Seriously speech delayed/possibly HOH 2.5 year old

[tortoisetuus]

I'm so overwhelmed at the moment. My middle child has been a lot slower to develop speech-wise compared to her older sister. We didn't worry for a while, then we only worried a little. Then I started to think something must be really wrong but people kept minimizing it "oh just wait and see, she'll bust out with a monologue from Sophocles when you least expect it!" "oh remember uncle Ted didn't speak a word until he was 3 then he spoke in full sentences!" that kinda thing. Finally, I watched a video of her from last spring and realized that today, nearly a year later, she is making the same indistinct "dit dah dit dah" sounds she made in that video taken when she was 18 months old. :( I took her to the ped who immediately put in referrals for a rush eval from an audiologist at the children's hospital, and a speech pathologist. We go to this doctor because she's both very on the ball and very relaxed and doesn't overprescribe or overreact. Her strong reaction validated my concerns, but also sent me into a bit of a panic.

Unfortunately "rush" in big children's hospitals means "a month out." So I am on pins and needles worrying and wondering what's next until then.

She passed her hearing screen when she was a newborn, and she responds to her name. She can follow some directions, though I have noticed that she does rely a lot on gestures and watching your face, and if you don't get her to look at you first she often just stays in her world. Sometimes she tries to imitate a word, but only if I sing-song it loudly while she's looking right at me. Like if I just say "KITTY" she may or may not do anything, but if I sing it, "KIIIIIT-EEEEE!" she will imitate that. She has no signs of autism or similar issues, she does pretend play and loves interacting with us. She has some pretty bad social anxiety but part of that may be her temperament and/or the age. She speaks only a handful of distinct words--about equivalent to her big sister's speech at 14 months or so. She is very smart and looks like she's always quietly taking everything in, but if she needs to communicate something other than what she can get across with her tiny vocab she just crumbles and cries in frustration and wants to be carried around like a baby.

She is really scared of crowds and loud noises. I have heard this is common in kids with impaired hearing but I have no idea if that's true, it's such a common kid thing anyhow.

I have so little to go on, I'm just wondering what others who have been here think.

[melissa17s]

It seems as though you are quite in tune with your child and it is good that you are seeking help with your concerns of speech delay.  There are many possibilities why your dd may be slow at developing speech, so it is good to seek professional help.  I hope they are able to figure out why she is currently behind and how to help her progress.  The month will probably pass quickly and have little to no negative impact, so try not to worry.  

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by tortoisetuus 
She is really scared of crowds and loud noises. I have heard this is common in kids with impaired hearing but I have no idea if that's true, it's such a common kid thing anyhow.

I have so little to go on, I'm just wondering what others who have been here think.

You could do some reading into sensory processing disorder and CAPD. From what you wrote she can hear fine but there may be issues with how her brain processes what it takes in (CAPD). It's good that your ped is having her seen by specialists at this point as a lot of us don't figure these things out until years later.

[Cinder]

All 3 of my boys have had speech delays in very different ways.  No clue if any of our experiences can help you at all, but I'll share just in case. 

Kincaid was born on 3/29/2004 and is 7 now.  Kincaid didn't talk till he was 3, and then it was slow, like a baby learning how to talk, he said his first words at 3, put 2-3 words together between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 and wasn't talking in sentences till he was 5.  He still has a pretty severe articulation delay, and still gets a lot of therapy.  He also has auditory processing issues.  He can hear fine, as far as his ears go, but his brain doesn't process what he hears correctly, so he does a lot of lip reading, which his teachers noticed him doing before we did.  He's been getting therapy (speech and OT sensory based for the entire time...OT fine motor and PT off and on/later) since he was 15 months old.  He had epilepsy as well, which he has outgrown now, but a lot of his issues are still from that.  It took us 18 months to get any sort of seizure control, and he is 18 months delayed globally, and we've kept that delay at 18 months, which is pretty huge, since it means he was 75% delayed at 2 years old and is only about 20% delayed now, huge difference, and by the time he is 18 with a less than 10% delay he will be completely average.  He had an autism diagnosis by his pediatric neurologist at 2 1/2, and by the school district at both 3 and 3 1/2 years old (2 different school districts in 2 different states cause we moved when he was 3 1/2) he lost the diagnosis entirely at 6 years old, and his current diagnosis is global dyspraxia...he is definitely not autistic.

Travis was born on 8/13/2007 and is 3 1/2 now.  He didn't talk at all till mid march, and right now he says about 20-30 words, but only DH and I can understand them, and they are words to label objects, not to tell us what he wants or what happened or anything.  His articulation is pretty bad, but we had no clue since he just didn't talk before now.  He was diagnosed with autism at 3 years 3 months old by a multi-disciplinary team (neurologist, neuro-psych, child psych, dev ped) and labled with autism by the school district at the same time.  He has failed every hearing test he ever had, except the new born screening.  After a lot of testing we thought the issue was obstructive and we did tubes in January 2010.  They didn't help at all from what we could tell.  Due to frequent sinus infections with fevers (like, running a fever at least 3 days per week) we had his adenoids taken out in March 2011, and this has made a huge difference in his hearing, and it is also when he started saying words.  His teachers report that he is a completely different kid now, he doesn't need a busy box during circle time, cause he is participating.  He doesn't have to sit right next to the teacher during projects and such, cause he follows directions, he has had 0 discipline reports since surgery, and I was used to 5 or so a day (he pushes/hits/kicks to get people/things he is scared of away from him, or did)...  His re-check for hearing will be next week sometime and I expect a huge improvement there.

River was born on 5/2/2009 and is almost 2 now.  He just qualified for ST and PT 2 weeks ago tomorrow.  His issue they think is due to balance, he has moderate-severe gross motor delays and he is keeping his mouth open while standing and walking to help with balance.  This is common for brand new walkers more so for really early walkers, neither of which he is.  This means he isn't trying to talk often, cause he needs to hold his mouth open, and that by holding his mouth open and rigid he is working out the wrong set of muscles for talking.  He says a LOT, and he repeats the same thing over and over till you get what he is saying, but if he doesn't have a physical clue for us as to what he is saying, like a picture, an object or sign language, then we have no clue.  His issues seem to be all gross motor related and articulation based on the gross motor issues, but they put him in ST as well as PT in case they are wrong, since extra therapy can't hurt.  His gross motor issues are probably mostly related to his size, he has a growth hormone deficiency and is only about 27" tall, he will start growth hormone shots as soon as the endocrinologist he sees every 3 months says it is time.