Worried about speech (23 months)

[potentialdogowner]

I’m worried about my son’s speech and don’t know what to do. He turns 2 next week and can only say about 35 words, and most of them only I can understand (e.g ball sounds like ‘pour’). He also doesn’t connect two words.

I saw somewhere say the milestone at 2 years is 50 words but the average is 300, and it just made me feel really rubbish. Since he was born I’ve spoken all the time to him, read to him loads, labelled things etc and it makes me sad to see him get so frustrated at not being able to talk. I know he understand almost everything I say which is good though. I’d say he learns a new word every two weeks at the moment.

Anyone else have similar? How did your child turn out? Also any advice for next steps?

Im in the same situation! Ds is 2 next week and his speech isnt the best at all. A lot of his words are really unclear and sound jumbled up ('bouncy' to indicate bouncing on the bed sounds like 'daddy', 'blue' is 'boo', 'outside' is just 'side', etc)

I also realised he doesnt really link words together yet and it's always only one word at a time, unless he's mimicking me from a book or something.

My DD had zero issues at all, and im only now really realising DS's speech is quite behind!

@MissYouForever sorry to hear your son is having the same difficulties, it must be strange for you given your daughter had a totally different experience! Some people I’ve spoken to say ‘oh boys can be slower’ but he has loads of toddler boy friends who have had standard speech development! I’ve also just realised that I think there’s a health visitor visit at 2 so they might be able to give some tips, but I’ve not heard anything about an appointment yet.

All 3 of mine had very delayed speech. Eldest is a Cambridge graduate and very articulate. Youngest is doing GCSEs and also very articulate. Middle one has severe learning difficulties and is on the autistic spectrum.

I’d definitely recommend raising it with the HV and asking for a referral to SALT but there is a wide range of normal so I wouldn’t panic too much about this. Sounds like you are already doing everything right.

Hello
I'm a Speech and Language Therapist. Although I work with adults now, I did qualify in both and used to work in Children's Speech therapy :)

What I would say is look out for other milestones too, and for an increase in language and how does he get his needs met if he's not able to say it.
Top tips would be to avoid questions, comment on what he's doing by labelling words for him and most areas will do drop in Speech and language sessions where an SLT would be present and might do a case history/ assessment and provide advice and see if further support is needed.
If in doubt always ask for a referral as waiting lists can be long!

Hey.
I wouldn't worry or stress just yet all children are different. I have 3 my eldest boy was standard, my 2nd boy didn't speak very much and at 4 is still not clear on some words. My youngest girl is a talker (Sometimes too much 😂)! they are all perfect and have their own strengths.

I would mention it to health visitor you should get a letter soon for an appointment or if it is bothering you give them a call. Sometimes saying fewer words can be an indication of other things but I think alot of the time the child is just not as quick picking up speech but will get there.

Also I did sign language with my first as a baby and this helped him learn words, his confidence grew in communicating and he wasnt frustrated because he could get across his needs. Always say the word your signing and it can be loads of fun to learn together 🤎

Thanks so much for the tips and for sharing about some of your grown up children, it’s really reassuring. I thought once he’d passed his first birthday I’d forget about ‘milestones’ and comparing like everyone’s temped to do with rolling/sitting/crawling, but the milestones just change!! And it’s good to hear a professionals input @Lemonyfire so thank you. I think if I haven’t had the health visitor appointment soon I’ll give them a call to ask about SLT referral as like some have pointed out the waiting list could be long.

As I said on the other speech thread this evening - there's an absolutely massive range of normal at this age IME. I know siblings where one was speaking in full sentences at 18 months and the other hardly spoke a word at 3. Both lovely bright teens now.

How's his understanding? Is his hearing ok? Is he progressing? If he understands you (simple stuff like "go get your shoes") and is improving I wouldn't overly worry tbh. You'll get a two year check with the HV so can in with them then.

My daughter barely said 5 words at just turned 3 and then overnight once she started nursery it all just came together. She still struggles with ck and qu sounds and these come out as t sounds instead. So she says twat twat instead of quack quack which is a bit embarrassing when she sings 5 little ducks at the top of her voice 😁

I worried so much and now a 4 I sometimes wish for those quieter times as she never stops now. 😁

OP realistically you won't have your 2 year check for at least a couple of months, my DS was 2 in January and had his 4 weeks ago.
Nursery can refer to SALT though, does your child go to nursery? My DD was under SALT and nursery have referred DS.

