Any late talkers?

[Fastcars]

Our oldest son had the same problems about not talking until he was 3 years old. He could communicate with us as parents but his older cousins were talking at birth creating undo presure on us as parents as to why he wasnt talking. We had him tested and his knowledge was above his age level. We enrolled him in the public schools program for speech therepy and he accelerated rapidly in his communication skills. He also got a younger brother which we think made him have to speak in order to get our attention. Anyways he has become a top student with test scores 5 grade levels above his current level. His reading skill is out of this world. The skills he learned in speech had help him to read and understand the words he was reading.
I guess what I am saying is that kids will talk when they get ready. Do what ever you can to help them and hang in there they will surprise you .

 

[ChristyJ]

A site that you may want to check out is the American Speech and Hearing Association website (ASHA)-it has a good amount of info about all sorts of speech and hearing delays/disorders that may give some insight into what's appropriate (# of words, speech sounds, understanding of lang., etc.) for your child's age, etc.

 

[gopack]

My son was also a late talker. He did not really start talking on a regular basis until he was 2 1/2. We had his hearing tested by an audiologist and had an assessment done by a specialist. By the time he was three he would not stop talking. Today, at the age of 6, he is extremely verbal and his vocabulary is slightly advanced for his age. I have not read this whole thread but I would rule out a hearing problem.

 

[CharmedLife]

A site that you may want to check out is the American Speech and Hearing Association website (ASHA)-it has a good amount of info about all sorts of speech and hearing delays/disorders that may give some insight into what's appropriate (# of words, speech sounds, understanding of lang., etc.) for your child's age, etc.

Here is the website that ChristyJ mentioned...
http://www.asha.org/default.htm

I went there and clicked on "For the Public", then "Speech, Language and Swallowing", then "Speech and Language Development". I really like this chart because it doesn't break things down month by month. We all get so hung up on those monthly charts, and what we should be expecting of our kids down to the day. I remember for my first child I read "What to Expect..." every single month and would go over the lists at the beginning of each chapter and get freaked out if she wasn't doing something right on schedule. With #2 I barely open that book (of course, who has the time???).

Kids all develop at their own pace and may be ahead on some things and behind on others (remember that an average means half the people are slower!). After reviewing this chart for my 28-month-old DS, who is a VERY late talker but is just starting to get going (also second child), I feel much more comfortable about his situation. Like the previous poster said, I have a feeling that by the time mine hits 3 he won't stop talking and I'll wish for the days he was 2 again...

I would recommend anyone who is concerned to look at this chart before deciding if you may really have an issue or not. Of course, nothing beats following your own gut instinct - mine has always been that he's probably okay.

 

[kohlby]

My DS is/was a late talker too. However, he was making different sounds and adding inflection all the time. So, though he didn't have many words, he was still progressing. If your child isn't adding new sounds, then I would get it checked out just in case.

My DS had about 10 words at 21 months. By 2, he had two word phrases. From what I've read, if they don't do 2 words together by 2.5 years, then it's a concern. He's now 28 months and has hundreds of words. He's just starting to pronounce sounds in the middle too. (Instead of everything being ba-ba, ca-ca, etc. He even said Bar-Bah-Q the other day!) He's putting 3 words together now too.

So, though he was delayed by a bit, he's catching up rapidly. Some kids just take a bit longer. However, I heard progress when he wasn't saying much. He did make new sounds. There's still some sounds he can't make, but every day he's adding new words so I'm not concerned.

 

[2tinkersmom]

My second child, a girl, was not talking at that point either with the exception of a couple words. Her problems stemmed from chronic ear infections that resulted in doing the surgery to have tubes put in at 2 years. While she did not have a measurable hearing loss, they determined that the fluid in her ears was just causing things to be muffled. Through speech therapy that started at 2, they realized she was missing some middle sounds and some ending sounds to words that took her a while to pick up again correctly. She had no trouble at all understanding anyone talking to her and had her own grunts and signals for what she wanted to say.

