So, I've been trying not to worry about my 28 month olds speech development, or lack thereof. But, the comments from Mom, are starting to wear me down. My daughter has a limited vocabulary for sure. From what I can see, comparing her to friends kids she may be at an 18 or 20 month old developmental level at this point. She definitely talks...sometimes a lot. She loves to sing and with passion. She has a great sense of humor and engages well with other kids. But, her words are largely unintelligible. I can understand her perfectly, but have learned to put together her attempted words and her creative sign language to translate what she is saying. She seems intimidated often when asked to try to repeat a word...she doesn't like the repeat after me game at all. She is gaining new vocabulary...just slowly. She makes complicated connections, follows simple directions and has an amazing memory. She has never had an ear infection and her hearing was fine when tested at birth. She has been fully potty trained (night time too) since she was 18 months old. She has two much older sisters who aren't around much and she goes to daycare a couple half days per week sporadically. In other words, she doesn't have tons of social interaction other than with me. So, up till now I've been thinking she is just going about this at her own pace and will get it sooner or later (after all, I know very few adults who don't speak...). Thought I'd throw this out to all you terrific moms for advice....Thanks!!
I played the waiting game with my son too. I wish I hadn't. There is nothing wrong with having him evaluated. If after the evaluation they recommend services then you can choose whether to receive them or not. You aren't forced into anything and you will have the information you need.
Contact Early intervention, you've got nothing to lose. Its free. :-)
I wouldn't worry about it, I can relate. My daughter is 3.5 y old and now does not stop speaking. It just came...she started talking full sentences. There is nothing wrong with your daughter, she is a leader not a follower. Kids who show interest in repeading everything have that in their advantage, this is just not your daughter's personality. It seems like she is very intelligent for her age with all the accomplishments already. Remember Einstein started speaking much later than 3. I wouldn't start any evaluations until her 3rd bday visit. You and your daughter don't need
any stressful experiences....Every child is different, my pediatrician at my daughter's 3rd bday visit told me to wait till 3.5 to avoid the extra stress. I can't stand those competitive mothers out there. On the funny note, someone has made a comment at my daughter at our local park and I told them to take a good look at my daughter, because my daughter will be her daughter's boss one day. The lady didn't bother me or any other moms ever again. Please keep us posted.
Most likely she is fine. She is able to communicate with you. How about others? Ask the preschool what they think. Talk to her doctor. Every kid is different. My third child wasn't talking much at 3 years. He would say certain words and then they disappeared. But he could communicate his needs to me and others who didn't know him well. Now he is 14 and it's hard to believe I was worried about him. But his speech pattern has a lot of details in his sentences. I think he didn't have all the words for the details, so he just didn't speak. What was the point? If you continue to be worried have her tested. Also talk to her all the time. Talk to her about what you are doing, what you are going to do? Give her choices - do you want to wear the red dress or the blue dress? She may point to the dress, but she is hearing the words. Honestly I don't know how their little brains figure out this language stuff. Seems hard to me.
You might considering having her checked out through Child Find. It's free. I have 3 that have needed speech. For my oldest, we didn't live in an area that offered him services, so he only got help periodically. It was a real problem for him, as no one other than me understood him, including Daddy, even though Daddy tried really hard. Thankfully, it cleared up when he started reading as a 4 yo.
My other two have speech apraxia, each caused by a different reason. I'm grateful I got them in early, as the early you intervene, the easier it is to break the bad habits. Both of them form their mouths incorrectly for speech, which doesn't correct itself easily, and many kids end up having therapy until 6-8 yo with this dx. My 4 yo has already graduated from speech therapy, although he has 6 mos checkups to make sure he's still on target. He is below average, but doesn't qualify for help anymore, and is closing the gap at each evaluation.
My 2 yo (27 mos.) has been in therapy for about 3 months, and it's amazing the difference! When we had her evaluated, she had 43 words compared to the 275 ave. of girls her age. She now has well over 100, counting signs, and is starting to combine 2 and 3 word sentences. Therapy is tons of fun! Today when Miss Judy came to our house, my daughter was jumping up and down yelling "hooray!". My daughter works very hard with her, but asks when Miss Judy is coming, and is sad to see her go. Hopefully, the early intervention will keep her from being teased as a young elementary student.
That all said, it doesn't hurt to have her evaluated. Maybe they'll say she's fine. If not, they'll set up services in your house at no cost to you. Either way, your mom can't get on you anymore for not doing something about it. :) GL!
