It's ok for a 24 month old to not be saying words, right?

[momm]

My friend's DD, 24 months old, literally says only three "words" - dada, mama, and gaga for grandpa

She is, however, a happy child that interacts well, and plays well.

She also recognizes objects e.g. points to "elbow" when asked to.

She also makes a lot of sounds - guga gabu bubu .. like that.

This is totally ok, right? My friend her mom is concerned and tries very hard to make her speak, but her DD only gets mad if she is repeatedly asked to say words.

Thoughts?


ETA - she has a few signs. Less than 15 I would say. Mostly food items. Her mom started pushing signs after 18 months when she wouldn't speak at all.

[cckwmh]

here is a link to the cdc's milestone charts.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-2yr.html

my DD at that age had very few words, but was following multistep instructions. because she was a delayed talker, she was very frustrated so we taught her signs. she easily knew 50-75 signs by 2 (it helped that we have a deaf family member that she really bonded with).

After what I went through to get speech services for my DD, and ultimately ended up paying out of pocket, If I were in your friend's shoes, I would get an EI eval.

[Canna]

That would concern me. It sounds more typical for a one year-old than a two year-old. I would want her to be evaluated if she were my child.

[TwinFoxes]

Well, no, not really. DDs have been in speech therapy because if articulation problems since they were two. Everyone liked to tell me "they'll turn two and they'll just take off" but I knew it wasn't going to happen, and it didn't. I'm glad I got them started in EI early. They were getting more and more frustrated at not being able to say all the words in their heads. They've come leaps and bounds, but are still in therapy now. It''s funny because they say all these things that are past their age level, but they articulate them poorly (in testing they were shown a picture and they both said "kwessen moo" they were supposed to say "moon" but they knew it was a "crescent moon"). Anyway, I would recommend she look into speech therapy if she asked my opinion.

[BabyBearsMom]

That would concern me. It sounds more typical for a one year-old than a two year-old. I would want her to be evaluated if she were my child.

:yeahthat: but grandma always harping on her wont help. I'd be looking into EI ASAP if it were me.

[swissair81]

I might be the wrong person to add to this, because I suspect that my kids might be advanced talkers. Just as a comparison though, my DD3 is just 20 months and she has at least 50 words. She is also starting to make 2-3 word sentences.

[nc_hope]

Technically, no, that would not be considered "normal" for a 24 month old. BUT, when DS turned 2 he was basically in the same boat as the child you described. I discussed this with our ped at his 2 year check up who was not overly concerned because everything else about DS's behaviors and abilities was normal. But he did agree that perhaps DS should be evaluated. Long story short about 4 months later (after about a month of speech therapy) he just took off. Truly his vocabulary just exploded. He started talking to anyone and everyone about any and everything! 6 years later he still hasn't stopped! :rotflmao:

And for they record, I actually think the timing with the speech therapist was just coincidence. I really think he would have started talking when he did regardless of outside influences.

Edited to add: We did also teach DS to sign as well, it really helped with some of his frustrations.

[kellij]

My son is 24 months and says sentences and will repeat just about any word and knows words for most things. I would be really worried about 3 words only, I would definitely get her evaluated. I don't think my son is advanced at all, just pretty typical.

[ang79]

At my DD2's 2 year healthy child check up the doctor asked if she could say 50 words. I knew she talked less than her older sister had at that age, but had a hard time thinking of 50 words she knew on the spot. The doctor said that if by her 2.5 yr. appt. she couldn't say 50 words clearly, that she was going to recommend her to be tested by early intervention. She did start to talk more by 2.5, but the doctor didn't bring the question back up and I didn't think about it until she was almost 3. At this point my mom and several people at church that were with her in the church nursery, commented about how hard of a time they had understanding her. She was talking more but her articulation was poor. I understood her the best because I'm with her all day everyday, but I even had to ask her to repeat herself a lot, which frustrated her. I called at the end of Nov. to set up an appt. and they were so backlogged that the first appt. I could get was mid -Jan., and then the speech pathologist was out sick the day of her appt., so it got bumped back until the beginning of March. By this time, she was talking better and after testing, they did not refer her for speech therapy. Looking back though, I'm sure if I'd had her tested at age two, they would have taken her, because she was talking, but not the 50 words. Her speech really didn't take off til after age 3. But that was a frustrating year for both of us with her not being able to communicate clearly what she wanted to. So if I were your friend, I'd get her evaluated, it never hurts and the earlier you get intervention, the easier it is for the child I think. Also, in my state (PA), early intervention comes to your home for appts. until age 3, but after that you get bumped to the next level and have to take the child to a facility for appt. which in my case was quite a drive and would have interfered with getting my older daughter to preschool and the little boy that I baby-sit.

[kristac]

I would definately look into having early intervention (or what ever they call it in your state) do an evaluation.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

That would concern me. It sounds more typical for a one year-old than a two year-old. I would want her to be evaluated if she were my child.