Ah I see. Yes he’s been at nursery for the last year so I’ll check with them, thank you!

Has your little one been referred to ENT for a hearing test at all? My son was like this but could only say even fewer words that weren't even words as such. He had moderate/severe hearing loss due to glue ear. It's basically like everything they hear is muffled like their under water. He also ended up with repeat double ear infections and needed grommets put in his ears and his adenoids out age 3 1/2yrs. (Long story lots of fobbing off from ENT so ended up going private) he can now hear fully and his speech is catching up really well.

Just a thought to get checked.

My son is also under SALT and they've been fantastic!

My daughter said hundreds of words by 2, spoke in whole sentences.

Then I had my son who could barely speak at 2. I watch videos of him from then and he literally just grunted.

They are teenagers now and both chatty and articulate. Sometimes just takes some kids longer to do stuff. DS rode a bike a week after he turned 4. DD was 7 before she could do that. They are all different.

Don't worry, my DD was the same and honestly once she got the hang of it (around her 2nd birthday actually) it just snowballed. I really wouldn't worry after this stage, milestones are nonsense

We had input from the HV team as at 20 months my daughter only ever had 3 words. Once she learnt a new word she lost and old word. This was more of a concern than her only having 3 words. We were given some exercises to help reinforce old words and to help improve her vocabulary. By 2 she had 20ish words. After an unsettled 3 months without regular childcare after her nursery closed just before we moved house she started a new nursery at 24months and she mostly communicated with pointing and not with words. She would have had SLT referral at 20m if we hadn't been about to move house. By 26 months when we had her 2 year review she was using 2 and 3 word sentences and communicating with words not gestures.
She has just had her ready for school assessment as she will start school in September aged 4 and a couple of weeks and we and the HV have absolutely no concerns about her starting school even as one of the youngest. She scored very well on the assessment and she was the youngest aged that this assessment could be used for.
We had already had her hearing tested when she was 7 months old as she had delays around 4 months with turning to sounds and voices and smiling but these were later attributed to undertreated reflux and undiagnosed allergies. Once both were improved she caught up over a couple of weeks

I know this post is only a few months old but so much can change in thst time at this age - can I ask the OP how their child has come along? This sounds exactly like my 23 month old daughter and I’ve been panicking like mad about her speech for the past few months.

DC1 didn't start putting 2 words together until after turning 2 years. DC2 was speaking in extended sentences by 18 months. If anything I spent much more 1 on 1 time with DC1, read more books, sang more songs but said child is an excellent speaker now. Keep talking to him and he will get there, they are all so different!

Just to update as I've seen someone has asked upthread. He's now 27 months and his speech has come on a bit, can say around 75 words and can string 2-3 words together. However the words are very difficult to understand, and there are lots of sound noises he can't make (f,s,shh,g,L). He also only says two syllables even if the word has three or four.

The health visitor referred us to SLT and we had the first appointment this week. They have referred us for a hearing test (interestingly we had no concerns about this, but she said a lot of the sounds he can't make are higher frequency noises which may be an issue). And we also have some group therapy booked in, which might lead to more support of needed. She was most concerned about the lack of clear sound noises, so this is what they are going to monitor - apparently it could be due to hearing issues or could even be due to a malformation of the throat/palette.

@potentialdogowner how is your DC getting on? I found this thread looking for info as my DS is the same as yours was

Hi any updates please

Any update?? Sounds like my 20m old

Sorry forgot about this thread. He’s now just turned 3 and we had the group speech therapy back in January. His issue is speech sounds but they do t offer help for that until 3yr 8mo on the nhs. We are going private and have our first appointment coming up. People still struggle to understand him, but he makes sentences now and has many many words. But the atypical pronunciation and way he makes the sounds makes it almost unintelligible if you have no context for what he’s talking about. The private SLT couldn’t see anything wrong with his mouth/palette, but the NHS SLT did refer us to hearing and we found he has glue ear. So we have an ENT appointment for that coming up soon. I’m not convinced it’s enough to be the cause of the speech sounds issue though. Sadly there’s not more of an update than that - things take a long time to push through.