2.8 year old not talking

[CK1988]

Hi All, starting this thread as i really need a pick me up
my dd is 2.8 and not yet talking…has never said a word. She had glue ear and had grommets in at 2, the magic switch moment never happened. She is in speech therapy and i am trying everything else i can …even reiki!
she has not reached all her pre linguistic skills but is getting there (has recently started pointing to request) she has amazing eye contact and is very intelligent and independent. We do not know if its asd, speech delay/disorder or glue ear related.
anyway im just looking for some positive stories if anyone is willing to share! X

Does she understand what you say?

Have you tried any alternative / augmentative forms of communication- symbols, photos, PECS, signing, Makaton, etc?

@RandomMess she has started to understand some basic things, ie bed time, get your shoes, bubbles, no, dirty, her own name etc and her nursery have said she understands things (outside, etc) the understanding has developed in last few months…she had no understanding at 2…she is also v stubborn so its hard to know when shes ignoring us or doesnt understand!
@lorisparkle we werw doing zoom speech therapy and after a few weeks has picked up a ‘hand to mouth’ gesture for food, however this has kind of been replaced by pointing…we have a new f2f SLT who wants us to focus on pre linguistic skills and joint attention etc first….
i feel like we are facing a wall sometimes its very hard!!
any suggestions!

I find some different local authority speech and language therapy services have some useful resources e.g. www.hacw.nhs.uk/childrens-speech-and-language-resources/

If her hearing was severely impacted (completely possible) the she has only been hearing for 8 months.

What would you expect from a baby of 8 months?

Absolutely use baby sign language alongside everything you say because that teaches language skills.

She could have auditory processing issues which can be fixed but rarely diagnosed in young children and not before they are talking.

@lorisparkle thank you! Ill check this out! Im actually in Ireland so dont have NHS…our public health system is so bad and waitlists are years long with serious backlogs from covid….every bit of advice and resource helps x

If she's autistic, the joint attention stuff is the most important thing. If she's not it'll be the speech sounds.

Does she copy or repeat things she hears in real life or on TV? If so she has a gestalt way of picking up language, which is a whole different way of processing.

A common reason for lack of speech in autistic children is apraxia of speech. The messages from brain to mouth are compromised. That's why many autistic non verbal children make a lot of noise but it isn't speech, as the control element isn't there. It's like playing a Walkman with no headphones or speaker attached, or slightly dodgy speaker that doesn't relay all the sounds it needs to.

My son was a late talker
But very social, laughed a lot and understood a lot. Is your child understanding and showing emotions?
Miss Rachel helped boost what I was already doing have you seen her on YouTube?

My son had a tongue tie snipped at 6 months has this also been checked?

@RandomMess yes ive considered that as well and i may never fully get any answers…the ENT said she had copious fluid in both ears…her last hearing test was also inconclusive as its too hard to get a 2 year old to cooperate!! Interestingy, when i took her to reiki the practitioner said she felt a lot of blockages/trauma around the ears (altho fluid has gone and grommets are still in)
My gut tells me its not asd as she wouldnt meet other criteria…but i honestly dont know anymore, she is also so far behing other kids now in terms of communication and interaction….

Shame you aren't in England my DD was diagnosed and treated by a wonderful Johansen therapist.

It sounds like she is making progress since her operation. Unlikely a baby she has other things to do other than focus on listening and practice talking/noises so hopefully it is just taking a long time as she's busy doing other stuff.

It will be tiring for her.

If she understands things that is amazing as you have said she is intelligent

does she have a dummy?

and yes to a pp if she couldn’t hear before it’s going to take a bit for her to learn sounds etc

play lots of nursery rhymes on your Alexa throughout the day

Classical music is great for the brain part of auditory processing. Obviously sometimes she needs no background noises.

Do you know to model back to her what she says/should say?

"Would you like toast or biscuit?" She points you respond "oh a biscuit, here you go your biscuit" and do the sign for biscuit at the same time.

