About to turn 2,still not talking.

peppapig24

My son will be 2 the end of this month but hasnt started to talk yet. He will say mamma and nanna but that is about it,on our last visit to the health nurse she said he should have 10-20 solid words by the time he is 2 and if he doesnt he will have to go for speech therapy.
As he is my first child and im a single parent im worried that im doing something wrong,i have followed all of her advice talking to him telling him what i am doing generally just explaining stuff but still no joy. I do believe that all kids are diffrent and also develop in their own time but this has me so worried.
Has anybody here gone through the same thing with a child or even the speech theraphy?

Nevyn

Children do develop at different rates, some children are slow to talk and some are utter chatter boxes by the time they are 2. It could be that there is nothing wrong what so ever and your child is just taking their time and may start talking by the time they are 2 and half but, it is always best just in case that you have him checked out.

Have you tried him with the animal noises game?
What does the mouse say? EeeK
what does the dog say? woof
that and oddles of praise for joingin saying the sounds can often work well.

hinault

My niece did not start speaking until she was nearly three.

Got to say that the family were concerned at the time but, although she was not speaking, there was plenty of noise from her and one or two words like dog/cat/mam/dad, so we took that as being positive.


She has just turned four and we can't get her to shut up now!:)


Don't fret too much so long as there is some sound coming from your son, then everthing should work out fine.
If the lad is totally mute - with no discernible sound then you need to go to see a specialist, I would suggest.

Bill2673

We have a child about the same age, who has a few words now.

The one thing I would say is that the thing that got our baby talking, and still exictes him more than anything else, is animals. I bring him quite a bit to the zoo, to open farms, to a neighbours garden where there is a cat or a dog. He got the animal sounds first......miaow was his first word, and he got baaa for a sheep pretty quickly after that. he struggles with the actual names of the animals (e.g. sheep), but the animal sounds really got him exicted. hope that helps.

bob the bob

Does he use a dummy/soother?

That can slow down speech development. At least if this is the reason, you will know why he is not talking yet and that he doesn't necesarily need therapy.

I know my 9 month old will sit quietly for hours with a soother in his mouth, but take it out and he's more of a handful but he is much more interactive and chatty.

PS: Why can't it just be called speech lessons, the word therapy has such negative connotations these days.

All the best with it.

Moonbeam

my baby is only 14 months old,
She says mama,da di and then everything else revolves around animals too.
She pointed to a bird and said Bird more then once but it is still not a regular word.
She can say Dog while she chases the poor dog! She can say Bra but not quite bran while looking for the dog.
She barks and thinks all animals go woof woof:)

I wouldn't worry too much yet.

Do you read to him a lot?if you sit down with picture books and read them together while having conversations about the pictures it might encourage him.

axel rose

I gotta say that I'm in the same boat. My son did speak but lost all his words when his dad died. (Yea, I'm quick to blame me too! I'm terrified that I'll feck him up forever)

However there is also a more rational side to me that knows that he understands everything that is said to him, and secondly, he does communicate with me - through signs, pointing and baby talk. I feel that a huge factor is the fact that he spends so much time with me, he knows that I can interpret his signals and doesn't 'need' to talk.

I cant wait until I sell my house and can get him settled in a creche so he can be influenced by gabby toddlers!!

My PHN has put his name down for SLT though.

peppapig24

First of all thanks to everyone who replied,reading ur posts makes me feel comforted in the fact that this isnt just affecting only my son.No bob the bob he doesnt use a soother but i agree with you completly on the use of the word therapy,when my health nurse first said it to me i nearly died!
He does recognise animal noises and keeps trying to say (so i think) duck,he rambles on all the time to himself baby talk really so he isnt totally mute. I very much agree with you axel rose my son is with me all the time and i understand all his little signals as to what he wants so maybe your right in what your saying he doesnt 'need' to talk.

Iv heard there is a fairly big waiting list for this 'speech therapy' would i be right in saying that does anybody know?

cynder

When my guy was 2 he had 5 words, i was called back to the pubic heath nurse 3 months later and he still had 5 words, we asked to refered to the early intervention services and had an assessment of need carried out and is is now waitlisted for an asd assesment, he is 3 and 2 months now and still has very delayed speech but it is comming on. He has speech therapy and early intervention educator (teach him playskills) and is waitlisted for a pyscologist.

however at the same time a friend of mine had a boy the same age and he didnt talk either and he was refered to JUST a SPEECH THERAPIST. his speech is a little more advanced than my guys.

my guy had behaviour problems relating to lack of speech and thats why we went down a different route/he also had a few markers of asd but not all eo they really want to know whats going on with him, in the end it may be jut her personality or adhd.

i also have 1 evening left of the Hanen course which is for people who have children with a speech delay some of the tips are very helpful.


Its better looked at earlier than later, in the end if it is just a speech delay no harm done, if it is something more the earlier the better.

depending where you live it can be a year for speech therapy. if you do it through the assessment of need you get it within 6 months.

cynder

peppapig24 wrote: »

I very much agree with you axel rose my son is with me all the time and i understand all his little signals as to what he wants so maybe your right in what your saying he doesnt 'need' to talk.

If that was the case no child would talk. I knew and still know what my son wants even when he doesnt talk ( he has about 35 words now). If he has comprehension thats great my fella had very little comprehension at 2 and couldnt understand simple instructions, he also talked gobble d gook most of the time babbling away. in the last 4 months his comprehension has really really improved.

cynder

It might be an idea to do this questionaire and see what you think after you have taklen it. Thats what i did and the pyscologist kept it and filled it with his other assessments.

http://www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html

My guy now scores 51 where as last year he scored 85.

kmick

My son did not have much at 2 either and then took off shortly after. Give it 6 months.

smelltheglove

I wouldnt worry too much. My first was very very quiet, still is now at 8. She never spoke much, words here and there until one day my little brother who would have been maybe 6 at the time came in crying, he had hurt himself outside, the little one walked up to him and said 'whats wrong gav?' It was her first sentence, I'd say she was easily 2 at this stage, both myself and my mam were gobsmacked as we would often comment on how little she spoke, turns out she just didnt have much she wanted to say!

CrazyRabbit

I didn't talk much when I was 2. But, then again I had nothing worth saying at that point

I'd get him interested in animals as well. They are fascinating to young kids and a great encouragement when learning. Books with pictures are great as well as you can point out and name the objects in the pictures.

axel rose

Hey there peppa pig,
My wee guy was referred a few weeks back, and the waiting list is 9 months. However I was told that he should be called before then as many parents cancel as their children no longer need it.

I think that the waiting times depend on the area, but you get a lettter confirming your appointment and it also lets you know the waiting times.

lynski

i know it seems counter intuitive but i have found that baby-signing really encouraged my 2 to speak. it seems that when they find they are understood it encourages them to speak or communicate more. it might be worth a try.

BostonB

One of ours had almost nothing at 2, but about 2.5 suddenly started a lot more. I've heard its common in middle children. Advice we got was to turn off TV and no books. Do more talking obviously. But we found books great really brought out a lot of words.