My 2 yr. old doesn't talk! Dr. says Speech Therapy!?

My son just turned 2 last friday, he can say momma, Ne Ne (for great grandma) we all call her meme, daddy, bubba. and thats it, you have to beg him just to say that, but he sings along to songs or i should say he kind of hums it he has the same sound just doesnt actually purnunciate it, he is semi potty trained and very bright with everything else, he crawled at 5 mo. and walked at 8 mo. he didn't even get 1 tooth until is 1st b-day it seems like everything to do with his mouth is so slow, he starts speech therapy next wed. i just curious is this normal help!! but he honestly knows everything else he gets anything i ask him to he knows where is ears etc. everything is but not very verbal word wise

My 2 yr. old doesn't talk! Dr. says Speech Therapy!?
As a speech therapist, I do agree with your physician's opinion. Typically, by 24 months, a child should have an expressive vocabulary of 40-50 words. I haven't assessed your child, but an SLP will probably do a language/phonetic assessment to see what his strengths and weaknesses are. If your child is deem to be at least 25% delayed in his speech, he may receive services once a week. I work with this population and typically after a couple months of therapy, the child is D/C as they no longer require assistance and can formulate words and phrases on their own. For more information, please check out www.asha.org.
Reply:speech therapy would help but i think its because he's shy or stubbon. i don't think the slow teeth growth has anything to do with it though. this is normal happens to a lot of kids when they are about this age. don't worry :] hope this helps.
Reply:I understand why the doctor advised you to go to speech therapy, but honestly, he sounds just fine. As long as he is attempting to speak and communicate and he understands you, I would say he just doesn't want to bother yet.





Just keep talking to him, read to him all the time and maybe once in a while insist that he doesn't point to something, but try to say it. Otherwise I would just say he's being stubborn. If you make it a little bit harder for him to express himself (by not acknowledging his pointing, and making him try to say cup or juice) than he might start trying harder.





That's not to say this is just a stubborn thing, or a lazy thing. This is normal with boys. My son is only 15 months old and he understands me, follows directions etc. But he points. I see the pattern. He is already used to getting what he wants when he points, and he isn't even trying to say the word.


Good luck, your boy will be fine.
Reply:there is a loose idea that kids are walkers or talkers. he did really well with his walking, i guess that's what interests him. my son was the other way, walked at 15 months and said first sentence couple weeks later. keep talking to him. explain everything, all the time (sounds like you do this already as he has good understanding). he'll get there. all kids learn things in a different order.
Reply:I wouldn't get too worked up just yet. I think that your doctor is taking the side of precaution and getting him in speech now. Be grateful, many (too many), pediatricians take the "wait and see" approach when early intervention is the key.





Best wishes!
Reply:My son didn't talk much until about 2 1/2 and now he never stops. Once he started talking he knew so much stuff! It was like he was just quietly downloading information. Now he seems very intelligent and my father-in-law thinks he may have a photographic memory.
Reply:have you had his hearing tested? sometimes when kids have fluid build up on the ears it can prevent them from speaking. Both my sons didn't start talking until 2.5yrs old and at that it was still garble you couldn't understand, turns out they both needed tubes in their ears and now they both won't shut up.
Reply:I know plenty of kids that weren't talking at just 2!!!! especially boys, I totally wouldn't worry yet, he'll catch up.
Reply:I am sure the therapy will help.





I think kids just all of a sudden surprise you with all the words they can say.





I in no way am trying to compare my daughter to your son, but mine just turned 18 months a few weeks ago. Up until then, she was pretty much just pointing to things, but now, 3 weeks later, she has about 150 word vocabulary, can read any letter of the alphabet (upper and lower case), can read 3 words, and had hit a lot of physical milestones too. I think all kids hit milestones in their own time, and once they hit them, they take off flying so fast you don't know what hit you.





On the other hand, my daughter is still really clumsy with a spoon and fork, and that is something she should have mastered by now.





I assume you are already doing this, but if not, I would highly recommend buying as many books as possible. I read to my daughter probably 3 hours out of every day.





Also, ask the therapist if potty training could have anything to do with him not advancing speech-wise. Probably not related, but maybe if you give up on the potty training for now, he will do better with speech. I could be wrong, but you just might ask.





Good luck.
Reply:It sounds like it's way too early for the dr. to send your son for speech therapy. I am no peditrician; but I do know that my youngest son only said a few words and phrases until he was maybe 2 yrs. 9 months then he started really talking and comes up with new words and phrases every day (he just turned 3). They say Einstien didn't talk until he was three. Unless your son had hearing issues (e.g. many ear infections), I'm sure he's just fine and will come along when he wants to. Every child is different. I wish they'd get rid of some of these benchmarks they use to measure children's development.
Reply:Our daughter is 19 months old and we just had a similiar discussion with our pediatrician. I actually initiated the converstaion.





Sounds as if your situtaion is very similiar to ours. Bright child who can certainly follow simple directions, understand speech and langauge, but isn't yet speaking on a fully seeming " normal" ( whatever that is) scale yet.





In our case- everyone had an opinon about what I should do. I heard everything from " well they all progress at their own speed- you are crazy if you think she has a problem", to " Oh my- she is talking less than other kids her age and you should get help right away"





For us, I decided to hold off for a few weeks since we aren't quite at the two year marker yet and work with her on my own. Her speech is picking up now that I stopped her older sibling from talking for her. We ask her to repeat the baby gibberish that she states often...And we'll see how it goes in the next two weeks or so.





