Not talking and just turned 2

[SomethingAnonymous]

My son turned 2 on Aug. 5th.  He's not silent, but I don't really hear any clear words yet.  When he hands me something or wants me to hand him something he says "heh" I *think* maybe he means "here".  Stuff like that. He says "ad"  and I can't be sure but maybe he means "dad."  When he doesn't like something he says "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." I keep seeing things that say 2 year old should be able to say 2-3 word sentences?  I know all kids are different... but I'm just double checking.. he's fine right? lol

He seems to hear fine, like he comes when we call his name or when the vacuum turns on and he's in another room.  The other 2 year olds I know have huge vocabularies. (huge compared to him)

[APToddlerMama]

I would suggest that you have him evaluated by a speech therapist.  If you are in the US, you can call your county's Early Intervention Program and have him evaluated for free by them.  The evaluations are play based.  They chat with you about what he is doing, and typically play with the kids with the parents present in your home.  It is very non-threatening and most kids have fun.  If they are not having fun, the therapists usually rely on parents for info so as to not push the kids too much. 

Also, not being able to communicate can become frustrating for kids, so you may want to start some simple signs with him so he can show he what he wants.  Most speech therapists agree that use of signs does not delay verbal communication in any way. 

As far as where he should be...yes, all kids develop at different rates, but typically to qualify for EI, a child would need to have 10 words or less at 18 months, and 50 or less at 24 months.  The typically developing one year old usually can say mama and dada specifically as well as one other word.  I know it can be scary (I have both worked in EI and had a child who required their services), but it is always best to seek services early rather than later.  If he ends up just being a "late talker", great.  You won't have lost anything by having him evaluated.  If he ends up having some speech issues, at least you will have started early to give him the best chance of catching up with his peers and developing his speech skills.  Good luck

[APToddlerMama]

Thought of one other thing.... Has he had many ear infections? 

[Turquesa]

My DS turns 2 this month and is in the same situation--without hearing loss--so I'll be interested to hear from other parents on this issue.  He seems really smart, otherwise.  He understands me--when I ask if he wants water, he'll run and grab a sippy cup to fill, and he can go get different toys on request.  He also "martian talks" a lot, but he can't do those "required" 2-3 sentences.  The other day at the library, I heard a little girl younger than he is conversing with her mom while doing a puzzle, "The cow goes there."

I'd freak out a little more if this were my first baby, but DD was also a late talker and is now on par with her 4-year-old peers.

Sorry.  You probably saw that someone else posted and got excited at the prospect of some productive advice.    But at least you know you're not alone...

[SomethingAnonymous]

lol turquesa you're fine, I appreciate any commentary as well :)

APtoddlermama, that's good to know. thanks!  he hasn't had any ear infections.  he hasn't even been sick before.  and like turquesa said.. he seems to understand me, he follows directions like "pick up the toy"  "put that in the garbage"  "bring that to daddy"  "take your plate to the kitchen"  and he seems to be good at mimicking actions and remembering routines, problem solving, stuff like that.  he just mostly babbles. I have a feeling he is saying something, but I have no idea what.

I bet he knows 50 words, but he is saying less than 10 and not one of them clearly. When he was born they tested his hearing and it was fine. I will bring it up at his 2 year old check up.

[mommyofgb]

I too have a 'late talker.' I never really noticed until she hit 2 and all the other 2 year old were chatting away and mine was still on single words and at nearly 3, she is still somewhat behind. Not behind the norm, but behind the average and her peers. If I were you, I would call Early Intervention and set up an appt. to have a speech language pathologist evaluate him. You can wait until his dr. appt. but with E.I. you can call and set it up yourself. If anything for the piece of mind and if he needs some help, get it now so he has time to catch up. He should have at least 50 words he can say, not 50 he can understand and that is considered the minimum in terms of his age and he should be also combining words into short sentence like ''more water'' ''look kitty.'' Its a great sign that he understands you, that is the most important aspect of language development.

[Linda on the move]

One of my DDs seemed to hear just fine, and never had ear infections. But our doctor had us take her in for a hearing check because because she had so little speech at age 2, and none of it was understandable.

She had chronic fluid in her ears. Her ears were completely full of fluid all the time. She could hear, but only very muddled. She had tubes and it made a HUGE difference.

I would recommend getting it check out -- getting a hearing check and a speech evaluation. It can't hurt and it might help.

