My toddler doesn't talk

[Londongirl8922]

Hi all, so my little boy is 2.4 years old and he doesn't talk at all, doesn't point.. if he wants the door open he will grab my hand and pull me to open the door..the only word he's said and only once is Daddy...he's been going playgroup now for just over a month, they are still getting to know him and recently have said he does clap excessively so we want to keep an eye on that...we had the health visitor come out and I felt awful after she left as she said at his age he should be saying atleast so many words , we have SAL booked in for September but just wondering if any parents have tips of what we can do to encourage him more...I know all children develop differently but should I be worried? we read books to him, go to the library, we tell him what we are doing if we are doing something...he doesn't look either when we say his name,the only time he will look is if we say his name with what's this after it

Does he like balls?
Sit on the floor, opposite him, with a ball. Tell him you will pass the ball to him if he asks for it using his sound. Any sound he makes, he gets passed the ball. Then you ask him for the ball, such as if his name is Max "Max, push ball to mummy". Keep language simple and an instruction.
Repeat this as many times as he will put up with, which at first may not be many, but you may find he likes the game.
Can do the same with toy cars, or anything that you can pass between you which he likes.

When you go up steps, count the steps out-loud.

Reading books to him is great. Do that a lot. Look at pictures, point to something in the picture. Looking at a picture of an Elephant: ask "Max, What is this?"... wait, wait, wait... give him time to respond in some way. "Elephant. That's right Max, Elephant"

When out an about, "Max, look. What is this? (point to the bus)". Max makes any sound. "Bus, that's right Max, bus".

Keep modelling words for him. Make it a game and keep the game short, unless he is indicating he wants the game to continue.

My 2.5 yo is the same.barely had any words until a few weeks ago tbh. HV referred him for speech assessment and they have said he is classed as a late talker. Other ds is 4 and also has delayed speech. However he has all the sounds so they aren't too worried at this stage. I've heard that in general boys are often behind girls with speech as toddlers.

Have you had his hearing checked? My DS is speech delayed and it was the first thing the HV and SALT asked me to book in with GP to rule it out. It wasn't the case for our son and we're now proceeding with SALT, but apparently glue ear can be a common issue x

Thank you for all your comments, I have done the ball thing with him the other night but he wasn't really in the mood but I am going to continue, I'm constantly saying what things are when he either picks them up or I do to show him...if we see a bus I say his name point and say that's a bus ...we had the HV come back in April and she booked us in for SAL but they could only book us in September which I think it's a long wait plus she said for a hearing referral we have got to wait for a little 4-5 months and we will have a letter come into the post..I might chase that up with the HV and see if I just get an appointment at the GP for them to check his ears..he does have quite a lot of wax in my opinion but not sure if that is normal ..thank you for all your ideas I'm going to give some ago...I have noticed though he does pay more attention when I read him books now and we go to the library twice a week and go to a toddler book reading thing every 2 weeks with other children and parents ...I'm sure he's just delayed ...hopefully he will in the next few months just start talking a lot we shall see ☺️

Lots of language but keep sentences simple. Say his response to him 'you want a drink?' 'Yes I want a drink'

You could print some photo graphs of everyday objects and familiar people and do a posting exercise. Make a postbox out of a cardboard box and take it in turns to post a photo. As you post it show him the picture and say daddy, book, ball etc. Then post, do same with his.

My nearly 3.5 year old is also speech delayed. Learning makaton really helped us. It wasn't easy at first but we kept trying and he knows says the word but will also sign alongside it. If he goes to nursery/childcare having them on board and using same method really helps as well!

Now**

Makaton
Photo choice boards
Check sight and hearing

How long after the HV come out did you got for speech therapy? Ours came out in April but we can't get seen to until September...

Hello all, I had a call today from the HV to say she will be coming in a months time to do a follow up from my little ones 2 year assessment ..his nursery have already done a assessment so is it best I show her that to read through and obviously she's sending some more development forms to fill out