I did not read every post response here but I do just want to make a point. Even though your child may not have any other issue than he is just not using words yet, speech therapy is a wonderful thing. We have early intervention services here in Pennsylvania which is what we choose to use versus private (and expensive) speech therapists and the program is wonderful. Speech therapy at such a young age is not an aggressive, "horrible for the child" thing....my daughters initial year of therapy was done in our house and then at a local school. It involved a lot of play and just getting her to use and repeat sounds as she played. She loved her therapists and looked forward to seeing them each week, mostly because she wanted to play something new!

She is now in first grade. Her therapy transitioned last year with her into school and she continues to progress leaps and bounds. She now is only working a few isolated things and is completely understandable to all her peers and teachers, which wasn't the case two years ago. After this year, she will have met and surpassed all the normal speech developments for her age and will not have to continue with therapy.

I have heard over and over from her preschool teachers and now her grade school teachers how valuable it is to begin speech therapy if you as a parent or on recommendation from your doctor feel its necessary. My feelings were why wait and hope that it works itself out. I did not want her to reach school age and still have difficulty communicating. She was so much more confident and so much less frustrated when people, including us as her family, could understand what she needed and wanted to say. She has peers in her class that should have had therapy before school and did not until they entered school, and its amazing the struggles they are now having.

My sister-in-law has just started her third child, a boy who is 19 months, with the same program because he does not say anything either but again has no trouble with the hearing or understanding. She also is so pleased with how he is responding to the therapists and is glad she followed her gut feelings that he needed to start earlier rather than later.

 

[Luv2trav]

What a wealth of information. I really appreciate everyone's responses. I belong to a parenting board and I got more responses on here than I did on an actual parents website. THANK YOU THANK YOU..

We did get to his Doctor for our normal pre trip check up. Like I said I wanted to make sure we didn't have any ear infection brewing. We mentioned his speech and she reassured me that we would evaluate at his 2 year appt. She was asking him questions like "Where's you belly" and he would show her. At that point she looked at me and said "He's going to be fine".

Since then he has added a few new words like Duck (Quack Quack) and 1 new 2 word sentence My Ba (My sippie which we call bottle still). He also calling me Dad whereas he never called me anything before. Plus his comprehension has improved to understand more commands.

I feel confident he will be OK so I am going to give it until 24 month (2 more months) to improve and if I don't see a big change we are going to start speech therapy. His doctor will refer him at that time.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Wonder what new words he'll get at Disney. My late talking DD had 2 new words on her trip at 21 months. "Moon"-it was a full moon when we were there and she LOVED walking around at night. She also got "WOW". She LOVED the fountains at Epcot-especially at night.

Have a great trip!

 

[Luv2trav]

I hope he picks up a few. It seems the more stimulated he is the more he picks up.

 

[We-Luv-Disney]

I did not read thru all the responses you got so forgive me if I missed anything after the first few posts. I was wondering about the same thing this Spring and early Summer. My DS only said a few things like Mamma and Dadda etc. I was worried. Then one day out of the blue he started repeating everything he heard one of us say. He turned 2 on July 29 and you can't get him to stop talking. In the last few days he has picked up the words, pretty, Brother, evil(ebil, LOL), tickle bug, monkey, hippo, triangle, snake you name it. If he heard us say it he has tried to repeat it. It is amazing how much they pick up in such a short time. My oldest DS is 7 so I don't remember the exact age that he started really talking but I do know that all kids develop at different times. If you are still worried in a few months just talk to his pediatrician.

 

[Belle5]

I have not taken the time to read all the replies but I suspect that folks are reassuring you that one of their little tykes did the same thing as yours and turned out fine. I will add my story. My fourth son (I have six sons) was a delayed walker and talker. One of my best friends works for the state in the area of early childhood intervention. She begged me to have him tested. I followed my instinct and waited. She has now admitted that she was way off in her worries about him. He is very athletic, an excellent student and one of the sweetest boys you could ever want to know. He still does things just a bit differently than the other boys. He really has his own pace...

