Son nearly 2 and still not talking

tinksy

hi, my wonderful other half didnt speak til the age of 5. He was actually set to go off to a special needs school because speech therapy had failed him and they werent sure what he was understanding. Then he just started talking and ended up in mainstream with a learning assistant til age 15. He is now on track to get a 1st in his degree and Im so proud of him.

milliebear00001

Well it's unusual not to have any words by your son's age, and it is a little late for him to be walking BUT neither of those things mean anything at this stage other than he's a little on the late side!

I wanted to ask whether or not he understands what you say to him? Does he follow instructions etc? Can he follow a two-step instruction e.g. 'open the cupboard and get out mummy's shoes'? Understanding at this age is a far stronger indicator of problems than speech development.

Something that did ring slight alarm bells for me was when you said you try to 'encourage' him to speak. Are you 'testing' him when you do this or making it into a game? Children who feel 'tested' to speak often clam up.

My daughter was a late talker (who now never shuts up!) and I can really recommend you read 'Babytalk'. It's written by a speech and language development expert and has some excellent practical advice and tips on how to encourage speech without pressure.

p.s. ignore your relatives - baby walkers are banned in some countries because they've been linked to walking development problems (my daughter walked at 9 months without their assistence!) and breastfeeding is absolutely the single best thing you can do for your babies.

barnaby-bear

love2shopforbargains wrote: »

Hi

I hope this is posted on the correct part of the forum, if not, I would be grateful if a mod could move it. Thanks.

As the title says, my son will be 2 next month and he is still not talking. He has seen a few doctors and has had 2 hearing tests and despite both of these hearing tests coming back normal they are wanting him to have a third.

I feel terrible as I only really noticed that he wasn't babbling when my niece's daughter was 7 months and she was telling me that she could say mama/dada etc. My son at this time was 12 months and couldn't say anything. I then phoned my Health Visitor and told her my concerns and made an appointment. I am aware that all kids learn at different stages etc.

He is very vocal in that he will shriek and scream and laugh and cry but he doesn't appear to be saying anything. He has a range of noises but doesn't have any words or even babbling words. When he was a baby I was taking him to the local bounce and rhyme classes etc. I am always talking to him and singing him. He seems very clever and I think that he can hear as he seems to understand the songs and can do the actions etc. His favourite at the moment is "wind the bobbin up" lol.

He has an older sister and it was suggested that she could be doing the talking for him, but this doesn't appear to be the case.

He is cruising the furniture but not walking yet either. Although I am not too bothered about this.

He has his 3rd hearing test appointment for June but as I said I do not think his hearing is the issue. His specialist appointment with the local child's development centre isn't until August.

I am really looking for advice or information or to know if this is common or what others could recommend.


Thanks

I didn't speak until after 4 - refused to walk would only roll too.... have 3 degrees from Cambridge, read in my head not aloud which upset the measures.... had lots of deaf tests but why bother talking or walking if you can roll there and do it yourself appaently mum went through hell at the hands of the professionals..... girls and boys are very different too

love2shopforbargains

Thanks again for everyone's help and advice and tales of their own experiences it has helped.
Thanks

I didn't mean encourage as test him, just that we talk and sing in this house all the time. I feel that he does understand me as he can do the actions to the songs.

I have checked his mouth/tongue this morning and it does look as though the bit between the tongue and the bottom of the mouth is quite near the front of the mouth. Not really sure what a tongue tie looks lie but I also looked in his sister's mouth and her's is totally different so I think I will make an appointment with my gp next week and see about this.

Thanks again everyone.

Bitsy_Beans

Can I say that how you've brought up your children sounds perfectly fine to me. Am shocked that you are being blamed for their development - as if breastfeeding will hold them back tsk tsk. As a parent we put ourselves on enough guilt trips as it is without other people making us feel lousy.

