Speech therapy for 2 year old

ziggy23

Hi guys
My little man turned 2 last month. He has very few words but understands everything I say to him. I am constantly trying to get him to speak but he wont. The health nurse has recommended he start speech therapy. I'm just wondering if any parents have been in the same situation and what sort of results did you see with the speech therapy? The health nurse said not to worry too much as boys can be very lazy with speech but of course I'm worried sick!

MrTsSnickers

I think that I've read somewhere along the line that unless the boy is 3 or 4 with little to no speech there's very little to worry about. I wouldn't be too worried..if you're super concerned (As I'm sure you are) you could look into speech and language therapy students, if you're near a university, they may be able to give you a quick run down of speech development.

Roselm

I would advise referring him to a Speech and Language Therapist because if everything is actually fine this will put your mind at ease; if the therapist isn't able to confirm one way or the other at least he is in the system and the therapist can monitor his progress; and if he does need intervention you will be in the right place and may be able to get some pointers even if he can't start therapy straight away.
Best of luck.

ash23

This happened my daughter. Her speech was quite poor. She was referred by the public health nurse and our GP. She had an assessment first and it was decided she needed some one on one therapy.
We waited about 6 months for an appointment and then she had one session a week.
The results were dramtic. They focussed on one sound per session and within 4 sessions she had all her sounds.
She still had a lisp so they called her back aged 6 (sometimes they grow out of lisps) but she was missing one of her front teeth every time she was called back so we haven't managed to get back yet (no point assessing her for a lisp when she's missing front teeth).
She's nearly 9 and her speech is grand. The lisp is there but it's minor and will be worked on.
Don't worry too much about it.

Ickle Magoo

Get the referral just to put your mind at rest and help if he needs it, would be my advice.

At around the same age, our wee man would only say a couple of words but had excellent comprehension, we had one visit to the speech therapist which confirmed that and they also made sure that he had no issues forming the words, he was just choosing not to use them! We were told we didn't need to come back but it was a relief to know he'd gotten the all clear.

A few months later he got over whatever block on speaking he had turned into a complete chatterbox overnight!

All the best. :cool:

ziggy23

Thanks guys for the replies it has certainly put my mind at rest knowing other people have experience of this. It just seems every other kid his age is chatting away! I think were goin to get someone to come out to the house to assess him as he absoloutely hates doctors and hospitals! Yes he is great at communicating so I'm not too worried now:)

Fittle

Exact same happened to my lad when he was 3. Had him at a speech & play therapist as while he made alot of noise, he didn't have many words. It all went really well, but it turned out that his problem was nothing to do with vocabulary - he had fluid on his ears that was finally picked up when he got his tonsils out at 4. He's had 3 sets of grommits to date and there was a massive improvement in his speech when he got his first set of them.
Thankfully, his hearing has always been perfect but for the first few years, he explained to me that he couldn't always hear me and it was like somone had dipped his head underwater:(

Might not be your childs issue, but it is something you should consider with delayed speech.

ziggy23

Fittle wrote: »

Exact same happened to my lad when he was 3. Had him at a speech & play therapist as while he made alot of noise, he didn't have many words. It all went really well, but it turned out that his problem was nothing to do with vocabulary - he had fluid on his ears that was finally picked up when he got his tonsils out at 4. He's had 3 sets of grommits to date and there was a massive improvement in his speech when he got his first set of them.
Thankfully, his hearing has always been perfect but for the first few years, he explained to me that he couldn't always hear me and it was like somone had dipped his head underwater:(

Might not be your childs issue, but it is something you should consider with delayed speech.

Aww the poor little fella it must have been so frustrating for him:(

A few weeks ago my gp told me he had fluid in his ears we brought him to a specialist who told us there was nothing wrong with his ears! Although he does suffer a lot from tonsilitis must look into that actually!

Fittle

ziggy23 wrote: »

Aww the poor little fella it must have been so frustrating for him:(

A few weeks ago my gp told me he had fluid in his ears we brought him to a specialist who told us there was nothing wrong with his ears! Although he does suffer a lot from tonsilitis must look into that actually!

That used to happen to us - it still depends on the day of the week for him - one day, his ears are perfect, two days later, they are full of fluid! I had to go back to Temple St 4 times in the same week for them to figure this out - he kept telling them he felt like he was in a swimming pool, but every test indicated that his ears were fine. After 4 days, they discovered that the fluid fluctuated randomly...

pickarooney

Neither of mine spoke more than a couple of words until they were about 2 then just sort of started speaking fluently overnight. Some kids are just disinclined to start until they know they can do it properly.

battleaxe88

im in the exact same situation! my daughter was 2 in july.. had a few words but never used them. the health nurse put her on a waiting list for speech therapy. in thw meantime i was given exercise's to do with her, each week is a different exercise, for 6 weeks. already her speech has improved. she has a few sentences now and shes using her words everyday!
It does seem like every other child is talking!
nice to know there's other children like my daughter.

ziggy23

battleaxe88 wrote: »

im in the exact same situation! my daughter was 2 in july.. had a few words but never used them. the health nurse put her on a waiting list for speech therapy. in thw meantime i was given exercise's to do with her, each week is a different exercise, for 6 weeks. already her speech has improved. she has a few sentences now and shes using her words everyday!
It does seem like every other child is talking!
nice to know there's other children like my daughter.

