Tales of late talkers please

Please tell me to stop being silly - I told myself I wouldn't be concerned until William was 3, but he's now 2 years, 2 months, and he's not talking much better than a baby a year younger than him.

He has a few words, and it's impossible for others to understand him.  I'm sure Isobel (4) was a very competant talker by his age (I know she was, as he was a newborn and she used to help me with him).  He does understand things I ask him, but doesn't respond.  He's an exceptionally chilled out type, so I don't think he feels the NEED to talk - he's not particularly unhappy with anythign about his life .  On the plus side, he's much more physically developed than Isobel was at his age, so I've been putting it down to that, but really, when should I be asking for professional advice?

And of course, I'm blaming myself, as I stayed at home for the first 3 years of Isobel's life, but only the first year of William's (although we have a nanny, so he's still getting one-to-one attention).  Rationally, I know this isn't my fault, but, well, y'know.  Motherhood and all that.

It's not your fault, it's Isobel's .

Seriously though, a really good talker for an older sibling can either make a child very verbal, or almost silent, does she talk for him much?

Jessica is 27 months and has probably close to 100 words, but most of them you can't understand unless you know what she's saying beforehand, iyswim. At her developmental check last week the HV suggested referring her to an Audiologist to check her hearing. This is mostly because her grandmother has congenital deafness. I don't believe she has any hearing loss, she can hear her name whisered when the tv is on and can hear a chocolate packet being opened at 100 paces . I think it's either that she's developed a lot more quickly physically (her fine motor skills are phenomenal) and the speech is coming along more slowly, or it's a bit of laziness.

Oh, I forgot to say, she doesn't pronounce consonants very well and often leaves them out of words all together, so outside is ow eye for example.

Boys are usually slower with speech than girls, aren't they?

Thomas is 2 and a half and still talks like a baby. A cow is "oooo" and a car is "wawa", goodbye is "yaya" and most other things are simply pointed at until he gets his message across. No advice from me, just sympathy.

TF, of course she talks for him - she's a woman, he's a man .  Seriously, she doesn't talk for him too much (although trying to get a word in edgewise on the other hand...), and she's also started encouraging him to talk too (William, what do horseys say?  Etc).  This may improve when she starts school in a couple of weeks (although he'll also be starting pre-school 1 day a week, which will either bring him on in leaps and bounds, or formalise any potential problems he may have, I guess).

Ladelley, your post sounds very familair (even down to excellent selective hearing - he can hear the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme from anywhere in the house).

We have baby clinic here once a month, so I'll try and get there this month and speak to the HV.

Carrot - glad we're not alone.

At 2.5 D hardly spoke, he had his own made up words for lots of things and we were starting to get a bit worried as friends children (up a year younger!) were speaking better than him THEN all of a sudden he talked and now 3 months later he doesnt shut up!

Owen will be 4 next month and he's currently seeing a speech theapist.  I told myself that when he turned 3 if he didn't improve then I'd seek help.  As it happened, shortly after his 3rd birthday his day nursery mentioned his speech difficulties and suggest we get him referred to a SaLT.

The referral was easy, I emailed the SaLT department and self-referred.  Within a few months he had an initial assessment with a SaLT.  At his assessment she said that he had a speech disorder, which isn't as bad as it initially sounds! She said that a speech disorder is simply him learning sounds in a different order than expected. 

Another thing Owen tends to do is replace quiet sounds with loud sounds.  So for example a quiet 't' will become a loud 'g'.  He's also making the sounds in the wrong places with his tongue.  For example 'c' and 'g' are made at the back of the tongue, but he will use front of his tongue instead making them sound more like 'd'.

The main thing he's doing at the moment is Jolly Phonics, we do a lot of them!  The speech therapist also told us to 'model' any word he mispronounces back to him.  So rather than contradict him and make him stressed, just repeat the word correctly.  So for example, Owen will say 'look at the dar' (meaning 'car') and I say back 'oh yes, it's a car'.  I do that a lot!!!

Thats all I can think of for now. Please try not to worry.  Owen is definitely improving and we're getting there with him.

HTH

Thanks all (damn new HItched - can't see posters' names).

Poppet, thanks for sharing your referral experience, it sounds really positive, and also reassures me that we're doing the right things ("what's that William?" "ooow" "yes, a cow, you're right, well done!" etc).

Carrie74:

Thanks all (damn new HItched - can't see posters' names).

Poppet, thanks for sharing your referral experience, it sounds really positive, and also reassures me that we're doing the right things ("what's that William?" "ooow" "yes, a cow, you're right, well done!" etc).

Another thing we were told to do was to break a word down into syllables and then clap the word broken down, so 'sau-sa-ges' whilst clapping (3 claps, 1 for each syllable).  This encourages him to say the whole word and not leave a bit out of the middle or the end.  These are all things we do routinely at home to help encourage him. It becomes habit after a while

Thanks again Poppet - I shall have a go with that too.  If nothing else, what you've told me helps me to feel we're doing the right things in encouraging him to speak (and thus can assuage my infinite mother's guilt ).

C x

Tom said practically nothing apart from animal sounds and "wupets" (for Wonder Pets) until he was 2.5.  I took the view that he was developing so much physically (gross motor and fine motor) that he just didn't have time for speaking.   Now, at two months shy of 3 years old, he doesn't bloody shut up - full sentences, loads of dinosaur names, rhetorical questioning.  Don't fret, you're doing everything right.

Hi Carrie, my daughter is 2 years old and she doesn't like talking much either. She can count up to 10 but not very clearly, when it comes to speech it seems to be lacking compared to her peers. I joke that she speaks in an African click language because she has a strange way of saying things. She doesn't say much at all but when she does she says Ind'ai'gdn for In the Night Garden calls the Pontipines Monimines. She has several blankies but refuses to call them that instead they are referred to as lallies. I have noticed recently that she's saying more words and is starting to repeat some of the things I say. When I tried feeding her dinner without the aid of the TV the other day she refused to eat and kept saying 'gustin (disgusting). (She soon ate it quite happily once the TV was on) I was quite surprised at that, as the only time I say that to her is if she has a really stinky nappy or has done something grim.