Worried about my 2 year old.

[nwenw001]

Hello all.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

I have a 2 year old son (2 years 1 month to be exact) I am starting to worry about the progress he has made with his development. He is my first child so I haven't got any prior experience to compare with.

First thing is; I don't feel like he recognises his name. I know he is definitely not deaf as when he was a few months old I would put Taylor swift love story song to get him to sleep; everytime I put that song on now he will stop whatever he is doing and come investigate. When I put hey duggee on the telly he will come and have a look. If I call out his name 10 times maybe he will look at me 2 times out of 10.

Secondly; His verbal communication; he babbles through out the day and has been doing this for the past 4/5 months. He loves drinking juice and if he wants to have some juice he will get his bottle and come grab me and hold my hand to the kitchen and hand me his bottle. Or if he wants tv on he will take me to the lounge. Everything else he does not understand.

Thirdly; worst mistake I did was look on the internet; He flaps his arms when he is watching tv and its documented as a "red flag" for autism with kids; he usually does it when he is excited when watching tv. Anyone else's baby done this when they were a baby and grew out of it? I manage a care home for young adults with autism and so this stands out to me more as I experience it first hand on daily basis at work.

I know baby's grow at different rates; I guess what am looking for is reassurance that someone else went through this and their baby was fine as they grew older.

Many thanks

Is he talking at all? At 2 years he should be putting two or three words together to make simple sentences.

Hearing impairment is not as simple as being able to hear or not. It’s about hearing different frequencies as well at different volume levels.

I would ring your HV to arrange his two year check if it is not booked it. If he is not talking at all I would be asking for her to put in a referral for SaLT and a hearing test now.

I will post photo of what is expected development at 2 years.

Lots of typical toddler behaviour would be indicators of autism in an older child.

There are some of the expectations for 2 year olds

Last one

@Thatwentbadly

Is he talking at all? At 2 years he should be putting two or three words together to make simple sentences.

Hearing impairment is not as simple as being able to hear or not. It’s about hearing different frequencies as well at different volume levels.

I would ring your HV to arrange his two year check if it is not booked it. If he is not talking at all I would be asking for her to put in a referral for SaLT and a hearing test now.

I will post photo of what is expected development at 2 years.

Lots of typical toddler behaviour would be indicators of autism in an older child.

My son wasn't putting 2 or 3 words together in a sentence at 2 and actually they're only really suppose to have 50 words and maybe a couple of 2 word phrases.

What you've written will panic the OP, which isn't fair.

My son had 25 words at 2, and he's now nearly 3 and he sailing.

If you're worried get a speech therapist to check, go private if you can.

To add: I was worried about my son's lack of speech so took him to a SALT privately because I didn't want to wait for the nhs, I wanted to make sure he didn't fall behind.

He's just been discharged.

Some children do just take a bit more time.

You need to get him checked for glue ear OP. The first sign that my DS had it was being slow to talk. He could communicate, but was largely non-verbal. You should investigate this asap (hearing test is needed). If he has glue ear then SALT may well be necessary and the wait for NHS services can be several months, so we also went private, which was well worth it. Don't wait! Every month counts at this age for development.

You should have a developmental check up at 2 years which is arranged through your health visitor. They are best placed to assess your child by seeing them IRL rather than going by a description on a talk website.

It's good that he is able to make his wishes known e.g. bringing his bottle to the kitchen to ask for juice, bringing you to the TV.

As an aside, it's not recommended to give them lots of juice in a bottle as this is very bad for their teeth. If you do give juice, keep it as an occasional treat, with water as the main drink and give it in an open cup or free flow sippy cup. Consider watering it down and/or swapping to weak, sugar free squash as well which reduces the sugar content. Bottles should just be for milk, and ideally no longer used after 1 year.

Walking around with constant access to a bottle/dummy can also cause speech problems as their mouth is full with the teat. It is better to give drinks in a sippy cup or open cup and encourage them to sit down when drinking.

It's also a good idea to keep TV exposure minimal as having the TV on all the time can make it hard for them to hear language being spoken naturally. It helps to make some time, even just 15 minutes per day, where you sit with your child and play with them for example playing with toy cars or a ball. Or sharing picture books together. Hopefully you do this already :)

Hi OP
I'm an NHS SLT in Scotland. Your wee one might be a bit delayed in their S&L development but that doesn't mean that he won't catch up in his own time. www.leedscommunityhealthcare.nhs.uk/our-services-a-z/speech-and-language-therapy2/speech-and-language-therapy-toolkit/

There are loads of advice sheets with ideas on how to support your child particularly under the Early Communication section.
Also important to think about what impact it's having on him and yourself. Is he getting upset or distressed? Can he make his needs known in some way or form? If you're still concerned, just ask your HV for an SLT referral or contact the department directly if you can.

Hope that helps a bit 🙂

Sorry don't know if the link showed up. Look us Leeds Community SLT Toolkit online for advice sheets etc

You should have a developmental check up at 2 years which is arranged through your health visitor. They are best placed to assess your child by seeing them IRL rather than going by a description on a talk website.

Yes, in fact it's two and a half in my LA as children are so variable in their abilities at just two.

Good luck with the hearing test, I've been waiting a year because of covid. Luckily he's progressing on his own

My son was similar to yours OP. He had a few words but would usually just point at what he wanted rather than ask for it. He certainly wasn't making 2 or 3 word sentences! He scored right at the bottom end of normal for language at his check up and I was a bit anxious. He also took ages to react to his name, and other things like waving/clapping. He didn't flap his arms but he did walk on the balls of his feet/toes quite a bit. Anyway, he's 4 now and absolutely spot on in all development areas, no signs of asd whatsoever. He doesn't shut up and his nursery teacher is always praising how much language he has. His pronunciation can be a bit unclear still sometimes but I have no worries about him at all.

@Thatwentbadly

Is he talking at all? At 2 years he should be putting two or three words together to make simple sentences.

Hearing impairment is not as simple as being able to hear or not. It’s about hearing different frequencies as well at different volume levels.

I would ring your HV to arrange his two year check if it is not booked it. If he is not talking at all I would be asking for her to put in a referral for SaLT and a hearing test now.

I will post photo of what is expected development at 2 years.

Lots of typical toddler behaviour would be indicators of autism in an older child.

Thank you for the information leaflets you attached. I have contacted a Private SALT today and are in the process of getting a report done.

@namechangetogamechange

To add: I was worried about my son's lack of speech so took him to a SALT privately because I didn't want to wait for the nhs, I wanted to make sure he didn't fall behind.

He's just been discharged.

Some children do just take a bit more time.

Thank you, after reading your comment I contacted private SALT and will be getting a visit in the next couple of weeks

He does sound a little bit delayed but that doesn’t mean he can’t catch up. Good luck with the speech therapy, and do ring the HV about his two year check.

Thank you all for your input; I wills speak to GP to get a hearing test done; I am in talks with a private SALT to get him seen and have an initial assessment and see what we can work towards. Appreciate all your comments.