Speech problems?

[noodlegirl]

My son is almost 21 months and he can only say 5 words. (mama, apple, ball, baba-brother, ff ff-woof, woof) He can sign more, night night and bye bye.

I know he is behind, but anyone know what is considered normal? I find it a bit concerning that he can't even say dada.

As background, he has been late in every area. He rolled over for the first time at 11mos, crawled at 13mos and walked at 16mos (which is still average I know). We did speech therapy for a while with ECI but he hated it and never said a word, cried or crawled away from the therapist. So now we are taking a break.

I do not think he is autistic, he seems very interactive. But I do wonder how behind he is and at what point I should get more proactive.

[aprons_and_acorns]

Your son sounds a lot like my son at that age. We have been doing speech therapy which he loves (the teachers have been awesome and so much fun for him) and he has really made a lot of progress. I think he was just a late bloomer, but the extra help has been great.

We got the ball rolling on addressing his speech at age 24 months, and at that time he had about 8 words. The assessments they did ruled out a hearing issue and also gave us a clearer picture of where he was developmentally. We learned that he was right on target for receptive language but about a year behind for expressive, but that for the words he did have, his enunciation was near age-apropriate. This was all helpful information (and free through the school district).

I hope this helps! My son was also on the late side of average for many other developmental milestones. I figured he was just a late bloomer but if there was a real issue I didn't want to let it slip by unnoticed.

I hope this is helpful

[todavia]

Originally Posted by aprons_and_acorns

My son was also on the late side of average for many other developmental milestones. I figured he was just a late bloomer but if there was a real issue I didn't want to let it slip by unnoticed.

Us too and we also did speech therapy through Early Intervention and it made a huge difference. We worked with a great woman from when my son was about 2 until he aged out at 3. I was hesitant at first but i'm really glad i went ahead with getting him that help. Maybe you could try again with a different person?

[sbgrace]

Originally Posted by noodlegirl

As background, he has been late in every area. He rolled over for the first time at 11mos, crawled at 13mos and walked at 16mos (which is still average I know). We did speech therapy for a while with ECI but he hated it and never said a word, cried or crawled away from the therapist. So now we are taking a break.

Did he get physical therapy (we were in physical therapy for about two years total because my son wasn't rolling by 6 months).
How is his health?
It sounds to me like it might be possible he is lower muscle tone?? Is that possible? If he is that might be part of the speech issue. How is his chewing/eating? Though surely the speech therapist would have picked up on that. I'd try early intervention again. By 24 months kiddos are supposed to have two word phrases and it takes about 50 words (typically) to get to that point. Every child is different of course. Does your son point? Respond to his name consistently?
I just realized I asked a ton of questions; I know you my not want to answer any. For background though I've got a gross motor delayed with speech delays kiddo.

[momoftworedheads]

Hi,

Have you had your son's hearing checked? My son did not stopped speaking in 3/06 and did not talk again until 4/07. He had tubes place din his ears and about 3 weeks afterwards, he began to speak. He can now say 50 words. He does have a diagnosis of PDD-NOS (other reasons beside speech) and he receives services from our EI provider. We have always taken him to speech privately as well.

I would make an appt with an audiologist, just to check his hearing.

Best wishes!

[RomanGoddess]

Originally Posted by noodlegirl

He rolled over for the first time at 11mos, v

from back to front of front to back? My DD could not roll from back to front until she was 10 or 11 months and she is totally normal (now three) and I would even say advanced in some gross motor skills. In fact, I am not even sure she would roll over from tummy to back for a while. She was never really one to roll that much.

Originally Posted by noodlegirl

crawled at 13mos

Some babies never crawl at all. What is important is that he was able to find some way to move himself around by about 9 or 10 months.

and walked at 16mos (which is still average I know).

Completely within range.

Regarding speech, I know that in North America, they are very into tracking speech and language milestones carefuly. We lived in France for the first two year's of my DD's life and her pediatrician was pretty carefree about speech development. His view was that some kids don't say a word until age three and then it all just comes out and until then, there is not much you can do.

