17 month old speech question

[ZJmom]

Hi there,
I'm hoping to solicit responses from anyone whose child speaks in a similar way to my daughter and has some idea of why this happens. Some background: DD was premature and is 17 months adjusted (developmental age), 19 months actual. She has mild CP that affects the right side of her body, and has been walking for 1.5 months now. I'm a bit concerned about her speech and wonder is she might have apraxia, or dysarthria, or something like that. I am getting her evaluated by an ST from EI but I have found their therapists to be very poorly trained and also the evaluation keeps getting postponed, which is why I'm turning to this forum for help.
So, DD has a lot of trouble making sounds. She doesn't have any 2 syllable words except dada and mama (repetitive words), and makes many, many mistakes while speaking. She switches p and t- ut instead of up, etc, she can't say the k sound or even many vowel sounds, and she steadfastly says diedie and daydee instead of byebye and baby (daydee is almost always shortened to day or dee). Plus she can't say l, but I know this is common, so lap becomes "yat". I think her language aquisition is all weird because of her reluctance to say words she can't pronounce, so once she learns a word to her satisfaction, she learns words that sound the same or uses a word for something that sounds the same ("hot" is hot, hat and heart). It makes me sad when I hear other kids her age saying things like "slide" or"owl", because I know she knows what those are but she won't even try to say them.

Does anyone have any insight? I want to get her speech therapy if she really has a speech disorder but it will most likely be private because EI only gives therapy to non-talkers where we live for budgetary reasons. Plus she already has PT and OT 4x a week so I don't want to schedule therapy unless there is really a problem.
Thanks in advance,
-Chloe

[LynnS6]

I teach in this area and her speech sounds very typical for her age. If she were 3 and having pronunciation issues like that, then I'd worry. At 17 months, no.

Kids under 18 months often only have a few consonants they really have mastered. /L/ is a late learned sound and she might not get it for two or three years. Many kids her age make sound substitutions for sounds they can't say, and shorten words. Making the sounds in your words 'match' (so tut for cup) is very common as well.

I would keep an eye on it, but I wouldn't worry too much. By all means have the EI people come out, because I think that will put your mind at rest. But really, I don't see any cause for concern in what you posted.

My had relatively poor articulation, but was within the range of normal speech development. His pronunciations at that age are below. Notice the small range of consonants and the fact that none of the words ends in a consonant. He's 8, nearly 9, and his pronunciation is fine, and he's actually gifted with language. His fine motor skills are a bit iffy due to some mild dyspraxia, which is why pronunciation was hard for him.

all gone = daga or haga
bye-bye =dye-dye
backhoe = babo
shoe = du
cat = ae or kae
car = ka
cheeze = chizz
chicken = chick-uh
cracker = kaku
daddy = dada
doggie = da
fishie = kishi
hi = hi
hat = hae
hot = ha
go = go
gonna get you = guh-a geh u
more = mo
neigh = neigh
peekaboo = tiku or piku
sock = haku
thank you = aenku
uh-oh = uh-oh
vroom = vrm

P.S. Welcome to MDC!

[ZJmom]

Thanks for the welcome and the reply! I will definitely try to relax about Zoe's speech. It doesn't help that someone in a mom's group I'm in emailed about how her daughter was murmuring "almondine" (the name of a bakery) in her sleep. Yeesh!

[Birdie B.]

Yes, it's hard not to compare our children to "normal" children sometimes.
I just wanted to let you know, my daughter is 17 months and doesn't have any words yet. She babbles and makes all kinds of sounds, but nothing is recognizable - even mama or dada. So far none of her doctors or therapists have suggested speech therapy, so maybe it's a little early to start worrying. I know it's hard though!

[WinterPearl]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

I teach in this area and her speech sounds very typical for her age. If she were 3 and having pronunciation issues like that, then I'd worry. At 17 months, no.

I was gonna say pretty much the same thing. My DS turned 3 last month and was at the level your DD is at when he was 2. We were referred to a program by his ped., he had a class once a week and a speech therapist every other week and they helped enroll him into a preschool class that has half delayed children and half 'normal' children the moment he turned 3. He's shown such an improvement in the last few weeks it's crazy.

[cdahlgrd]

Try not to compare to other kids, especially "almondine"! Yeesh, not even my verbally precocious child was saying 3 sylabyl words at 17 months.

I agree that what your describing sounds normal. In the next 7 months their should be a big growth in language. Keep listening, but hopefully it will be fine.

A good place to track developmental milestones is http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopment/ . They give info like,"most children will know this by___, but a few are still learning this skill."