Speech delay in children

[almburr]

DS2 is the youngest of 5 so he rarely speaks everone talks for him. He says around 10 words. He knows what he wants and how to gets it. DD5 is in speech, and the speech teacher comes over to our house once a week. DD5 has problem with G's sound like D's. She asked how much DS2 talks I told her. She watched him a bit. He responded to cues and things. understands everything, knows what you want him to. She said basically he will talk more when he is ready.

He has had hearing checked and is fine.

youngest of 5 you dont have to do a whole lot, just be the baby.

His words are, mama. dada. milk. please. thankyou. mickey mouse , bite, scooby doo. elmo, cheese.

 

[KirstenB]

We have an 8 yr old and an 18 mth old. Our 8 yr old had 3 pairs of ear tubes, by the time she was 5, due to repeated ear infections. However, she almost always ran a fever so I could tell when she had ear infections.

Our 18 mth old has a muscle condition which causes her gross motor delays, but can also effect fine motor, speech and feeding. She says no words, but grunts and gestures to get what she needs. She understands us pretty well too. Anyway, she never has any indication when she gets an ear infection. She's had 4 separate doctor visits since Nov, and each time the dr said she had an ear infection. Given her sister's history, plus her own delays, I made an appt with the ENT 3 weeks ago. Long story short, she's getting tubes on Friday. I want to get to the bottom of her speech delay, and figure out if it's ear infections or a delay. Take your son to the pediatrician to see if his ears look okay. I've been told by a couple of audiologists that it's hard to do a complete hearing test on young children.

 

[cybrkitn]

Freyja, I don't know what services you have available to you in Iceland, but you may want to get him checked out.

My friend's son also had the same problem. He is now 4 and has a speech therapist working with him since prior to his 4th b-day. When he was 2, he wasn't talking like he should and would just point and make sounds. He would hardly say any words. When he did, the words were not clear. My friend's son is now in a special education pre-school in addition to his speech therapy and is progessing very well.

 

[Freyja]

She´ll be checked out after her 2 year check-up if the doc deems it neccesary. The few words she speaks are very clear, so he really wasn´t worried when I brought it up. We´ll see. If she needs help she´ll definately get it.

 

[cybrkitn]

She is the youngest of 4. And you are so right, she really doesn´t "have" to talk, because everyone understands her. That´s exactly what I told her kindergarten when they asked me whether I was worried about this.

She understands almost everything and follows directions very well. If I ask her to get her ball, doll, pacifier, blanket etc. I can also tell her to put something in the trash can, put her doll to sleep in the stroller, go and get a diaper and so on without problems. She points to things and bodyparts (eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, tongue, belly, fingers, toes and bum) when asked.

I keep reading that she should have a vocabulary of 50 words by the time she´s 24 months and that she should be talking in 2 word sentences by then. I only recall 1 of the other 3 children having been able to do that.

Do you say the word when he points to an object? If so, be careful with this. My friend and her DH would do this when their son pointed to an object. They would understand him, but no one else would. It actually did more harm than good b/c he wasn't learning to speak the word since Mommy and Daddy always did it for him. DH and I have watched him a few times (our DS4 loves playing with him when he comes over) and we couldn't understand what he was trying to say or point to.

 

[cybrkitn]

She´ll be checked out after her 2 year check-up if the doc deems it neccesary. The few words she speaks are very clear, so he really wasn´t worried when I brought it up. We´ll see. If she needs help she´ll definately get it.

That's good. 's to you and your family

 

[*JoGo*]

Both of my sons are late talkers... along w/ dh and fil.
If she's able to communicate her wants/needs and follow directions, and doesn't have any hearing problems, I wouldn't worry. She'll talk when she's ready. My oldest was 3 before he started talking, and my 4.5yo just started talking. Neither have any hearing problems or ever had an ear infection.

I recently started reading a book, Late-Talking Children by Thomas Sowell. It's not very scientific, more of a compliation of stories about other boys similar to my sons. It's very interesting. He points out that in all 50 families in the book, the boys were late talkers, have nothing 'wrong' with them, they are intelligent children, and are gifted in some area - usually math, memory, or music. And that usually these children are misdiagnosed as being autistic or ********. This book is only about boys, but he does state that a few families of girls contacted him, it was mostly families of boys. And only two families in this book had two late-talking sons, that usually it was only one son with the speech delay. I highly recommend this book to parents of late-talking sons. I don't know how well you would relate to it having a daughter, but if her hearing is fine, I think you're experiance is very similar to what those in the book have experianced regardless of gender. This book is a result of the responses the author recieved about an article he wrote about his son, who was a late-talker, which is why I think he focused on the boys.


Late-Talking Children
http://www.amazon.com/Late-Talking-...38352/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/102-6474446-4184934

Here is the follow-up book, I haven't read it yet (I plan to) but it may be of more help to you. It appears more scientific, whereas the first one is more of a compliation of stories...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/046508141X/ref=pd_kar_gw_1/102-6474446-4184934

 

[Goofyluver]

I am also a speech therapist. I would recommend, if you are concerned, first a hearing screening, to rule out any hearing deficit...has your child had lots of ear infections? Then, a speech and language eval to look at both receptive and expressive language. But, don't pay attention to all of those, "a child should have 50 words by this age..." All children develop differently. Does your child understand everything that you say to him or her? Often times, children understand more than they say. Don't worry, don't stress. Things will come in their own time. If your child needs speech, that's okay too! We're pretty good as speech therapists to alleviate your concerns. Good luck!

 

[Val]

Just to be sure, get the hearing tested. My youngest DD9 has mild/moderate fluctuating hearing loss....she tricked us. She can lip read and does social bluffing- she watches you after you give her a direction and can often figure out what you said. She was a tough cookie to diagnosis- but it was her speech delay and the chronic ear injections that did it!

She began speech at age 2, was put in bilateral hearing aids at age 6, has had 5 major surgeries on her ears since age 5 (last one in December removed a cholesteotoma and gave her two NEW ear drums! but it has now failed), and we still struggle with getting her hearing under control. BUT- she reads on a 10-11th grade level, is on honor roll in a regular classroom, and her speech therapist (who has been working with her for 7 years now) has become an integral part of our family! Once we identified the hearing loss and began to help her hear better her language exploded- now we can't shut her up! She still can be hard to understand, but boy, does she talk

I have no idea if hearing loss may be the cause of the language delay- but I know it was definitely NOT in my thoughts as we first starting figuring out why DD was so delayed in speech.....it is worth a check. Make sure to see a good pediatric audiologist.

Good luck and keep us posted!