[lilyka]

actually he doesn't sound that far behind. I think 18 months is 5 words and meaningful sounds (like woof woof) counted. its been a long time though so I can remember for sure.

certainly wuldn't hurt to get an evaluation done.

[noodlegirl]

Did he get physical therapy (we were in physical therapy for about two years total because my son wasn't rolling by 6 months).
How is his health?
It sounds to me like it might be possible he is lower muscle tone?? Is that possible? If he is that might be part of the speech issue. How is his chewing/eating? Though surely the speech therapist would have picked up on that. I'd try early intervention again. By 24 months kiddos are supposed to have two word phrases and it takes about 50 words (typically) to get to that point. Every child is different of course. Does your son point? Respond to his name consistently?
I just realized I asked a ton of questions; I know you my not want to answer any.

Dont mind at all! LOL

He is in great health overall. He had RSV last year but other than that no illness to speak of. Never been on antibiotics or other meds. He was diagnosed with low muscle tone at around 11 mos when he could still do nothing but lay on the floor and not even really lift his head. But once he improved he improved quickly going from a blob to crawling when he was 13 months. He has never been a great eater. It took him over 2 mos to regain his birth weight b/c he had latch issues, but once he caught on he nursed fine and actually gained a ton of weight. He would not take any solids until about a year. Not really abnormal but looking at the whole picture he has just always been on the slow side of things.

Yes he does point, wave and is responsive in other ways. I guess that is why I am not too concerned about autism.

Thanks for all the input you ladies have given me. I guess I will call ECI and give it another go!

[DevaMajka]

My ds had 3 words at 21 mos "arf" was one of them, and dangit if I didn't forget the other two! oops. Before that, he didn't have any words that he used consistently.
But in the next 3 months he went from 3 words to more than I could keep track of.

My ds's receptive language always seemed advanced to me. We were very sure that there was nothing to be concerned about. It seems like parental intuition is a strong indicator if something needs help or not (just anecdotal, from reading others' stories).

[hippymomma69]

I agree with some of the PP - the receptive speech is the most important indicator of how quickly you need to intervene. My DD had *lots* of words at 2 but they never gelled and became complete sentences....turns out she has Auditory Processing Disorder (where it's hard for them to distinguish between similar sounds so it's kind of like they are hearing english under water). But it was clear that her receptive speech was not up to where it should be...she just didn't seem "with it" in that way. So she really needs intensive intervention.

But I think it's much more common and much less worrisome to have a child who grunts alot but it's clear they know what is going on and can respond to specific requests and directions. Then it's probably just a maturational delay or some muscle weakness in the mouth.

I would go and see a developmental pediatrician to sort out what areas need some work - then you can decide what you want to do about it (therapy or wait and see)...

good luck!
peace,
robyn

[VanessaS]

We lived in France for the first two year's of my DD's life and her pediatrician was pretty carefree about speech development. His view was that some kids don't say a word until age three and then it all just comes out and until then, there is not much you can do.

Same here (in Germany). My son wasn't even saying Mamma at 23 months (although he did bark and quack and say Dadda -- what's up with animal sounds?) so I -- being American -- totally freaked out. But nobody else here did. They gave him a general health-checkup (ear infections, jaw development, bloodwork, etc.), asked him some simple questions, and when he answered by pointing or grunting or nodding or ANYTHING, they were satisfied and said to come back when he is 3. I went to 4 doctors and it was the same everywhere. They said it was like the cold: "If you go to your doctor with a cold your illness will last 14 days. If you don't go it will last 2 weeks."
Here they don't do speech therapy for otherwise normal kids until age 3. They said there's no point. And, sure enough, they were right. He turned 2 and started talking and now he's surpassed his age group playmates in vocabulary (in 2 languages!). It turns out that he is gifted and that delayed spoken language (or very advanced language -- depending on the gift) is common for that group. Go figure...
Also, they told me that the reason the American speech therapists have such a high success rate is that the therapy takes place between the ages of 2 and 3 when late talkers have their language explosion even WITHOUT the therapy. It seems the therapy can often speed up the acquisition of language (which is important, of course) but doesn't cause it.