:yeahthat:

if it were my child i would definitely get an EI evaluation, or getting hearing evaluated or something. i think by 2nd birthday they should be at least combining 2 words together (e.g. "doggy eat" ) or something. only 3 words would concern me. sure, could be nothing, but then it could be something..why would you want to take that chance? an eval wouldn't hurt...i've gotten my DD evaluated for far less concerning things.

my nephew was not saying any words at 2. He was otherwise happy kid but he would get VERY frustrated when encouraged to speak. He never spoke and would just point. BIL/SIL were basically in denial about it and waited until he was 3 years old (and still not saying any words) to get him evaluated and seek out therapy. Turns out he has speech apraxia. Therapy helped but even now at 7yo he does not pronounce many sounds correctly and it is very obvious he has speech issues...i always wonder if seeking out help sooner would have helped more..3 years old seems extremely late to be getting help learning how to talk.

I doubt there's much you can do though, if the parents don't want to get him evaluated.

[brittone2]

I would initiate an evaluation with EI. Receptive language (what they understand) is scored separately from expressive language (what they say and communicate). So while it is encouraging and helpful to have a child with good receptive skills, it doesn't mean there are no concerns about the expressive skills.

Having 2-3 words is more typical of a 12-15 month old. By 2 years of age, most speech therapists like to see kids starting to put two words together ("mama go" or "me eat" or something like that).

If the child was premature, they adjust for that, but only up until age 2. So until age 2, a child born 2 months premature would only be expected to have the skills of a child at their adjusted age. They are "credited" for their months of prematurity. But even if this was a preemie, they stop adjusting at age 2.

The other thing is the not talking much can be indicative of a wide variety of things, and a professional is in the best position to tease that out (fluid in the ears or hearing issues vs. a coordination/motor planning issue involving the muscles of the mouth, for example).

If both parties are growing frustrated, even more of a reason to call EI. Remember that at age 3 they move into the school system. From 0-3 early intervention will come to your home or the child's daycare, and the system tends to be a little more cozy and family friendly (speaking in generalities of course). In many states EI is free of charge, or on a sliding scale. In some states it is free regardless of parent income. It can take a few weeks until they come out to do the eval, and sometimes a few weeks until services start. If they wait until closer to 2.5, if the child qualified for services they would only be eligible for EI for a very short period of time before aging out and into the school system, which can be more difficult for some parents to navigate.

[crl]

Agreeing with others that i would be concerned and would call Early Intervention for an evaluation.

DS had about fifty words at age two, but was unintelligible to everyone but me (dh understood about ten words and my close mom friends understood two or three) and he was not stringing words together at all. He benefitted greatly from speech therapy and I found the Early Intervention experience to be helpful overall.

Catherine

[AnnieW625]

The way you describe the girl was DD1 to the T. She had almost constant ear infections for 4 months prior to her 2nd birthday so that made learning to talk even harder for her. She got tubes put in at 25 months old and that made a big difference after about 6 months, but DD1 still went to group speech therapy from the time she was 2/1/2 until she was 3. I saw zero shame in taking her to speech therapy.

[elliput]

Since I have two DC with speech delays, my opinion is better an eval than not.

[sntm]

I agree with speech eval. We have friends whose daughter was similar - she's almost three and just now starting to speak in sentences. She's still hard to understand. I encouraged SO to talk with them (dad is his best friend) about speech eval sooner but he didn't and they never pursued it. I'm not sure how her speech will be in the future, but even now after making a huge leap recently, she seems very behind other kids her age.

I also had an early talker, though. DS was saying things like "the storm clouds are looming" around his 2nd birthday.

[mskitty]

My friend's DD, 24 months old, literally says only three "words" - dada, mama, and gaga for grandpa

She is, however, a happy child that interacts well, and plays well.

She also recognizes objects e.g. points to "elbow" when asked to.

She also makes a lot of sounds - guga gabu bubu .. like that.

This is totally ok, right? My friend her mom is concerned and tries very hard to make her speak, but her DD only gets mad if she is repeatedly asked to say words.

Thoughts?

Our "Parents as Teachers" educator strongly encouraged us to pursue a speech evaluation prior to age two based on our DS exhibiting similar behavior (5-10 words of expressive language). It was a three month wait for an evaluation and they prefer to see kids starting at age 2 for speech issues. It was far cheaper through the county health department ($60 versus $600+ at the children's hospital). I had no clue the county health department even offered services like that!

His receptive language score was far older than his age and just had issues with expressive. We chose to wait 6 months to reevaluate based upon our daycare providers' input that he had no trouble communicating nonverbally. In that time DS had a significant speech explosion from 10 words to 50 to 100+ words. However, he does continue to lag behind most of the other kids in his daycare in expressive and has some issues with articulation. We will be seeking services to work on his articulation.