@jamoncrumpets she does have joint attention and laughs and smiles a lot but has a short attention span and is very active and independent, i think she has picked up language from routines ie going outside and ‘get your shoes’ etc is that gestalt? She copies very well but her use of gestures is poor if that makes sense! She will copy me blowing out a candle but wont wave back at me! she makes a lot of sounds but no words
@snowbellsxox we love ms rachel!! I play the baby one and my dd really likes it…she will occasionaly imitate ms rachel as well and i think she has learned from her…hopefully my dd is like your son, she shows emotions and is a happy child :)

When is she having another hearing test? My 2 year old just had a hearing test due to delay in her speech and they were confident with the test that she can hear. So it is possible to do a hearing test that works with that age.

Have you done simple things at home to test her hearing. Like clapping behind her to see if she turns around?

That's great news! She's definitely on the right track :) my son is now four, when he was two I was worried about his speech. Phones GP etc was told to wait. Books are great, getting child to fill out missing word in song etc you will probably know this already. Ready steady ..... not letting the car go until he said go (he loves cars).
That's so good she's following miss Rachel too, she's fab!
My sons speech came on HUGELY at three .. I couldn't believe it.
He now sings full songs, had a speaking part in his school play (he's now in reception) and speaks like a young adult! I can't believe it and never thought we would be here back then ..... positive words for you. You've got this :)

Bless her, she's trying to catch up now isn't she you're doing all you can and I know how you feel

@snowbellsxox thank you for sharing your story, it gives me hope! Theres such a lack of info out there on late language acquisition…everything points to ASD, i genuinely dont mind if its ASD as my dd is just amazing as she is, my only concern there would be the absolute lack of supports for ASD in ireland…your son sounds fab and a very clever little man!
@DragonWasp yes ahe can definitely hear and will come if i call her from another room but i do suspect there some sort of auditory processing going on and a part of her brain hasnt developed in that aspect (due to severe glue ear until she was 2)
@RandomMess will give the classical music a try and she does enjoy bursery rhymes…shes goes into a bit of a trance when we play them in the car! Thanks for the tips!

its really just so hard to find the correct professional help rignt now, wait lists are ridiculous, HSE doctor (public) says wait and see, an SLT said autism, another SLT thought delay, nursery have flagged no concerns as shes an easy child, my gut instinct says glue ear related but i am terrified she will never speak its just so hard to know!! Thanks everyone for the replies x

@CK1988 my son has autism and while he had no major speech issues I know from other parents from courses and groups I've attended that the lack of speech was only one thing in a list of a lot of other stuff that pointed to asd. So if she has had hearing issues I'd imagine that's your issue and she will catch up. However I'm also in Ireland and absolutely no harm to get the ball rolling anyway as if it did happen to be asd it would be best to get a diagnosis before primary school.

@SparkyBlue i guess time will tell, its really the not knowing and the lack of a support pathway that has me losing sleep! I hope that you have good supports in place for your son 🤞🏻 I have applied for AON and have been told they are redoing all AONs from 2020&2021 so there are delays, my experience with the public system really hasnt been good at all, ive appled to CDNT too….it took 5 months to get into private SLT and i have an appt with a private child neurologist in march (5 month wait list) so im really just a bit disheartned with the whole system and processes!

@CK1988 to be honest we weren't waiting long on a waiting list at all it was actually bizarre. They contacted us and asked would we accept going to a private clinic for the assessment if they funded it and we of course jumped at it but we got the impression that lots of people had turned it down as it was outside of the immediate area. I've a feeling the principal of his school pushed it because we literally were not waiting more than six months. Primary school provision fab as well. We've been very lucky

@SparkyBlue wow that's brilliant! nice to hear a positive support store for once! Thanks for the info :)

You actually only hear the bad stories. Even anecdotally from being here on MN I can see how good his primary school provision is. The lack of therapists for OT and SLT is a major issue and it's a total disaster for children who really need help. One bit of advice I will give you is if you think she needs extra help at primary level then play the system look around at Deis schools especially Deis level 1 as the funding those schools get is unbelievable. The school my son attends has a regular play therapist visit and at times it looks like there are more staff than students so the help he is getting is unbelievable compared to last year at our local primary school (which was also fabulous but much bigger classes etc) .

Hi, can I ask how your little one is now?
this sound exactly like my son, 2 in a few weeks, hardly any gestures, no speech, glue ear in both ears :( also worried about ASD because of Google!