You could have her evaluated but take a good look at how much she interacts with others. My 30 month old talks up a storm and since she looks like she is almost 4, no one is surprised anymore. But when she was 18 months or so I would get comments about how she knew so much and talked/sang and such. I was talking with a woman at church last srping and she said she would get the same comments about her daughter who is just a couple months older than mine. Her daughter knows her colors and letters. The woman that told me mine was so far ahead of her own does not have other children and is a SAHM so her d only interacts with her and maybe a child at the playground. My d and the d from church know more because they are exposed to their older siblings and learn from them. Of course not all great things but, whatcha gonna do. :) Anyway, interact more with your daughter, tell her what you are doing, explain things to her when it is on her level. Ask her questions so she can answer. You might be surprised how fast she decides she likes to talk. Also, nothing wrong with not liking to be on the spot to say something. I did not like it when I was little and one of my older girls would not talk to someone else if told to say something--not even grandma.
Please get your child evaluated. If she is on track- great, you get reassured. If she is delayed- great, you get access to free services. If you don't do this, though, you'll continue to worry and your daughter could lose valuable time for getting help. You can get free, in home services, but only until your child turns 3. After that, if she still qualifies, you have to take her to a public school. It's SO much easier to have someone come to your home! Make the most of the time that this is available! There is a lot that a speech therapist can teach you to help your daughter. But, having her repeat after you is not the most effective way to improve her articulation. My son had similar issues...he's very smart, had great receptive language, even had great vocabulary, just had major articulation issues. To understand him, you had to learn his language. The earlier you start working on it, the more she will improve!
You should check with your city and see if they have an up to 3 program. It is a great program, and it defenitly helps. They have a speech pathologist who will come out to your house a few days a month and teach you and your daughter.
I was worried about my first son, too. He didn't really know that many words, I thought. We could all tell that he was a very smart baby, but at his 18 month-old check up, I was concerned enough to bring it up to the doctor. He took me seriously and told me what to do.
He told me to go home and write down all the words he said during a day. He said that I would probably find that he knew more words than I thought he did. He also said that animal sounds count. That put my mind at ease, because my son could do a ton of those. So that bumped up his word count significantly.
And he also said that our use of sign language didn't really delay language development. In fact, it speeds it, but in a different way. Signing kids learn language patterns and structure earlier than other kids, and they usually learn a sign and then learn the word shortly after. But since they can speak with their hands, if they're uncomfortable making a certain sound, they'll just sign instead (for example, my 2nd son couldn't say "orange" until he was well on his way to 3 years, so we thought he didn't know that color. Turns out he did, we just had to ask the question in a different way so he didn't have to SAY the word orange. With my first, I thought he was red/green colorblind because he called both colors "green." Turns out he had a hard time saying RED, so he just substituted.)
He also gave me a "game" to play with my son, to test his verbal learning capacity. As I was handing my son something, such as juice, for example, I was to not give it to him right away, but hold it just out of reach and say, "Juice. Juice." If he began to show even a tiny sign of frustration, I was to just give it to him. And I wasn't to do it with every single little thing, just easy-to-say words, and just several times a day. The doctor said I should be able to see my son pick up a new word or two soon, within a day or two. If he didn't, he said they'd do some testing at 24 months.
Thankfully, my son learned a new word the first day. I knew he was capable of learning new words, so I stopped worrying. Hopefully your daughter will "play along" and ease your mind.
Oh, and about others not understanding, that's fine. I don't have the stats on how many words others should understand by what age, but I'm sure you can google that. I still have to translate sometimes for my 4 year old, and he's more than fine.
I had a child like that. What worked for us, was the early intervention program offered through the school district. I LOVED it. They have therapists come to play a couple times a month, and for me, it was 10 dollars a month. They taught me a lot, along with my child. They told me not to do the repeat game. They had some great ideas (obviously, because they are trained) and my child's vocabulary and ability to speak increased tremendously! There only has to be a speech delay to qualify. It was really great for our family. I loved it. If you are interested, you can call your school district and ask to talk to someone about early intervention. They do an evaluation and then you're set. Some school districts include additional activities that you can attend too - such as story times, singing times, etc.
Has your pediatrician ever voiced any concerns about her speech? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. I was kind of stressing out because I thought my 16 mo's speech was delayed, but when I asked his ped on Mon I found out that my expectations were too high and that his typenofmcommunication is perfectly fine for his age.
S. - Colorado has excellent programs for preschool age kids with speech and developmental delays. Your daughter can have formal behavioral and developmental testing, even complete hearing tests, completed for free.
The following link has additional information and some phone numbers to contact to find resources in your area.
Dont wait a minute longer - I recognized a speech delay in my son at 15 months and let the doc talk me into a "just wait and see" attitude. I finally initiated contact on my own and found out my son has a very significant delay. He received one-on-one speech therapy weekly for a year at no cost to me. He's progressing quickly and is now in a public school preschool program through Child Find.
