2 year old speech delay

[YourLilacHelper]

Hi I need some advice my youngest boy will be 2 in July and only has 2 or 3 words that he says and the rest Is gibberish he just won't seem to talk and me and my husband has tried everything we can think of to get him to talk but he's just being so stubborn I need help he understands everything and is a very smart little boy but just dose not speak

Sounds like my little boy. Excellent understanding, potty trained at 20 months, but not speaking. I contacted the HV and she said that while she wasn't worried she would refer me to speech and language because the waits are so long. A year later we finally had our first session. My little boy was talking a lot more by then, but if he hadn't have been I'd have been very panicked about having to then wait a year. My advice would be to get in the system now.

I agree about getting in the system now. I'd speak to your GP and get him referred for a hearing test - I was told that that was the first thing the speech and language team would want to know so if you can get the hearing test done it just ticks it off.

His hearing is fine as we had that check a few months ago and it was perfect he's just being stubborn with talking

I agree about getting started with SALT now- if he’s caught up by the time you see someone you can always cancel the appointment. I initially raised speech concerns for my son with HV at 2year 8 months and he was finally seen by SALT at 5y2months.

Can't hurt to get on the waiting lists asap, but this is pretty common and as long as understanding is there I really wouldn't worry just yet. Mine had about 20 words by age 2, then a couple of months later he had COMPLETELY caught up.

(side note, but huge congrats for potty training at 20 months!)

Haha it was an interesting period - he couldn't say wee or poo so would point at the potty. But he was showing signs of being ready (and he was, only one chaotic day of accidents before he got it) so we went for it 🙈

My daughter only had 3 words at 20 months. She had 3 words by 10 months but she couldn't retain words so every time she learnt a word she lost a word. This was more of a concern than her only having 3 words. We had her assessed by the HV team and she scored ok on the 12-18 month assessment and 0 on the 18-24 putting her slightly behind. We were given some exercises to help reinforce old words when she learnt new words which got her up to 10 words by 2. We moved house and she restarted nursery at 24m after a break of 3 months as her nursery closed. She mostly communicated by pointing by 26m she was using 2 and 3 word sentences and communicated almost exclusively with words and rarely by pointing. When her new HV came to do her 2y assessment at 26-27 months we had no concerns.

She is about to start school in September and we are waiting for her ready for school assessment and I don't need the mark scheme for the assessment to know she is going to score in the "on schedule category" across the board. At 2 we thought we would have to defer her entry to school (August born) but I would have sent her to school months ago if I could!