22 month old says only the first syllable of the words! Help!

[Hopitihop]

Hi All,

My DC1, soon to be 2 years old, was a bit speech delayed forever but she is now starting to gain new words. She is not yet at the stage of combining words together.

My worry is that all of the words are one-syllable words like car, more, up, shoe etc.

Or she would only say the first syllable of longer words like da for dinosaur, ca for carrot, mi for milk, poo for spoon, ba for bus etc.

She has gained around 40 words and all of them are like this.

Strangers wouldn't be able to understand what she means when she says these words...

Sometimes I am even puzzled because for example she uses the same sound for many words. For example ba is ball and bus, ca is car and cat etc.

Is this all normal and just a stage or is it an indication of a bigger issue that a speech therapist would help her sort this out?

In all other areas she is developing well and her understanding/receptive language is where it should be for her age.

It's only the expressive language that worries me...

What does her SaLT say?

Sounds normal to me! My 22mth old started like that and bit by bit says more. I didn’t worry as they could understand everything.

@Fallagainfallagain She hasn't been assessed by a SALT yet. It takes ages with the NHS...

I just posted in here wondering whether I should contact a private SALT or if this is normal.

It's my first kid and I have no idea!

@Bluebleu Thank you! That's positive :)

My 21 month old is the same, everything is ‘ba’ 😂

She's not even 2, it sounds pretty normal to me.

Peachy Speech on Instagram is really good for a guide to speech development and how their language develops.

[quote Hopitihop]@Fallagainfallagain She hasn't been assessed by a SALT yet. It takes ages with the NHS...

I just posted in here wondering whether I should contact a private SALT or if this is normal.

It's my first kid and I have no idea!

@Bluebleu Thank you! That's positive :)[/quote]
Sorry I know the waiting lists around here are 4 months and I assumed they would be similar for all area. Have you also asked your GP to refer her for an audiology assessment?

My son was like this until around 26 months- although he tended to just say the last syllable. He’s 13 now and can speak perfectly well and I’d in top set for English. Honestly don’t panic yet

All very normal op

I'm not a SALT but this sounds normal to me. Give yourself a time limit to start worrying / looking for private help (not when she's 2 - give her a couple more months).

In the meantime keep doing all the language stuff I'm sure you are doing. Singing, talking to her all the time, get a drum and bang it in time to the syllables you're saying, etc.

www.teachinglittles.com/teach-your-toddler-to-talk-language/

Honestly - again, as a non expert - I wouldn't be surprised to find a bit of speech delay across the board given tiny kids have either been in their houses or in public with everyone wearing facemasks for the last couple of years.

Just wanted to add to me saying it's all normal.
It's very much a big positive that she can recognise what things are, and say them the way she is.
She whole word doesn't come straight away and they don't necessarily say it right if that makes sense.

My son was speech delayed, still is but he's come on so much.
So for example he used to say tar tar for car. After time, he's now saying car plain as day.

Just keep repeating, singing, talking.

My advise from my HV was to repeat the main word 3 times
X look at that big bus, a blue bus, wow a bus.

It's normal op. My 3 and a half year old calls his drink his 'goo me' no idea why!!

I’d suggest singing. A lot of singing. The tune hooks them in. It’s a recommendation I was given by a SLT in similar circumstances and it worked but I can’t give you the full technical explanation!

Good luck and try not to worry too much.

No harm in getting wait list fir speech therapist assessment and seeing if any drop in sessions locally
Also audiology check hearing and glue ear
You could use visual material to support
do you want the bus or the ball? Point

That sounds like my ds. At two he barely spoke other than a few very words like mama, dada, his sister's one syllable name and moo. He was very very slow to get going with talking and I was worrying a lot about it. At 2.5 I spoke to our HV about it and she said she wasn't concerned. At 3 his speech improved slightly and he started to put a few words together but very poor pronunciation and no one could understand him other than me and his sister.

A year later (he's just turned 4) and he now talks non-stop with very good, clear pronunciation and a wide vocabulary. Some kids just take time to get going.

My DS is similar, he's 28 months and still misses syllables or uses only the first syllable of words. I feel bad now, hadn't worked out his age in months for a while and 28 seems a lot.

He has some longer words- mama, dada, tiger (ti-gah)- and will use sentences sometimes but not a lot compared to what my older dd was doing by the same age. Some of the clipped words are a tad awkward... he really likes stick man but says it 'dick man', we saw a stick on a walk that he proudly showed everyone we passed 'my dick! look my dick man!'

I thought about contacting our HV but he's due the 2 year check soon so will mention it then, I don't have any other concerns as he's otherwise on track developmentally. I have friends with dc who has similar speech at this age and they're all doing well now, one recently went from barely 10 words at about 2 1/2 to chatting really clearly by 3.

And dome kids hzve an actual speech disorder needing therapy.
Get on with list, if by time appt cones round
It is not needed
Nothing is lost

I am a SLT. Totally normal till about 3.
Read lots of rhyming books with her. Emphasise the rhymes and the last sounds of them. Enjoy the stories rhymes. Model back the word to her, she says "do_", you say "yes! doggg, I see the dog too".