[APToddlerMama]

Originally Posted by Linda on the move 

She had chronic fluid in her ears. Her ears were completely full of fluid all the time. She could hear, but only very muddled. She had tubes and it made a HUGE difference.

I would recommend getting it check out -- getting a hearing check and a speech evaluation. It can't hurt and it might help.

That was what I was getting at too.  It is more common with ear infections but can happen other times and is like the kiddo is listening to speech under water, which obviously affects what they learn to say.

OP-- What he's understanding you say is called his receptive language, and what a child can say is their expressive language.  He should be able to understand much much more than he can say at this point.  I can't tell you an exact number of words he should understand off the top of my head, but it is way above 50.  And as far as the 50 words by 2, that is an absolute minimum.  Kids who don't have that many words by 2 pretty much automatically qualify for speech services as they are considered to have a 25% delay. 

I can promise you that you will hear countless stories of people whose kids just started talking on this board.  But, really, as someone who has worked in EI and someone who had a kiddo who wasn't just a late talker, I'd really strongly urge you to have him evaluated.  The other side of it is there are lot of kids who desperately need the assistance from a speech therapist.  In the grand scheme of things, what your describing is a pretty significant delay.  I don't want to scare you, because I have a 3.5 year old who has made amazing progress (though is still delayed) but I don't think you're dealing with a situation where a "wait and see" approach is going to be helpful. 

[insidevoice]

Originally Posted by APToddlerMama 

That was what I was getting at too.  It is more common with ear infections but can happen other times and is like the kiddo is listening to speech under water, which obviously affects what they learn to say.

OP-- What he's understanding you say is called his receptive language, and what a child can say is their expressive language.  It isn't unusual for the receptive language to be higher than expressive language.  I can promise you that you will hear countless stories of people whose kids just started talking on this board.  But, really, as someone who has worked in EI and someone who had a kiddo who wasn't just a late talker, I'd really strongly urge you to have him evaluated.  The other side of it is there are lot of kids who desperately need the assistance from a speech therapist.  In the grand scheme of things, what your describing is a pretty significant delay.  I don't want to scare you, because I have a 3.5 year old who has made amazing progress (though is still delayed) but I don't think you're dealing with a situation where a "wait and see" approach is going to be helpful. 

My three year ols also wasn't just a late talker- he has done well with support and therapies, but at three, only family is likely to understand him and he is often frustrated when other people don't gt what he is trying to communicate.  While other kids are speaking in sentences- we are happy to have sentence fragments here.  Still, GREAT progress, and I know he wouldn't have done so well without EI and a lot of work from therapists and a lot of purposeful shaping of behavior and speech at home. 

Get an evaluation, if he qualifies- even if he is just a late talker- the support will be great and it certainly won't hurt. :)

[JudiAU]

At 2, with no clear words, I would have him evaluated by a speech therapist. I am pretty relaxed about speech but that is late. Usually the first thing they do is have hearing testing.

Most states cover the cost of speech therapy but it takes some time to get into the program so call NOW. If has a big leap you might not need it but you don't want him left behind.

One of my nephews had a unaddresed serious speech delay that haunted him for years while in school. (Which is to say my mom really tried but my SIL did nothing.) Big size + poor language skills + lazy private school = poor relationship with learning.

It also was related to terrible terrible TERRIBLE tantrums at 2,3,4 because he could not make his needs known.

[AnnaNova]

I second getting him evaluated. if you get in touch with your Early Intervention program, they will arrange for that. and its not just speech therapy though.

my son hardly said any words at 2, and everyone kept telling me he's just a late talked, but my feeling was that its not as simple as that. i could "feel" that he wants to communicate better than he does. when we did the evaluation it turned it was something i didnt expect at all - he has mild low muscle tone that prevents him from being able to articulate clearly, although he does receive speech therapy, the focus is more on occupational therapy because its a neuro thing, and #1 recommendation from evaluation was to have him run a lot and jump and so on, basically provide a lot of sensory input. it has been about 4 months and i can see significant changes. it was amazing how quickly he started catching up with talking once we started doing everything we were advised. 

so if you feel like there can be something more to this than just "a late talker", definetely get an eval. Yes, it may be sort of scary, and we dont like to think that there might be sth "wrong", but it is a lot easier to "fix" these things now than later on

 

[~bookcase~]

what about if there are a few clear words but when the 2 year old speaks sentences it's incomprehensible (can make out vague impressions to get a general idea but not clear understanding of what the child wants/ is saying)?

