Potential Speech Delay?

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My DS is 23 months, will be 2 early next month. I picked him up from nursery today and asked how his speech development is coming along. DH normally does drop off and pick up, but today DS’s key worker mentioned that they would like to set up a meeting with us to discuss some extra support. She told me not to panic but I’m panicking!

Now our DS knows some words and is super chatty but it’s a lot of babble/jargon with the odd word or two thrown in there. Google says toddlers should know around 50 words by the time they’re two and I’m sure he’s not far off that, but his speech just seems a bit babyish still if that makes sense?

An example of words/phrases he does know and says day to day:
Mummy/mama
Daddy/dada
Baby (we had a baby in January)
Blueberries
Strawberries
Banana but says narna
Peppers
Blue (as in the colour and my in law’s dog)
Where’s Blue?
Where’s baby?
Where’s balloon?
Where’s ball?
More
Please
Thank you
Spoon
Cuddle
Up
Down
Duck
Quack
Bubbles
Heya
Bye Bye/Goodbye
And I can’t believe I’m adding this to the list but - boobies. One of the older toddlers taught all the other toddlers to say boobies 😅

He’ll also say the names of his nursery buddies who are around the same age.

Now physical/motor skills wise he’s fine. If not a bit more ahead in this area.

The last thing to add is that DS has a squint. I suspected he had one for ages but was dismissed until the squint became obvious. Now this has been investigated and it’s been confirmed that DS is extremely long sighted. Would this have an impact on his speech? We pick up his glasses on Monday so I’m hoping this will help make DS’s vision more comfortable, speech aside.

I’m sure everything is and will be fine but I can’t help but worry and feel guilty. Is there anything I should be doing at home that I maybe missing? Has anyone else been in the same boat? Would also be interested to hear from others whose DCs also wear glasses.

Thanks.

Honestly, that seems totally fine to me.

Was the extra support regarding his language skills?

It's way more than my DS had at 23 months. He was always within the normal range albeit at the lower end. He's all caught up now (he's 4)

That all seems perfectly normal for a 23 month old ime but early intervention can't be harmful so I'd just lean into the extra support they're giving. It's great how proactive nursery are being this early on.

I just wanted to comment as my son has a visual impairment and has -10 on his glasses but I've come to learn that children adapt incredibly well and apparently their brains make up a lot of the gaps of what they can't see. I can only speak from my experience but it didn't impact his speech but I can only imagine how much his life improved once he had his glasses.

@Solgrass yes the extra support was just around his language skills. They don’t appear to be concerned with anything physically or socially. Although we haven’t had the meeting yet.

@mynameiscalypso I thought my DS was within normal range too, if on the lower end. He just always wants to be on the go! Good to know your DS is all caught up now.

@upintheloft thanks so much for your comment. We found that DS is -5 in right eye and -6 in left. The ophthalmologist didn’t mention any concerns other than his squint. How has your son taken to his glasses? Did he require much encouragement to keep them on?

One other point I'd make is that my DS hated speaking at nursery. He would go whole days without saying anything and they only knew he could actually talk because he spoke to me or DH at pick up. We never really got to the bottom of it but he was fine and chatty at home. I think part of the reason he was at the lower end of the range for so long was because he spent so little time talking at nursery and he didn't get to practice it enough. That's very different now he's at school and sometimes gets told off for being too chatty/noisy now which always makes me happy.

A lot more than my DS at that age, he had 5
words.

They may refer him to SALT to help, introduce some techniques etc.

It's their job to help so don't panic.

My daughter had 3 words at 10 months and still had 3 words at 20 months but she didn't keep words. We got some exercises from the HV to help her keep words and by 2 when she restarted nursery she and about 10-20 words and communicated mostly by pointing. We were keeping up the exercises and the nursery were working with her too. By 26 months she had 2 and 3 words sentences and could express herself with words. Within another few months she was matching her peers and by 3 there were no difference. She is August born at 2 we thought her delay would mean that we would have to defer her entry to school. We now have no concerns and she will be starting at 4 and a few weeks in September

My son has a congenital issues with nystagmus and a cone issue with colour vision deficiency so it won't be the same as your son but you should join the Facebook group "for little eyes" there's a huge amount of support for little kids in glasses.
He's absolutely never had an issue keeping his glasses on. He's had them since he was 2 and it's the first thing he gets in the morning and last thing he takes off at night. With the prescription level he has I'm sure he won't have an issue keeping them on as he'll notice a difference immediately. Just make sure they fit him properly. Hope he has an amazing start with them on Monday it's definitely a bit emotional finding out they need them but great they've picked up on it so early

Gosh OP he sounds great to me - our 24 month old isn't putting two words together yet and most of his words aren't pronounced anything like the real word but nursery haven't seemed concerned yet .
They do learn so fast at this age , I am guessing ours might catch up when wants to and not worried

My son had less than 20 words by 2. Two months later he was using full sentences and had completely caught up! I've heard stories about other language explosions after 2 - it's really common.

I'd accept the extra support, because it can't hurt, but it's really far from time to worry just now.

Are the words clear or are they difficult to understand?

It could be a hearing issue that they don't understand his speech?

They can have great language skills with pour speech. My DDs was so bad the assessor struggled to understand anything she said yet she had advanced language skills. Understood everything, lots of imaginative play with dolls etc.

He is well within the average range for his age. Can other people understand him? Even if they can't I wouldn't be too concerned at present. Has he had his hearing checked ?

@RandomMess I think DS’s hearing is ok, at least I think so! He hears us say his name and responds, can follow instructions. For example if our baby is feeding and we need a muslin, we’ll point to the muslin and say can you bring that over to mummy/daddy and he does it. If we tell him to put his shoes on he brings us his shoes. The words he’s been saying for ages are pretty clear, but newer words like colours aren’t as clear. I get the impression that his key worker and the others at nursery seem to think his language will improve once has his glasses.

@Superscientist what sort of exercises did the HV recommend for your LO? I’ve been trying to get a HV check up for DS since moving to the area last year but haven’t been successful. He hasn’t seen a HV since he was 10 months old.

The hearing needed to develop clear speech is different to having good enough hearing for every day stuff.

DD heard and understood everything but she had an inverted hearing curve.

If he new words aren't clear perhaps he has glue ear which comes and goes over time.

I can't remember exactly but generally lots of talking to her. Asking questions that require a response that isn't yes or no. We had to really reinforce old and words when she learnt a new word to try to stop her from losing words. This was by far a bigger concern that few word count.

@RandomMess I mentioned your comment to my DH and he told me that his brother’s hearing was really bad when he was younger and he needed grommets. Turns out he was lip reading the whole time and was only picked up when the GP covered his mouth! Will keep this in mind when we have the further discussions, thank you.