delayed speech

[ayah321]

Hello

i have a question about my 25 month old son who has a vocab of about 20-26 words. He does everything like a normal toddler. he follows commands,points,dances,plays with kids.Im just worried about speech. There is a family history as 2 of his male cousins were late talkers, and i also remember myself in 1st grade having extra help to pronounce my R's. My mom mentioned autism the other day, but he doesnt have any characteristics of autism child does. My son has always been shy side but thats just his personality that i love. He is very loving and goofy. Just wanted to hear anyones opinion or stories.Thanx.

[MadiMamacita]

There is a very wide range in the normal region for vocabulary at this age. 2 year olds should be able to create 1-2 word sentences for communicating their needs. 3 year olds use 3-4 words, 4 year olds 4-5 words, 5 year olds 5-6 words. This sounds like the low end of normal to me, and as long as he is picking up new words I wouldn't worry too much. If he is not improving over time, that could be a concern. At this point I'd say wait it out and keep an eye on his vocab.

[pbjmama]

He is well with in the normal range. If you look into it further you may find it helpful to know # of words = language and articulation = speech. But as I said, I don't think you have any reason to worry.

[T-man's Mama]

Does he use sign language?  We used sign language with our kiddo and perhaps as a result, he used very few verbal words until he was about your son's age. He had dozens of signs, but I was honestly getting a bit worried that he wasn't speaking much at all. But his (verbal) vocabulary started exploding around 24/25 months and continues to grow every day now. I just wish I could understand half of what he is saying. :) Wouldn't hurt to get it checked out to ease your mind, but as OPs have stated there is a lot of variation in language development.

[babygirlie]

pdd-nos (autistic) Dd is 26 months and has no words and cannot point nor tell you what she needs at all (san one motion). She cannot even sign despite 5 months of three different types of therapies. So yeah... don't worry about it. You can call EI or even have your doctor refer him to a speech therapist at the hospital if you think he really needs it. I see a few young ones 3 or 4 whom speech therapy is more designed towards who are taught to pronunciate better and it probably does help.

[Peony]

My 2y is not autistic but certainly is speech delayed. He says about 6 words and has 3 signs that he knows but after months and months still mixes them up at times.

[Lovemy3girls]

Does your son watch a lot of tv? If so then get him away from it. Television alters brain wave patterns and neural pathways in the developing brain. Turn it off and engage with him more. Talking, reading out loud, asking questions through interaction, playing games, singing, drawing, play music, take him outside to play or go for a walk. Let him interact with the environment. Doing these things and speech therapy helped my middle child who had pdd-nos. There are other steps I took involving heavy metal detox and certain diet supplements too. Today you would never know she was so speech delayed.

Edited by Lovemy3girls - 6/24/11 at 6:57pm

[taygo]

My son is 19 months and he says one word. mom mom. Or sometimes rarely my mom mom. I took him to three diffrent doctors. Speech, hearing and skills. I heard from someone you shouldn't worry till 3 and 1/2. It is hard not to worry!

My son don't point or wave. So it worries me. I wonder if I should freak out  myself.

[jumpmama]

He sounds exactly like my son, who is now 4 and wont stop talking! We did try speech therapy which actually helped me, I wasn't setting him up to use words. He never had to talk. So it was a good learning experience for me.

I wouldnt worry too much! Everything will work out, he sounds like a typical little boy!

[Skippy918]

My son didn't talk much at that age either.  He knew lots of words (mainly nouns)but wasn't making sentences.  After a few months his speech gradually improved and now at nearly 3 he talks all the time. 

[LynnS6]

If he really has only 20-25 words, then he is behind in his language. By 24 months, he should have well over 100 words and be combining 2 words into short phrases. Yes, I know that every child is different. Yes, I know that many children don't have that many words at age 25 months and are just fine. But given norms of language development (which are based on average development of lots and lots of children), your son is on the low side. The question is whether it's on the low side of normal or the other side where intervention would help.

You might want to contact Early Intervention (sometimes called Birth to 3) through your school district and have him evaluated. They'll give you free speech therapy if he qualifies. Given your family history of language issues and late talkers, you might want to have him assessed. It sounds like his comprehension is good, but delayed production can be an issue behavior-wise because a child who has complex ideas and can't express them can get very frustrated.

A good milestone chart is here:

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/23.htm

[BlueSkyDay]

I definitely wouldn't worry about it. My son is 23 months and says only one word - it isn't even English!  ("woof woof").  He produces about 100 signs and now combines them into 3,4 and 5 word (sign) sentences.  He certainly understands several hundred spoken words, even though he can't speak them himself.  If I hadn't taught him sign, perhaps I'd be worried (though our pediatrician says not to worry) because I just wouldn't know that he can produce language and string words together.

[nia82]

Normal. My DS actually had NO words, just signs at 24 months. At 30 months, he used plenty of words in both our native languages, uses verbs and the past tense correctly and speaks ultra long sentences. Sure, I don't always understand everything but it gets better every day. He now tells me what happened at preschool on the way home - the same kid who didn't even speak one word just 10 months ago.

[MittensKittens]

Originally Posted by nia82 

Normal. My DS actually had NO words, just signs at 24 months. At 30 months, he used plenty of words in both our native languages, uses verbs and the past tense correctly and speaks ultra long sentences. Sure, I don't always understand everything but it gets better every day. He now tells me what happened at preschool on the way home - the same kid who didn't even speak one word just 10 months ago.

Same here, DD did not talk at all at 24 months, no signs either. At 5, she now understands three languages and speaks two, with bits and pieces from the third as well. 

[TuiNZ]

I wouldn't worry at all. My DS is 22 months old and has a handful of words he can say in two different languages and some signs. He babbles all the time and has conversations with us in babble. He is also on the shy side and is slow to warm up to strangers. My theory is that shy kids tend to wait until they're 100% confident before they do/ say something. I say this because I was shy as a kid and didn't start talking until 2,5. I think your mum is too quick to jump to a conclusion that he may be autistic. It actually annoys me that these days, whenever a child is not in the "typical" range for language development and is not an extrovert the immediate presumption is that he/she is autistic.