Child development

[Sparky2200]

Hi everyone.

I'm new on this forum and first time posting.

I'm a single dad to 2 girls 28 months and 7 months. Working full time so my eldest goes to day care and mother in law looks after the youngest.

I recently had a 2 year appointment with health visitor and she mentioned that my eldest isn't talking much..."pretty much just a few words but no sentences".....this has got me worried as I am completely in the dark about what they should be doing or saying, (I thought she was fine) and this is something my late wife would handle and understand more about than me.

Would you say this is normal behaviour for a 2 year old or should I sign her up to speech therapy like the health visitor advised?

Thanks all

Sorry I should of asked but only just thought of it, could losing her mother have caused this delay in development. Hasn't exactly been the best lately

They are vary so much.
My son said nothing at 2 years old, not a word, at 2.5 years old he started and even then it took awhile for sentences to come.
Your little girl is saying words and that's great and it's positive.
There's nothing stopping you getting her on the waiting list for speech therapy as the wait times are quite long at the moment.
Has her nursery raised any concerns with her speech?

What I found helped my son was singing, he loves nursery rhymes so I was like a broken record singing them all day.

I'm very sorry about your loss.

My DS is 30 months (but has an older sibling) and talks in sentences, and on one particular topic has this long speech he always delivers (a kid was unkind to him repeatedly at series of classes and he always talks at length about this). Many kids develop speech at different ages. I could put my DS' down to individual development, having a big sister, me being a sahm, and him not having lost his mum

I'm very sorry for your loss, I guess it would impact your little one a tremendous amount.
I can't offer any advice but if you're interacting with her lots when you're with her, playing little games and talking to her about colours shapes, animals etc then it will come in time.

Hope things are OK for you all, it sounds like a very sad situation.

Sorry for your loss, you're doing a great job. My boy is nearly 3 and when he was around 2 never said anything. Keep talking to your child and I'm sure it'll come. My son never shuts up now!

I'm a Speech and Language Therapist. Ideally by 2 children should know about 50 words and join 2 words together e.g. 'more juice'. However we look at more than just talking. I would be less concerned ifna child responds to their name, plays appropriately with toys and starts to show some pretend play e.g. feeding teddy and understands instructions without you pointing e.g. where's daddy's nose? Where's teddy's leg?

You have clearly had a very tricky time recently. I don't think it would have caused things, but with so much to cope with, it may have had an impact. I would take the Health Visitor up on the referral. If it turns out not to be needed, you can decline later on. Plus waiting times may be quite long. In the meantime there is lots if advice online, but I would recommend:

• offering choices with objects e.g. 'do you want apple or banana' and showing her them as you name them
• repeat back what she says adding a word e.g. if she says 'apple' you could say 'more apple' as you hand it over.

Also ask nursery what they are doing to support her. If she is there lots of her week, hopefully they can support her language.

I am so sorry for your loss. It sounds so sad and as if you’re doing brilliantly.

Please don’t worry at all that the loss of your wife could have caused these difficulties. Kids vary so much in their development - I have one who had 50 words by 18 months and another who was really quite delayed.

Take the referral - waiting lists are really long so it’s good to get on it, and you can take a ‘wait and see’ approach while you’re waiting.

In general, for child development stuff, I love Penelope Leach ‘Your Baby and Child’. Full of no nonsense, but kind, info and advice.

Thanks all for your kind words. It wasn't easy, well still isn't, I lost my wife to a drink driver 4 months ago.

Not a day goes by that I don't think of her, luckily I have 2 amazing girls in my life that remind me of her everyday.

My daughter is good in other areas....she knows juice and "ta" and knows "da" for dad and she pretend plays etc etc. It's only her speech, but the child care didn't seem that surprised, they basically said the same thing as you all have.

I take my hat off to you ladies though, raising kids is no easy task.

Thanks for all your help and advise

Have you got any CDs with nursery rhymes? Also, you can get these CDs from garden centres etc with their name on, and all the songs annoyingly use their names "What's this next song about Henry? Do you like ducks Henry..." they're quite annoying but might help her hearing her name and liking the songs then wanting to join in, or using more words from the songs? Just an idea.
Good luck