He will be a teenager on Sunday.

 

[rt2dz]

I am very concerned about my 21month old. He will be 22 months on the 1st and only knows about 4-5 words. He doesn't even use all of those words on a regular basis. My oldest(4) was a late talker too but he had more words and at least 1 2 word sentence by this age. Our Pedi said not to worry that if he hasn't improved by 2 years then we would start speech therapy.

Just so you know he does you expressive language but nothing we can really understand. Most of it's moaning and groaning and pointing. His hearing appears to be OK too. He comprehends MOST things like "Go get your shoes" "Go get me a ball" "Want to go outside? (he will walk to the door)"

I guess I am just looking for some encouragement that he is just a late talker and not developmentally delayed. He was a late walker too (15.5 months).

One last thing, I was at a party this weekend where at 17 month old girls was just chattering up a storm. It really made me feel bad.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I just thought I'd put in my experience. DS#1 did not talk until he was 2.5 years old (closer to 3). I discussed it with his pedi (all my neices talked at about 15 months & my mom said all us talked about then too--and all the kids in play group were talking). His pedi had him evaluated at 2--24 months--after ruling out anything physical. The speech therapist explained to me at 2, they are mostly concerned with comprehension. His comprehension was closer to a 5 year olds. She told me not to worry about it unless he still wasn't talking at 3. It's also common for kids with advanced motor skills (my DS walked perfectly at 8 months) to speak later. Two weeks after starting preschool, you couldn't shut him up. And he talked in full, complete sentence with perfect grammar. And of course, my youngest neice also did at 13 months of age. Every child has their own pace--they don't read the books/studies to know what they are supposed to be doing when.

If it concerns you, talk to your pedi. Better safe than sorry. Especially since this might be a sign of something wrong. But don't over worry about it. Late talking is hardly a cause for concern 90% of the time.

 

[Huntava]

I also haven't read all the threads, but have a late talker as well. DS is 32 months, and just now is putting a few 2 word sentances together. Although his dr. said not to worry, we went through Early Steps program and they tested him at a 25% deficiency, so they approved a year of speech therapy. We also had to have a special hearing test they conducted. All of this was of no out of pocket cost to us. He has been going to speech therapy once a week, and although the improvement is slow, it is happening. I think it is good to intervene as soon as you feel necessary, if we had waited until he was 3 and started this process, we would have been behind the curve. BTW, his twin sister is ahead of her age group in her speaking ability.

 

[DawnM]

My youngest son is 5. He didn't talk until he was 3. Even at age 5 there are some phonemes he can't pronounce correctly like /g/, /k/, /th/, and /ch/ to name some.

Other people seem alarmed much more than we are.

Academically he is fine. He is writing short words, knows the way letters are supposed to sound and is doing 1st grade math very easily.

Right now, to be honest, we just aren't worrying about it. He is progressing and that is all we are concerned about. We work with him on our own daily.

The worst thing for him is that he can't pronounce his name. His name is Christian and he has a very hard time saying it. He will never tell anyone his name because when they repeat it back it is never his actual name. (usually they think he has said Tristin.)

Dawn

 

[Macsmomma]

My ds is turning 5 in November and has been in speech therapy for almost 2 years. My doctor kept telling me not to be concerned about his lack of speech until he turned 3. He has a form of apraxia. He used a lot of hand signs when he was small and no one realized the problem until we had him tested. He understands and comprehends everything just has trouble communicating what he wants to say. The speech therapist says he should have been tested when he was about 2. The problem he has is that he cannot say his consanants. His vowels are perfect. He is improving everyday but will have to continue therapy. It is a little heartbreaking when he is around other children and they cannot understand him. But the therapist says it will come in time we just have to be patient.