Hi battleaxe88
The speech therapist called out to the house on Tuesday. She said his understanding of things is perfect it's just his speech that is behind. She gave me some exercises too and all said to speak in 1-2 word sentences like coat on, brush teeth, wash face etc. She also recommended this book http://www.downsyndrome.ie/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=43
It's very pricey though :eek:
Ah it's tough goin but hopefully we'll have 2 little chatterboxes on our hans soon

battleaxe88

Hi Ziggy23,

My lil girl understands everything aswell, which is why im not too worried! I was told to say stuff like " do you want and apple or an orange?" to try get her to say the words. think its 5 weeks since we were with the health nurse and she has improved a lot. To be honest, most of the excercises i was already doing so ill just keep it going! Id love her to be talking for christmas, good luck with everything! In a few months im sure we'll be wondering why we were so worried!

okiss

I would use speech therapy for your son. A boy who was about the same age as your son was making some sounds and his mother could understand what he was trying to say but hardly anyone else could.
She went to a speech therpist who said he has a tongue tie which means his tongue could not move properly in his mouth to make sounds.
He had a small operation to correct this along with speech therapy where his mother learnt how to do exercises with him.
Within a few months he was a different child. Before this he was cross and hard to manage just because he is a bright child who could not be understood.

Kildrought

If he understands you and you can understand him, i.e. you know when he wants a drink / hug / bikkie. Then the odds are he is communicating successfully using non-verbal clues, so doesn't see the need to verbalise.

My youngest was like this.

Our 'mistake' was to cheerfully hand him drink / biscuits / take him to the loo by following his sounds/motions. Once we started getting him to verbalise before giving him what he wanted, he started talking more; he didn't speak in sentences until he started play school. Wasn't a problem after a couple of months.

I wouldn't worry too much about it for now.

newtothis2011

Hi
I would say that its no harm to ask you health nurse to refer him as there could be a long waiting list.
I have 4 boys, the eldest was talking very well at 2 years of age, the 2nd fella wasnt talking by 2 and had to go to group speech therapy for a year or so, the 3rd fella was the same and now the 4th boy who was 2 in August I think is gona be the same, he understands everything I say and nods his head for yes and no, he says "eh" and "mama" and thats it!! He makes a few sounds too, from what I remember they didn't do any speech therapy with my boys until they where 3, but It would be no harm to get your wee man on the list, I'll be doing it myself shortly.
Good Luck

carfiosaoorl

I think 2 is very early to be worried about it. Plently of children dont start to talk until after that age. The fact that he understand what you are saying to him proves that he understands language. Receptive language is more important than expressive language at this age.

stovelid

Two is a bit early to be worried but it actually takes so long to get seen by a therapist that there is no harm in getting a referral now.

ziggy23

Thanks for the replies guys
The waiting list for the speech therapist was 6 months so we arranged for a private speech therapist to come to the house just to see what she thought. She said he is behind with his verbal communication but gave us some exercises to do with him and we'll see how he is after Christmas. Ah I'm not too worried now as she said it's very common.

LashingLady

I worried a bit with my lad when he was two. I counted all his words and he had around 30 at the time, but "bre" and "bear" made up a lot of words and he had no sentences. At 2 and 3 months he had that "explosion" and his vocab just shot up and sentences started to come. Now at 3 and a half he never stops talking and is pretty good with tenses and big words. He still has issues with pronunciation though and is doing some group speech therapy for that.

I might put his name down on the waiting list if I were you but I wouldn't worry too much. Just because they are slow to start doesn't mean they will continue behind if you know what i mean. My little fella is a testament to this as now I can't get him to shut up!:pac:

Henrib

My little man had little if nothing to say for himself at 2. Health Visitor referred him for speech therapy (we weren't living in Ireland at the time and the waiting list was minimal), she saw him and said as other posters have said boys can be a bit lazy with speech and his understanding of conversations was fine but none the less she kept him on file and gave us some exercises. Well once he started (about 6-9 months later) there was no going back, I don't really think it was anything to do with speech therapy he just spoke when he was ready. And boy when he started there was no going back, it became a family joke and some recommended going back to speech therapy to remove some of his incessant talking! His first teacher at school said apart from his work, manners etc. he was great company to have! And he remains so to this day, would make conversation with anyone of any age. He left for college this september and it is so quiet without him Anyway what I'm trying to say is it will come in time and will be well worth the wait!

up for anything

ziggy23 wrote: »

Hi battleaxe88
The speech therapist called out to the house on Tuesday. She said his understanding of things is perfect it's just his speech that is behind. She gave me some exercises too and all said to speak in 1-2 word sentences like coat on, brush teeth, wash face etc. She also recommended this book http://www.downsyndrome.ie/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=43
It's very pricey though :eek:
Ah it's tough goin but hopefully we'll have 2 little chatterboxes on our hans soon

These are two very good online bookshops for this sort of thing, both with free postage. Unfortunately, the book you are looking for is not in stock at the moment. Might be worth an email to them. A friend of mine bought a textbook for her course here for $8 dollars which would have cost her €68 and next year she can sell it on. Ireland is still such a huge ripoff for books.