HI S.:
My mom scared me with my second child because he was not speaking many words at 28 months. I finally caved in and took him to a speech pathologist to get him evaluated. He qualified for services there and when I complained to my friend about how expensive the therapy was she asked why I did not go through the regional center through our state. I told her I did not know about it. After making that appointment with them, he qualified for two hours of speech and two hours of OT a week. This was given to him free until he was three. Everyone qualifies regardless of income. At three, the regional center will coordinate with you and the school district so therapy can continue.
I am glad that I had him evaluated because he ended up needing the therapy. He is now an above grade level 2nd grader reading at a fourth grade reading level and his math skills are advanced as well. He does need more help in writing and spelling and still qualifies for speech.
If your daughter is just developementally behind, I think it is important to get an evaluation. The worst is that you wasted an afternoon finding out that she will catch up on her own or that she needs some therapy to assist her with her speaking. This does not reflect on her intelligence; just some children need the guidance of a therapist qualified to help their speech.
Good luck, don't worry this is something that can get better!
Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) is nation wide, in Texas, it's called ECI, other states it may be called EC or something similar. Talk to your pediatrician it's free from 0-3 years old. They will evaluate your child and if your child needs therapy they will provide it for free until three years old. Then most school districts, head-start programs will have something for preschool age kids before starting public schools. Not only will they cover speech delays, but any type of delay a child may have.
My son is 27 months and speech delayed. I had him tested through Early Intervention and he now gets speech therapy, playgroup and a music class for free. His therapist comes to our home and she works with him through play. He really doesn't see it as work, he actually asks for Julie to come play all the time. She has come 4 times and he has improved dramatically in that short amount of time. He went from 20-30 words to about 75 and is using 2-3 words together at times. I highly recommend your Early Intervention service. It is through the health dept. and fees are all based on income. There are so many services available if your child qualifies.
It sounds like my daughter had a similar experience; smart, active, potty trained early, just not speaking very intelligiblly. We did sign language and she stayed home with her Daddy (and he didn't do the constant talking about what he was doing when she was an infant), but I realized that I understood her, and translated for anyone or just talked for her.
One of the ways that I would try to understand better what word she was trying to make would be to have her "tell me a story about it" (and it is also amazing the connection that they are making SO little, the stories were great!)
Our Family DO suggested more interaction with other kids and more daycare. The kids at daycare usually understood her, but the teachers had a harder time. So she really wanted to stay with a close friend if she was going to 'visit' the next class/group. She also got into speech therapy and that has helped a ton. The School District based counselor was better than the private one recommended by the DayCare, though it was weird that my 4 yo was registered at the Middle School in town since she had to be on campus for her sessions.
She's a very happy, social, and smart first grader now, she still goes to the school speech lady, but only has one sound left to master.
I know another family that all their boys have done speech therapy because their tongues are too big for their mouths until their in their teens, just doesn't have enough room to make the sounds clear until their bones catch up...
Know that your little one is precious, special and truly, there aren't many adults that don't talk so don't worry too much, but seek help if you feel your family would benefit! ;o)
Kindly,
K.
What does daycare say? Obviously you are not there and she has to communicate what she wants/needs there , I would speak to them and find out what her speech is like while you are not around , for all you know she could be talking like a baby more just for you , because she knows you can understand her anyway , if she is the same at daycare then I would suggest you start telling her the proper way to say something , if she won't say it or even try then say "Mommy can't understand , you need to speak properly" , she will soon learn that she needs to talk better to get what she wants. My middle child used to grunt and point at what she wanted , until I said enough is enough and made her start using her words.
My DD was the same way. I was so certain that she was delayed. She didn't talk much at all, but understood everything I or anyone asked her to do. When she was about 34 months old she just started to sprout! Now pretty much everyone can understand her and she has gained at least 50 new words in a matter of months. She started out being only able to say one or two words together to now having full on conversations with neighbors.
I say your DD is advanced in cognition just not in vocabulary. It happens and you should not be worried about it!
Vocabulary at her age is not an indicator of intelligence or ability to learn - I would strongly suggest you not feel pressured into thinking there is something 'wrong' with her. My son at the age of 28 months would be mute in certain social settings but talk up a storm when around me, his dad and with his in home caretaker. His day school did not even think he could talk until last month when he finally started to open up outside of his comfort zone. I am sure she is absorbing everything that is being said to her and just waiting for the right time to speak it herself. One surefire way to get my son talking was to recount the details of something that happened during the day and 'accidentally' mis-state something and allow him to correct us on it. We also were very very patient with him and not fill in his sentences for him. Just some ideas!
Hi S.,
Did you know that you can ask for a free speech evaluation for your daughter? Contact the Early Intervention folks for your county:
Referral Contact
Lisa Thomason
P.O. Box 31
Montrose, CO 81402-0031
Office: ###-###-#### ext. 212
Fax: ###-###-####
____@____.com
http://www.communityoptionsinc.org
She will be very happy to chat with you about your daughter's speech