[Sweet.Bee]

How much interaction does your son have with other children?

I was worried that our son didn't seem to talk much (mostly just "mama", "dada", and "da!" when pointing at what he wanted), but he's had a language explosion in the last few months (he's a bit over 2). Words, sentences, even pleasantries like "thank you"! He attends preschool two mornings a week and then playgroup one morning per week, and I think it's really helped.

We know a few children who are definitely ahead of him (though admittedly he has the added complexity of dealing with our bilingual household), but I'd say he's even a bit ahead of average now. He felt definitely behind prior to the past half year.

Not to say you shouldn't get him evaluated, but I thought I'd mention that spending time with other children can really help, too.

[Lovinbeinamama]

Hi:  My son was not a big talker when I enrolled him in daycare at 22 months.  There was a kid in the class who was 2 months older and talked in full sentences.  Talk about intimidating!  The kid freaked me out!  So I got an eval done by a private speech therapist, and I was told he had severe speech delay and needed therapy twice a week.  She charged $50 per session, and she never even spoke to me to ask what he was like at home.  After a half hour with him, she claimed he didn't follow 2 step directions, that he didn't know body parts, and that he didn't make eye contact.  In his class, he did all of those things, and at home, he did as well.  Plus, he is shy around strangers.

In my gut, I knew she was wrong and just wanted the money.  $400 a month is a LOT OF MONEY for a total of 4 hours a month.  How much more could she do with that time that I couldn't do in many more hours of interaction?  Why didn't she talk to me about tips for working with him at home?  Besides, his classmate who spoke in sentences was the one who was off the curve, not my normal kid!  I really let myself get intimidated, which I found out later, pretty much all the other parents were, too.

Anyway, if your gut says that there is a problem, and he's not improving, then get an eval from the public program where they're not out to pad their pockets.  And ask them what you can be doing, too--a speech therapist is not the magic bullet....it's the work you do at home to reinforce it that will help him.

My son was ahead on all other development areas, just slower in speech, but his motor skills and facial muscle development are normal.  I was enabling him not to speak.  I stopped that, cut out the TV, read more to him, played with him, and noted improvements.  When I actually logged how many words he had, it was over 200.  He is now just over 2.5 years old, he is potty trained, understands everything I say to him, has many 2-word and some 3-word sentences, says the letters of the alphabet, can count to 13, says "thank you" and "please" without prompting...in other words, he has come around and enjoys talking.  Interestingly, potty training also really boosted his talking.

One thing I did that therapists do to help improve the words he already had was to look at him when I speak and have him look at me.  He would watch my mouth as I said words, and then his clarity improved.  So look at your kid when you're speaking, slow it down a little, and praise the effort.  

Good luck!  You're the mother, you know him best!

[pinksprklybarefoot]

DS1 did not talk until he was three, and even then, not much.  At his three-year check-up, his ped put in a referral and we had him evaluated a few months later.  He started speech therapy through the school district when school started in the fall.  He has made a *lot* of progress.  I am not sure if it was mostly time or not, but the speech therapy did help him with articulation.

When DS1 first went, he saw the speech pathologist alone for 30 minutes and went to a speech "preschool" once a week for two hours.  They even sent a bus to pick him up for the preschool, which he thought was the coolest thing ever.  We moved, changing school districts, so now he is in speech preschool twice a week with no one-on-one therapy.  He is probably borderline not qualifying at this point, but he loves it so much that we'll keep him in for the year.  When I visited the classroom, I was amazed at all of the things they cover in a preschool designed for speech (theme weeks with sensory, science, art and motor skill activities).  The teacher also put us in touch with the district's low-income preschool so he could attend "regular" preschool as well.  They also helped us set up his kindergarten screening.  Everything has been at no cost to us through the school district.

Another plus is that the focus on phonics has really made teaching DS1 to read easier - he already knew the sounds that the letters made.

DS2 just turned 2, and he is a lot further along than DS1 was at this age, but he seemed a little behind (has words and says two-word phrases but not sentences), so I had him evaluated as well after discussing it with our doctor.  At this point, the speech pathologist thought he wouldn't qualify, but she said that she would check back with us every few months to see where he is at.  She was particularly concerned if he was frustrated by not being able to communicate - she said that they try to intervene earlier if the child is having a tough time in that area.

I was hesitant at the beginning to have DS1 evaluated, but now I am so thankful that we did.  It has been a really good experience for him and he looks forward to going to speech preschool.