Better World Books

The Book Depository

NIMAN

Another parent with exactly the same issue.

Child (boy) approaching 2 and understands everything but sppech poor. Main problem seems to be that he can say the 1st syllable of words but not the rest eg for match he will say "ma" then a bit of a grunt. In fact he grunts words a lot.

We originally thought he developed slowly as we finished words for him, so he got lazy. And we didn't ask him to use his words. If he pointed at something we'd get it for him.

Health nurse has referred him to speech therapy, more to get him on the waiting list, and we can always cancel the appt (which may take 6 months apparently) if he improves in the meantime.

Personally I wasn't too worried myself. I know he will get there in the end (sooner he is speaking the sooner he'll be giving me lip), but the nurse was worried about his hearing as this does have an effect at times.

big syke

ziggy23 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys
The waiting list for the speech therapist was 6 months so we arranged for a private speech therapist to come to the house just to see what she thought. She said he is behind with his verbal communication but gave us some exercises to do with him and we'll see how he is after Christmas. Ah I'm not too worried now as she said it's very common.

Similar story with my girl. Out of curiosity what exercises do you do with him??

ziggy23

big syke wrote: »

Similar story with my girl. Out of curiosity what exercises do you do with him??

Well firstly I was told not to speak in full sentences to him but to use 2-3 words like brush teeth, wipe face, zip-up coat etc. Then I've to look at pictures in books with him and if it's say a cat I've to say things like black cat, nice cat, cat meow etc just keep saying the word cat but without asking him. Another thing is to make little challenges like give him a yogurt without the spoon so he'll have to ask and give him a choice between things so he'll have to say it. My lad knows where the spoons are so he just ignores me and gets it himself:rolleyes: I've also ordered this book too.
http://www.downsyndrome.ie/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=43

NIMAN

To be honest, I wouldn't panic too much. All children learn at different rates and it will come.

We were in a similar situation recently. We got an appt made when little boy was around 2 as well. We have had 3 meetings over the last few months with a ST, and although they had concerns at start, his speech has rapidly improved over the last month or so (he is now 2yr 4 month). Again he was like yours, he understood everything, I just think that we did his speaking for him and didn;t force him to speak. But he is coming on strong now and last visit the ST said he was making good progress.

tbh, I think this is all a bit overhyped. I think some people have their jobs to protect and thats why referrals are made. I understand there are cases of children who need help, but surely its time enough to they hit 3. Referring children at 2 is a bit early and OTT imho.

I don't remember when I was young, children getting referred to STs only in extreme circumstances. Nowadays there seems to be a panic about the slightest thing and 'specialists' are employed at every turn.

Mr.Wemmick

I have recently been to a couple of Speech & Language seminars for parents and the stats are that 50% of all Nursery going children - that is children up to 4 - have some sort of delayed speech development. Interestingly, not all children who have S&L delay are referred by parents or teachers to specialists. So it's more common than you think.

My lass has just turned 4 and was in speech and language sessions during the Winter. She had glue ear as a baby and, I have just found out in the last few weeks, she has an eczema type skin condition in her ears which has not helped her at all. Nonetheless, she is coming on on in leaps and bounds and recently, I have had the opposite problem, she never shuts up

For younger children you need to just practice subject & verbs while looking at books or when out & about e.g:

The boy, girl, dog, cat ( the subject) ---- eating, playing, running, sleeping ( the verb)

The older 3 years you need to practice on:

Subject --- verb --- Object

e.g The girl is brushing the doll's hair, the boy is eating an apple.

Then with prepositions:

Subject --- verb--- preposition --- object

e.g. the girl is sitting on the chair, the cat is sleeping under the bed, the boy is jumping on the sofa.

Once this is established progress to: he, she, they and to his, hers, theirs

I practice with my daughter lots of:

He is riding his bicycle, she is going to the supermarket with her Mum, he is playing football with his friends, they are going to school with their Mum, he fell off his bicycle, she hurt her leg..

axel rose

Well when it comes to the practical day to day advice I can't add to what the others have said. My son has been attending some form of speech therapy for the past couple of years. He is a gorgeous 4 year old boy who understands everything any 4 year should but has trouble being understood.

He is now seeing a clinical specialist as it is felt that he has a speech disorder.As sad as I am to see him go through this, I am so glad that I have him in the system getting the help that he needs with a full year to go before he has to go to school.

OP, whatever is going on with your child (or indeed the HSE funding), it will do no harm to have him assessed and be advised, plenty of children have benefited from this. Good luck!