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violingirl
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| Posted: July 23 2009 at 8:31am | IP Logged
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My youngest turned 2 on July 6. At his wellchild visit our doctor recommended speech therapy since his vocabulary is around 30 "words" but his words are things that only our family understands- more like syllables that we've come to understand mean a certain thing to him. The only things he says clearly are Dada, Mama and Bubba (his brother). on all his "Words" he uses the vowel sound along with either the beginning or ending consonant(s) but rarely both. The speech he has has really only come in the last 3 months- by his 18 month visit he had only ever attempted 3 words- the ones I listed above. His receptive language has always been great. He's also a very physical kid and climbing running and playing is just more important to him.
I don't know if I think he really needs therapy yet since he's just barely 2 and it seems like he's just a little later in this area, though maybe that's part of why he should have therapy?
Another factor in this is that our insurance wouldn't cover therapy for him this young. I've been in contact with the local school district because they provide free services to in-district families, but I haven't received their information yet.
I was hoping to hear from someone who has dealt with speech therapy before and find out how old your child was when you pursued therapy and at what point you would consider it.
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Erin
DS (2005) DS (2007) DD (2012)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: July 23 2009 at 9:12am | IP Logged
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I don't consider it that young for the simple reason that some of my kids don't really start to talk until they're 3 or older.
When I was in college, not talking until age 4 was still considered "normal" barring physical problems.
I try and consider if there's progress going on and they're just a later talker or if they're struggling themselves to express themselves.. and go with that over the number of words.
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G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Caroline
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| Posted: July 23 2009 at 9:23am | IP Logged
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My oldest son had 4 words when he turned 2. I was very anxious and had him start speech therapy (through early intervention). 2 weeks before therapy started his speech exploded. We continued with the therapy because he did enjoy it, but I think he would have been fine without it. I have resolved to never be so panicky about my kid's speech again.
So, I'm with Jody. Give him a little more time.
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Devoted Wife to  and Mama to three beautiful boys and another little boy due in September , and two beautiful souls in heaven
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Milehimama
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| Posted: July 23 2009 at 9:29am | IP Logged
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My son has been in speech therapy since he was 20 months old. He had NO words. We go through the school district, and they come to our house. Right now he has therapy from a Early Childhood Interventionist and a Speech Therapist.
Basically, they come and play with him but model language. A lot of what they do is modeling for MOM and SIBLINGS, because we continue the therapy when they are gone in the way we would naturally play.
We also tried PECS cards as an alternate form for communication, so X wouldn't get frustrated, and sign language so he'd have a way to tell us what he wanted until his words caught up.
That said, trust your instincts. If you don't think he needs help, that he's just a late bloomer, then trust yourself.
We chose to go ahead with therapy because they would come to our home,(no packing up all the children and having to go to appointment after appointment), our son said no words and he didn't even babble much as a baby (no mamamama or da-da-da-da noises), and it doesn't harm anything (as opposed to say, a surgical intervention or medication or something). Also, we can quit or change our services at any time, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I think it is helping. He still only says parts of words, but he is putting words together in 2 and 3 word sentences and he says PL and BL sounds now.
I blogged about Xavier, the evaluation, etc. here:
http://www.milehimama.com/2009/06/18/the-story-of-mr-x/
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!
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Mary's daughter
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| Posted: July 23 2009 at 10:57am | IP Logged
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Sounds like my youngest boy. I held off on the speech therapy because I thought 2 was just too young and his receptive was excellent. He is now 3 and 3 months and his speech is coming along nicely. He still does not use both beginning and ending sounds, usually just one or the other. He is difficult for others to understand but we know what he means. I think some of it is just being at the bottom of a lot of siblings, they talk for him and anticipate his needs. We are scheduled to have him evaluated sometime in the fall for speech therapy. Personally, I would give him a year and let him watch Signing Time videos. My ds loved these and he learned some signs. It helped decrease the frustration of trying to communicate his needs.
Good Luck,
Stephanie
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violingirl
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| Posted: July 23 2009 at 2:25pm | IP Logged
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Thank you for sharing your advice and experiences. The more I think about it the more I feel like he's just later on this and it's too soon to really worry since he's trying to say things and is mostly getting his point across. I do make him say "more" before I pour more milk for him and "up" before I help him out of his chair and those kinds of things so I'm trying very hard not to just do what I know he's going for. My older son does talk for his brother and we're tying to get him to let Ezra try on his own.
We have to go back in 6 months to re-check his clotting stuff, so I'm sure they'll re-check his speech then too.
Thank you, everyone!
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Erin
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4Real Forums : Our Lady of Good Remedy and Care
Topic: Speech therapy?
