Should I Be Worried? - Philadelphia,PA

It is VERY important to get a referral to a speech therapist for an evaluation. The 24 month mark is where you should have this eval done.

Please don't let ANYONE tell you to wait until he is 3 years old. He needs to be evaluated NOW.

Call early intervention and have him evaluated. It's free, and if he is behind, the speech therapy will also be free. It is run by your county; you can google the local number for you. There is absolutely NO downside to making the call and getting the evaluation.

He needs to have his hearing tested and if you can start the process to have him evaluated for speech therapy. My son's ears were partially blocked due to fluid in his ears even though we were not aware of him being sick often or having ear infections. He had a few words at 22 months, but not many. The problem with fluid in his ears resolved itself on its own just before we were about to have the surgery to put tubes in his ears. We started speech therapy, and with the combination of improved hearing and therapy his speech caught up quickly. -I had no idea there was any problem with his hearing until he was behind in his speech. Good Luck!

I'd talk to your pediatrician about it and have your sons hearing tested.
Our son didn't talk a lot till after his 2nd birthday and then it was constant chatter all day long.
But he responded to his name, listened when I read to him and sang simple songs with me.
Some kids need ear tubes for awhile to drain off fluid so they can hear better.

Has your son had a lot of colds, been sick a lot, or had a lot of ear infections? Runny nose, etc?

I had a son with a speech delay. In our case, it turned out that he needed tubes due to fluid in his ears. I had no idea. He'd had repeated ear infections. While he could hear somewhat, it was not enough to clearly make out what we were all saying. If he'd been sick, he'd really have a hard time and regress. Speech was delayed because he'd lose what little he'd learned.

If I look back to videos, he wouldn't even clap if I was clapping, unless he was looking directly at me. If I called his name, and he was turned away, he wouldn't turn around. Because he would some of the time (if he saw us) we didn't catch on right away.

If that's not the case for your son - you can still benefit from speech therapy - even a few sessions. We did that.

You just get eye contact, and before you hand him the ball, the cup, the whatever - you tell him the word, and have him repeat it back to you before you hand it to him. You just do this with everything. Just keep it basic - you don't want to frustrate him.

You want those board books and to go over those, pointing to the BIG BLUE BALL - and have him say it back to you, as much as possible. Then have a big blue ball in your house. Just go and buy some items to practice this stuff with. Make it a fun little game. A few minutes here or there.

When kids watch a lot of TV, play on tablets, etc. they don't always engage enough with people - and this is causing kids to lag in speech these days (a friend works with kids and was telling me recently). Not saying that's the case with you but I know with my first I had to remind myself to say "Oh look at the birdie/doggie/check out the bananas!" and just keep talking all the time when we were out and about or even in the house.

I have a nephew who wasn't saying much at 22. He is now speaking a lot more and in sentences - he'll be three in a few months. It just came. So not all kids talk by 22 months. So there may be no need for concern at all. I would only be concerned if your son is not responding to sounds, etc. My nephew responded to his name for example.

I would have him checked by his pediatrician and have him evaluated for hearing. Good luck :)

I'm sure your pediatrician will be happy to answer this at your child's 2 yr well check. In fact, I bet you could even schedule it now.

what does your pediatrician say?
khairete
S.

It depends. Good suggestions below.

Our son was not talking at 16 months, and the pediatrician said she would recommend testing at 18 months, but was only waiting because he was doing everything else on a normal "timetable." He responded to verbal cues, turned to hear sounds (birds, trucks, etc.), danced and clapped to music, followed along when we read a book, and so on. He was doing a lot of other things earlier than most kids (walking at 8.5 months, for example) so she didn't think he had overall delays either.

When our son did talk, he never stopped, and was using 2-3 word sentences pretty early on, once he started. I found that, when I stopped filling in the blanks for him (guessing what he wanted when he grunted and pointed, for example), he figured out he needed to speak to meet his needs. But that was because all other problems had pretty much been ruled out. So, one day when I got tired of the grunting, I said, "Whatever it is that you want in that cabinet, you may have it. Just say the word and stop that grunting!" The child looked at me and said, "COOKIE!" It was his time, that's all.

You don't say what else you've done or what the doctor has said. But if everything is fine in all areas (development, ear fluid/infection), then you might just relax and enjoy the many areas when were he is doing just fine. Every kid does some things "early" and some things "late" - so if yours is just developing other areas first, be sure you aren't missing those joys and milestones. Once he starts to talk, you'll probably find you can't just him up. What I do know is that you can't force it, any more than you can force potty training or sports ability or teeth coming in.

Our boy didn't talk much at that same age. We had him evaluated and they told us he was fine. If he wasn't talking in a few months to have him reevaluated right before he turned 3.

The next month he started talking non-stop in complete paragraphs...yeah, right?