didn’t spot my DD‘S hearing problems till she was 2. Turns out she had almost no hearing in one ear and only 40% in the other, and in particular couldn’t hear low noises e.g. traffic noise....

In her case it was a complication of a condition that we did know about, so an extra step was added to an operation that was already planned and a year later her hearing is almost normal and still improving. At this young age, if a problem is corrected, their speech catches up incredibly quickly, you’d never know now that she had problems at all.