[Holloeness]

When my dd was 2 she didn't say much either.  When she was 2.5 years we moved near family, she was only saying a few words if we could get them out of her.  We lived with my sister for awhile and she has 4 kids at that time ranging from 7 mos to 13 years old, so there was always a lot of talking.  A lot in the beginning we knew she could say words but just wouldn't if she wanted something.  Then my youngest niece started talking for her (somehow little kids know what other kids are trying to say, weird) so we had to keep reminding my niece to not talk for my daughter.  Before we lived with my sister for 3 months my dd was saying sentences, so we went from a few words to sentences before she turned 3.  I'm not saying that your child shouldn't get checked, its always good to do that to be on the safe side.  But you also have to not talk for them and maybe they are just learning at their own rate or maybe they just don't want to talk yet (my dd).  

Since my dd didn't want to talk I taught her some sign language for when she wanted things, it helped a lot.

[sweetjasmine]

My daughter's dd1 turned two years old in March and still isn't talking. Last year she began saying a handful of words here and there but not always clearly. She seems to hear just fine and understands us. She will mostly verbalize like "uh uh uh uh". She says her 1 1/2 year old sister's name Amy as "Maymee". She calls her 6 year old brother "Bubba" like her parents do and can say dada and mama. According to her pediatrician she is almost off the charts as far as being very low weight plus she is short for her age. The dr said she is behind her peers 6 months as far as speech. She's a picky eater but she does eat, has plenty of energy and is a loving child. A speech evaluation has been scheduled which is for tomorrow actually so we'll see what the diagnosis will be.

[AllisonR]

Originally Posted by Linda on the move 

One of my DDs seemed to hear just fine, and never had ear infections. But our doctor had us take her in for a hearing check because because she had so little speech at age 2, and none of it was understandable.

She had chronic fluid in her ears. Her ears were completely full of fluid all the time. She could hear, but only very muddled. She had tubes and it made a HUGE difference.

I would recommend getting it check out -- getting a hearing check and a speech evaluation. It can't hurt and it might help.

THIS! My DS had maybe 5-10 words at age 2. He heard the vacuum cleaner, and often reacted to us. But he was reacting to seeing us talk. So I thought he could hear. He had massive fluid in his ears. Like you being under water - you know how sound gets muted? Now imagine you are not under water but under pea soup. Can you fathom how bad and how little you would hear? 

Each time he got drains in his speech took off. He now has titanium drains and talks like a normal 6 yo. Took a good long while though, and I am sure he missed out. It became obvious after we had DD. She had tons of words at 12 months and sentences a few months later. It makes me really sad now to think what my DS missed out on because I did not realize what a hard time he was having. He missed out learning to hear, learning to talk, socially, so many ways. 

Not saying your DC has fluid in his ears or not, but absolutely get it checked out. Better to be wrong and have wasted time and money, then right and missed the opportunity to help your DC. 

[kat726]

At 2 my DS#3 was not talking AT ALL.  Not bye bye or mama or dada.  We knew he could hear because he loved to be read to.  Would sit and listen to books as long as you would read.  But I had him evaluated anyway.  And 2 weeks before he started speech therapy he started talking and hasn't stopped since.  He does still go to speech because we like the therapists and it's free through the state. 

He now speaks in FULL sentences.  Like 6-8 word sentences.  We have a friend whose daughter is just a few weeks older than our son.  She was talking like crazy at christmas (she wasn't even 2 yet) and our son wasn't even saying anything.  But when we saw them in June, he had caught up to her and could be understood as well as she can...maybe better. 

So definitely get the medical stuff ruled out, but more than likely time will take care of this. 

Oh, and our son did a lot of other things early (like figuring out that if you plug something in it makes it go...at 12 months - that was scary).

Good luck!

[Proxi]

   I second (or fourth or fifth or whatever we are on lol) having your child evaluated by an early intervention just to be sure everything is going well.  That said, I also wouldn't worry too much.  I only said the word "No" when I was 2, and I tested as gifted when I was in middle school.  My husband didn't talk until he was about four(he had his own language from about 2-4 which he spoke with this sister.... they were very close in age and had the twin language thing going on), and both he and his sister were on the honor roll in high school.  They had other reasons for talking late where as I was just a late talker but I guess my point is that it isn't necessarily a bad sign if a child talks late.  Get it checked out, but don't worry yourself too much :-)!