When my second son turned 2 years old he really didn’t have any recognizable words that you could understand. He babbled some and would occasionally say a word or two but then we never heard them again. Our first son was an early talker but I knew that all children developed at their own rate and I tried very hard not to compare my second son to my first. I didn’t want to be one of “those” parents…lol. So I didn’t worry too much about the lack of speech until his 2nd birthday.
At that point I raised the issue with his pediatrician and said that I would like to at least have him evaluated. We started with hearing tests which proved that he could hear quite normally so that wasn’t the issue. The county we live in provides speech evaluation and therapy free of charge to all children under 3 years old so we went ahead with the speech evaluation when he was 2.5 years old. He was basically diagnosed as having the speech of an 18 month old (a full year behind). He understood speech better than he spoke it though which was a little comforting. Therapy was recommended.
We began individual speech therapy and he started to improve right away. Within the first few weeks he was calling me Mama – something I had never heard from him before. It made me cry J I didn’t realize how much his not speaking really affected me until he actually started to communicate and then I knew what I had been missing. Once he turned 3 he was no longer eligible for the county program (you then have to work with your local school system). But he was already so improved and we had learned so much by attending his sessions that we knew we could continue to work with him on our own. He started preschool at 3 and has continued to improve in his speech. Now, at 4 years old, you would probably never know that he was such a late talker.
Working with your local county or school district is something you really have to push for. You may deal with red tape and inevitable delays but you should persevere if you really believe that your child has a speech delay. Early intervention is the best kind!
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We are going thru a similar process right now with my 22 months old baby. He wont say any words he babbles and points at things but wont say anything. He just had the first evaluation from early intervention and I am really concerned about the results. Did they tell you right away after they evaluated your baby what the diagnosis was?
Thank you
Joe - We were actually told at the end of our evaluation session that they thought he was almost a year behind in his speech. We did get a full written report later but we were referred to a speech pathologist fairly quickly. I know the system can be frustrating and slow but hang in there - you’re doing the right thing! - Julie
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[…] - Psych Central News wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt When my second son turned 2 years old he really didn’t have any recognizable words that you could understand. He babbled some and would occasionally say a word or two but then we never heard them again. Our first son was an early talker but I knew that all children developed at their own rate and I tried very hard not to compare my second son to my first. I didn’t want to be one of “those” parents…lol. So I didn’t worry too much about the lack of speech until his 2nd birthday. At that point […]