2 year old speech

pigpen

I'd not bother until he was maybe 3.5 and at nursery..

You can encourage speech by asking them to make decisions.. do you want red juice or orange juice? If he points at one you say The red juice? would you like the red juice? Let's make some red juice for you.. delicious red juice.. here is your red juice etc.. lots of repetition and encouraging his efforts.

How about a few nurery rhymes? twinkle twinkle, 5 speckled frogs/5 little ducks, .. ones with actions are good as they can join in even without the words and ones with repetition to reinforce the words.

We also do repeated sounds.. but like going back to babbling but it helps to build words... babababa, tatatata, doodoodoodoo for example.. and good old mana mana.. with video!

ValHaller

brutus1983 wrote: »

He's been referred to am speech therapist just waiting for an appointment no he doesn't go to a nursery yet will be starting soon tho

Probably be swearing fluently about the NHS by the time he gets an appointment.

Xaniwoop

I'm another with a similar story DD2 barely spoke at the age of 2 1/4 and what she did manage was incomprehensible, bit of a surprise after DD1 who spoke in sentences from 18 months. I spoke to the HV who referred her to SLT more as a precaution than anything as the waiting list can be long and what was a bit below normal could be more of an issue by the time she got to the top of the list. Part of the referral involved us going to audiology to check her hearing which happened fairly quickly as the lists aren't as long as for SLT.

She got her SLT assessment after about 6 months. It was a group session at a sure start centre, the children played while the therapists observed them, talked to the parents and then got them to try some activities with them. They agreed she was below average (she had improved only a little in the 6 months) but she didn't need any input just monitoring. So we went back to the group sessions at first every three months and later every six months. We were given ideas of what we could do to help her develop and information on what was normal for her age.

We did the suggested activities with her but found that she naturally began to improve of her own accord, especially when her talkative sister went to school and gave her a chance to get a word in edgewise! She's now nearly four and is really chatty with a wide vocabulary and lots of confidence.

Although it turned out we didn't really need the help the whole SLT experience was really positive for us. It took a lot longer than I expected for her to gain the confidence to speak but they were happy to just watch her progress from afar and be ready to intervene if she didn't improve. We will be signed off from the service next month after a final phone consultation to make sure I am perfectly happy with her speech.

Hope some of that gives you an idea of what to expect from your SLT input.

Hollie_Rose_2

brutus1983 wrote: »

We're having trouble with our 2 and a half sons speech development we just can't seem to get him to say any basic words. Hel murmur the usual baby talk and were always trying to teach him things like wel pick up a ball and say ball and the same with juice cups etc.

We've tried to get him sit down with books but to no avail he just won't sit still or hel try and grab the book just to try and destroy it and will get easily upset becuase were trying to get him to sit down and do something he just doesn't want to do.


I think he knows certain things we say to him for eg when I take him bed I'll say give mummy kiss hel run and give his mum a kiss and wait at the bottom of the stairs for me to take him up wether or not he's used to it as routine I'm not sure. He just won't come out with any words I've always put it down to him been very busy with wanting to play and not sit still as he's always on the go like a bull in a china shop


Am I being over worried for nothing?

Hello, I have just seen your post and cannot tell you how much I relate to you - My nephew, at the age of 2 and a half, couldn't say a proper word - he could mimic sounds but not actually pronounce any words.

We thought perhaps it was a problem with his speech (vocal chords, voice box etc...) However, after a number of tests it was obvious there was nothing wrong with his vocal ability. He was tested for a number of special needs conditions - he was very obsessed with lights, sounds, and feeling things - we therefore thought that this maybe a sign of autism (hence the speech). But after more tests, he wasn't diagnosed as anything out of the ordinary - but did however show slight signs of autism.

Due to having deaf relatives, my family were already very clued up and knowledgeable when it came to sign language, so we all helped teach him sign - was took around 6 months, but it helped so much - he stopped getting stressed as did we - as we could communicate with him and see his needs.

He will be turning 5 this saturday, and over the last year his speech has come on rapidly - he still cannot pronounce words properly and struggles with saying certain letters in words (such as says Milk-ache as he cant use the 'S' in the word). We joke that he sounds foreign or very very posh - however are sooo sooo proud of him.