My son didn't say ANYTHING until he was 27 months. Before that we didn't get mama, dada etc. Just a grunt if we were lucky.
Then in the December within one month he went from single words to 3-4 word sentances! it was all a bit of a rush for him
He's now 3 1/2 and he still has developmental issues with regards to his communication but that's got nothing to do with how he was brought up. Just waiting for Special Needs to assess him and decide if this is something he'll grow out of or a problem that he'll need ongoing support with.
Despite his communication issues hes a happy lad, typical boy, excelled gross and fine motor skills - I just think socially he lags behind his peers.

With regards to tongue tie why not try googling some images. I thought it was when the tip of the tongue was joined but I am not sure if you can have varying degrees of tongue tie.

jellyhead

I fail to see how breastfeeding could cause speech delay? I am told it's bottlefeeding and dummies that cause problems.

Both of my boys have been late talkers. My eldest had special needs and was statemented, he was going to go to a special needs nursery but made a lot of progress when he was 3 and was able to go to a mainstream nursery and school, with one to one help until he was 8. He was never diagnosed with anything in the end, but school and all the people he had appointments with assumed dyspraxia and aspergers.

My youngest has no special needs, he's just slower than the other children. If he wasn't a summer birthday needing to start school full time the minute he turns 4 I wouldn't be worrying. His fine motor skills are poor too, and his first key worker at nursery was concerned about dyspraxia, but he seems to be catching up, he's just slow for his age and when he's the youngest that makes him look worse.

Youngest never rolled over, was late to smile and never babbled or showed any interest in talking. My sister's baby is 8 months younger and was babbling and saying words before mine, he even talked in sentences before my boy said his first word.

At their 2 year check the health visitor was going to refer him and my friend's boy for speech therapy (we were all in a room together, a big playroom) but when she got a book out my boy pointed to everything and said the names of them. He also demonstrated a wide reportoire of animal noises. His interests in life were books and going to the farm.

Now they are 3 and a half my boy's speech is probably normal, and my friend's boy's speech is getting there. Children can't understand my boy and say he's a baby (he has a high, shrill voice), but adults understand him.

My boy was sent for hearing tests but they always said he was just ignorant. Not much seems to happen before they turn 2. I volunteer in the toy library at the child development centre and a lot of the children coming for hearing tests and special needs assessments are over 3 and already in nursery.

As others have said, lots of children are late talkers and then blossom later on - but those who do have a problem benefit from early intervention. It sounds like you're doing everything they'd advise anyway, don't let anyone criticise you, especially if they don't seem to understand the current guidelines and advice.

Makaton has been mentioned - it helped my youngest to communicate things like hunger and understand the concept of 'finished' etc. and when he was in hospital at 24 months he was able to sign hurt, and where it hurt which was useful.

bagby

my son was nearly three before he started talking he just made uuugh noises and pointed then all of sudden started talking in full sentences. Lazy boys.

skintchick

I don;t know about the speaking, but I didn;t walk or crawl till I was 2 (skipped the crawling and went straight from bum shuffling to walking) and there's nothing wrong with me!

MadDogWoman_2

Hi

My DD has just turned two, and isn't brilliant at talking.

However, she didn't have a tooth in her head until she was 10 months old when she got her front for then no more for 6 months!

She says single words (mainly No at the moment) but doesn't really have any phrases. Some words come out slightly wrong as well, (bup for up).

I'm watching her, I've not spoken to any professionals about her as she understands all instructions e.g. choose your pyjamas out of the drawer. Also following the advice of my mum who was a childminder for over 30 years.

On the positive side she walked at 11 months and is potty trained during the day.

DD has learnt some signs of Something Special on CBeebies and often makes her own up, which can take some time to figure out what she wants.

DD is bf and only has a dummy for sleep. If she manages to get hold of one during the day she is quite happy to take it out and hand it to you. She did have baby walker but she was only in it for short periods and I feel it encouraged her to walk.

MDW

love2shopforbargains

Please do not think I was having a dig at anyone who doesn't breastfeed or uses baby walkers. I was just telling you what I do and the reaction from my parents and my OH family. I never tell anyone what to do with their kids it is up to them to choose, but when I was making my choices regarding my parenting of my children, everyone else had an opinion and my way of doing things was always wrong.