If your child was behind at 2 years old

[dogmum00]

When did they catch up? My ds has just turned 2 and has no words yet (we're seeing health visitor Thursday to get him on waiting list for speech therapy) and has a simple understanding of things but compared to other kids of the same/similar age he seems very far behind.

My DD, at 2 she hardly had any words, seemed behind her peers, didn’t walk until 18 months and I worried about it constantly! I spoke to my HV as well and her advice was to relax, read lots of books together and to chatter to her. Now she is 10 and is doing really well at school and is a well adapted, social, sporty happy girl. I know it’s only anecdotal but I hope this puts your mind at rest. There may be something wrong but you’re taking the right steps in facing up to the problem.

Do you have any other kids OP?

Yes. Getting grommets and speech therapy helped DS a lot. OT for motor skills delays and he’s in Yr1 and thriving. He’s a summer born too.

@Cantdoitallperfectly no he's my only child. He also didn't walk until 18 months either. It's so hard not to worry, I constantly feel like I'm not doing enough with him and failing him. Thank you for your response, great to hear

My son seemed so far behind his peers. At 2.4 he only had a few words, no sentences. I’m so glad he was my first because if I’d had my dd first I would’ve thought there was a massive problem as she was SO further advanced at that same age. He didn’t really start reading until he was 7/8 (dd wrote her name at 2.5!) and he seemed very far behind his peers emotionally (he’d cry and have big outbursts up until the end of year five)

he’s 18 now and at university and is the absolute loveliest man. There will be other people along with their own stories but I just wanted to give you mine xxx

You can probably self refer to SALT. You also need to make an appointment with the GP and ask to be referred for a hearing test.

DD was a late talker and I’ll be honest I can’t quite remember the ages or anything when she did start, but she was way behind her peers. When she was 4 it was picked up by her nursery and she was provided speech therapy. Because of that I deferred her from going to school as I thought it was really important in that setting that a teacher could understand what she was saying.

She is 5 now and catching up nicely, and the only problem we have sometimes is that as her vocabulary expands she struggles to pronounce some things, but we continue with her speech therapy ‘games’ and I’m really not worried in the long term.

I adopted my DS at 2 (23 months to be exact). He had no words. Just kind of pointed and made noises! He also didn’t walk until he was 17 months.

He’s now 3 and a half and a non stop talking machine. Has billions of questions for me daily and a fabulous little imagination! He’s meeting all his milestones and is thriving!

Our Health Visitor said SALT wouldn’t see him so young when we asked so we just continued as we were - narrating everything, singing/talking to him/reading constantly and he caught up in his own time - which was about 3ish. I look back on videos from when he was 2 and a half and can’t believe the difference!

I understand that feeling well.
One of my children had suspected global development delay.
He walked late and didn't speak until he was 3.

Alot can change and it did for him.
You would never suspect he had any problems early on in his life looking at him now.
He's either working at where he should be academically or exceeding.
He can talk very well and is very articulate.

I used to worry like you so much, so my message if anything is to reassure you that he will most likely be ok.

DS started speaking this summer just after he turned 3. He doesn't stop now. He also didn't walk until 20 months.

It is not widely known but you can self refer for speech therapy, you don't need to get a referral from the doctors or health visitor. Find your local NHS speech therapy department and give them a call. They will add you to the waitlist, which was about 6 months for us.

The speech therapists will ask you to get a hearing test before seeing you. This is something the health visitor can help with and will be able to do for you.

My son was/is speech delayed. Due to COVID and all the lockdowns we were late picking up on it since the nursery never said anything and we weren't seeing children his age at the time. So by we realised he was 2.5 years old. He is now almost 4 and is conversational although some words are still a bit difficult to understand. So we are still under speech therapy and will likely still be when he starts school.

I didn't personally find the speech therapy very effective because it is only 1 hour at a time. Instead I found changing our routines and playing specific speech games at home is what helped him gain words the most. I would recommend looking at Pippin the speech delay app. There is a speech course which teaches you the speech language strategies on a weekly basis and how to implement them at home with games and books etc. There is also a word tracker so you can track progress.

pippinspeech.com/