Its taken time to get used to and my sister struggled at first with admitting to herself that something was wrong with him - but she has put in soooo much time teaching him sign and helping him (music has worked wonders) and he is now finally starting to speak

Good luck and sending you all my love x

skintchick

This would have worried me but I think it's in the realms of normal. Ask your HV about it as they know what's ok and what might indicate a problem.

My DD was the other way and talked really early so I find it hard to know what's normal cos my DD isn't normal!

But I have friends with 2yos and this sounds quite like them. My neighbours son is just 2 and I only hear him say 'no'.

Teenie_D

It's good you have an appointment but I agree with the OP's. I was worried about my DD, when she was the same age as your wee one. I spoke to the nursery manager about it and she said "don't you worry, she'll be talking in no time (and probably never shut up, which is true lol!), however we'll keep an eye on her and refer her to a speech therapist if necessary" and she was right, within a couple of months she was rattling off words left, right and centre lol!

DS is the same although he is coming out with slightly more words than dd did and he is slightly younger. I hear my friends saying their LO's who are younger than my boy are coming out with this that and the next word and I think that's where the worry comes from, we compare our children too much with others and we shouldn't. They do things in their own time and by the time by go to nursery, the majority are all doing/saying the same as one another and have caught up.

Good luck x

sulkisu

Hollie_Rose wrote: »

Hello, I have just seen your post and cannot tell you how much I relate to you - My nephew, at the age of 2 and a half, couldn't say a proper word - he could mimic sounds but not actually pronounce any words.

We thought perhaps it was a problem with his speech (vocal chords, voice box etc...) However, after a number of tests it was obvious there was nothing wrong with his vocal ability. He was tested for a number of special needs conditions - he was very obsessed with lights, sounds, and feeling things - we therefore thought that this maybe a sign of autism (hence the speech). But after more tests, he wasn't diagnosed as anything out of the ordinary - but did however show slight signs of autism.

Due to having deaf relatives, my family were already very clued up and knowledgeable when it came to sign language, so we all helped teach him sign - was took around 6 months, but it helped so much - he stopped getting stressed as did we - as we could communicate with him and see his needs.

He will be turning 5 this saturday, and over the last year his speech has come on rapidly - he still cannot pronounce words properly and struggles with saying certain letters in words (such as says Milk-ache as he cant use the 'S' in the word). We joke that he sounds foreign or very very posh - however are sooo sooo proud of him.

Its taken time to get used to and my sister struggled at first with admitting to herself that something was wrong with him - but she has put in soooo much time teaching him sign and helping him (music has worked wonders) and he is now finally starting to speak

Good luck and sending you all my love x

I second this. Although as other posters have said, it is probably nothing and he will speak in his own time, it could be a sign of something more serious - such as Autism and early intervention is best. My son turned 2 in Janaury and has relatively few words - 28 at last count. He doesn't put words together either. He has been referred to speech therapy and has now been referred for Autism tests. He doesn't display many of the common behavours associated with Autism, he makes eye contact, laughs and smiles, has good social skills, plays with other children, does not have a set routine, and eats anything, but he has a few - he flaps his hands, and is terrified of certain objects (namely the vacuum and the printer), and he doesn't point at things. He lines toys up (which is common), but not obsessively and he will happily throw them around seconds later (this is not common). It may be something, then again it may not, but either way it is better to be sure.

It is definitely worth a mention to your HV or your GP, even though you might be tempted to 'wait and see'.

Alchemilla

My nearly two year old is very similar. If you think he can hear you ok and he clearly understands what you say then I wouldnt worry.x

smartpicture

Is he an only child? My second daughter didn't speak until after she was 3, apart from mum, dad and a couple of others. She could however grunt, and her older sister would immediately say, "she wants a drink" or whatever and run off and get it, so we reached the conclusion she didn't speak because until her older sister went to school she had no need to. She never crawled either, but ended up a well-adjusted intelligent girl so a lot of worry for nothing.

We did get referred to an SLT assessment, where they basically told me I was playing with her wrong (even though her older sister spoke very early), so I didn't find that very helpful to be honest.

pinkshoes

My 27 month old is the opposite end of the scale with speech, BUT...

My cousin still wasn't speaking properly at 4, and hated reading and books, so had speech therapy. She used to speak in her own garbled language that no one understood. 18 years later, she's now a student at Oxford, so clearly caught up.

Kids do things in their own time when they're at that development stage!