I assume that I probally will call in for reinforcement from an early intervention team or speech therapy team. I figure it really can't do any harm and I can control when it starts/ stops, etc...and see how she reacts to it. I'd rather give her every opportunity to grow than to hold her back because I was too afraid to have her labelled or helped!





I think that in your case- you know your child best! If you feel like there may be a benefit to having him in speech then do it. If your gutt feels that he is just stubborn or communicating in other ways - there is nothing wrong with holding off for two weeks or so to see what happens!





Trust yourself and you'll make the right decision!
Reply:he sounds like a stubborn little fella. he will speak when he feels like it. glad dr, suggested speech therapy, but if your son doesn't want to speak yet, he wont, i bet when he starts there will be no peace in your house, since he wont want to shut up. mom knows whats best. trust your instincts.god bless.
Reply:I know that you can not compare children. Or say now a 2 he is bright or very smart.


If your doctor is wants or thinks that you should do SPEECH THERAPY I would do it yesterday.


I would do it know even if you think he may not need it, but if you hold off much longer and you do find out that he does need it. You will feel gulity that you did not do it when you first had the chance.


You May also just need to wake up his mouth!! Try brush his teeth first thing in the morning. Don't forget his toung too.


Good luck. Trust you doctor
Reply:You should definitely take up the speech therapy offer. My daughter is starting that next month. We had the same problem with that and a lot of things are missing during communication. So, that would help tremendously. Also, try taking your son to daycare or something like that where they are around a lot of children their age. I finally decided to do it and my daughter's speech has gotten a lot better since. A lot of people (doctors) asked me about this before I actually decided to do it. Sometimes, kids help each other out by learning new things just the same. This is a definite for children that are the only child. TV works too. I used that as a tool for my daughter on the kid friendly channels like Disney, ETV, or Noggin. She was repeating a lot of what they would say and her vocabulary increased. That was my alternative because she has ADD and ADHD. So, her attention just wasn't there for me to sit down and teach her. Hope this helps some.
Reply:My son is speech delayed and at 3 is still verbally behind most of the other children he interacts with. Your doctor has a good reason for recommending speech therapy, so do it. Our speech therapist came to the house twice a week for one hour visit each time. In between visits, we were encouraged to use puzzles and flash cards, as well as pictures to get my son to talk. Ask any and all questions you want at your speech therapist and feel no guilt about calling your doctor with any as well. Make sure to follow what they say to do between visits. My son just said his first sentence the other day and I about cried, so it's worth it.
Reply:Speech will probably be beneficial, but a lot of kids do not speak a ton at that age, especially boys. Nothing against boys, they are just usually slower to talk than girls. And the fact he knows where they are is great. I have a nephew who is smart as a whip but cannot get the words out (he has other problems mostly physical, long list) and they have taught him sign language for some things, so even if he does catch up later the sign language is always a plus in my opinion.
Reply:Since I don't know you or your son personally, I can only tell you what my husband and I experienced with our son....





He did EVERYTHING late. Whenever I took him to the pediatrician for his well-checks, he had never hit any of the milestones listed on the handout they would give me. We thought he would never sit up or crawl. He didn't get a tooth until he was 1 and he didn't start walking until 15 months. I never thought there was anything wrong with him--it was very obvious to me that he was an intelligent child. When he went for his 2 year check-up his vocabulary was very similar to your son's. Even though I didn't feel like there was anything wrong with him, I still mentioned it to our pediatrician because I thought that is what a good mom should do. The pediatrician wanted to re-evaluate him in a month and then most likely send him to a speech therapy.





To make a long story short we ended up switching doctors due to other issues and never followed through with the speech therapy. By the time his sister was born 3 months later he was talking our ears off!





The point I am trying to make is go with your gut instinct. If you and your son's father feel like he is doing OK, then he probably is. Kids do things on their own schedule.
Reply:My little brother went to speech therapy at 18 months and kept seeing a teacher for it until he was 7. But he would not even make babbling (baby) noises until the therapy. He's 8 now and still has a slight speech impediment. I believe if it weren't for therapy he would be even farther behind though. He knew what everything was too. I would ask him to throw something away or give something to my mom and he knew what I was saying. He just couldn't seem to communicate back. Don't feel bad about the speech therapy. He just needs a little help along the way. I have a 16 month old daughter who's saying about 35 words frequently. I don't think it's typical for a 2 year old to only say about 4 words.....
Reply:Our two year old was like that too but talks a streak now and hes 2 years and 8 months now.
Reply:Your son should do well even without a speech therapist. Some say that kids will focus first on either walking or talking which in my experience is true. I have a neice and a nephew and my neice talks straight by the age of 2 but prefers to be carried or gets tired right away when walking she is now 7 and everything is fine with ther. Now her brother crawl for only a short period and started to walk and likes walking long distance, he is now 3 and only mumble and pronounce the last sylable of every word. (Can't even say a single word at age of 2) He can say all the 1 sylable word ok like No, Yes, Wait, Bye, Dog etc. but it it has more than one sylable, he will try to pronounce the whole word but only say the last sylable like T.V. he will say silent (e) and loud(V) or radio silent (a) and loud (YO).





As long as he doesn't have any hearing problem and can converse with you, he should be fine.





Good Luck!
Reply:my son is 4 now and his speech still has a little ways to go. his doctor never seemed to worried as long as he understood what we were saying. he started pre-k at 3 and that helped out tremendously he is up to par in everything but speech. we understand him about 90% of the time now i am sure this year he will do even better.



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