We just had a follow up phone consultation with the county speech therapy people the other day based on our full evaluation a year ago. We are going to wait a few months until age 3 to do another evaluation through the school district as they require more testing than the county does. If we are unhappy with the school district services, we can always pursue services through the county as they are very inexpensive and provide services based on the school district evaluations so we won't have to do the process twice.

mskitty

[MontrealMum]

Unless she's being raised with two languages at the same time, no, that's not typical.

[swrc00]

DS started speech at 22 months. Our pediatrician said saying twenty words or less would be a concern. DS was close to twenty.

[lilycat88]

DS had about 4-5 words at 18 months and we had him evaluated by EI. He started speech therapy at 20 months. His vocabulary has exploded and he has "words" for a huge number of things but they aren't understandable unless we have the context for them...pictures, etc. Now, it's turned more into an articulation issue.

So, yeah, I'd get an evaluation. Ds's therapist is thrilled to be working with a kid so young.

[AddieLuke]

At 24 months, I would be concerned. My son has only started speaking. He's got about 10 words now. I brought it up at his 18 month appointment but our pediatrician wasn't concerned because DD has a tendency to talk over her brother or answer for him. Once we made her stop talking and gave him a chance, he's done pretty well. He is delayed in speaking and if he doesn't continue progress, we'll get him evaluated around the 2 year mark.

[Simon]

Does she have her own words for other things? Is she signing a ton?
I agree that it sounds like an eval is in order, but without knowing more, there could be some easy explanations: lots of ear infections, second language exposure, using her own words, no need to talk (every one anticipates needs) for what seems like a delay.

[llama8]

I would be very concerned. My DD was speaking in sentences at 24 months, and she was a lazy talker. I would get an evaluation.

[sidmand]

Since I have two DC with speech delays, my opinion is better an eval than not.

:yeahthat:

Both my children had speech delays. Both had about three words at age 2. DS caught up fairly quickly but still didn't have much until about age 3. DD has lots but most were difficult to understand for anyone but us until very recently.

[kerridean]

No it is not. I am an an Audiologist and have an undergraduate degree in Communication Disorders.

A 24 month old should be talking in 2 word sentences.

[Pyrodjm]

That is not typical 2yo behavior, at two a child should have many words and be starting to string them into 2 and 3 word simple sentences ie. "More juice", "hi mama", "milk all done".

I am a special ed teacher that provides EI services. I would encourage her to get the child evaluated.

[niccig]

I'm getting MS in Communication Disorders and it's not normal for a 2 year old to have 3 words. Evaluations can take time, so you want to get it set up sooner than later.

My DS was a late talked and his language exploded after 2, but he had more than 3 words. He didn't catch up fully and I wasn't aware of that until I started my degree. As a 7 year old he has articulation issues and his reading wasn't progressing and his phonemic awareness (awareness of syllables, rhyme, alliteration, sounds) isn't at his age level. Lucky for us he's at a small private school and his teacher does individual reading instruction with him and I've been working with him as well. He sees a speech therapist once a week. It's all starting to come together and I hope to make big strides in his reading with him over the Summer.

Language development can affect later language and literacy, so I woudn't be putting off an eval. It also can't hurt, so there's nothing to lose by doing it.

[KrystalS]

This thread is starting to worry me, combined with others questioning DS's speech. DS is will be 19months next week. He basically says Mama, thats it. He has said bye bye, and dada but not regularly. He basically points and says uh, uh. I don't push him because I've heard it takes longer for boys for speak. Should I have him evaluated or wait a few more months? He really doesn't even attempt to say words, I do repeat things to him. For example, I always point out things like cup, table, dog, etc. He knows what things are, anytime I ask him to get something he goes right to it.

He has always been way ahead of the curve in other developmental areas. He was walking at 10mos and running by 15mos. He climbs everything!

DD was already saying 2-3 word sentences by this age but I know that isn't the norm.

[mom2binsd]

I'm an Slp and my DS at 24 months had that exact vocabulary I knew his receptive language and social, motor development was fine and with doting grandparents and chatty olderr sister not much need to talk. With my background I was "doing" therapy all the time and felt he was just a late talker but to be sure I had him evaluated but he didn't qualify as he had a few more words by then but still not more than 20. I would suggest to her to request an EI evaluation. The range at that age is HUGE! I have found most at 24 months are.speaking in short sentences (3 or 4 words) with lots of articulation errors. I'm on mu phone so sorry if this is awkward I eseqeÃ*hate this new keyboard!
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Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

[TwinFoxes]

This thread is starting to worry me, combined with others questioning DS's speech. DS is will be 19months next week. He basically says Mama, thats it. He has said bye bye, and dada but not regularly. He basically points and says uh, uh. I don't push him because I've heard it takes longer for boys for speak. Should I have him evaluated or wait a few more months? He really doesn't even attempt to say words, I do repeat things to him. For example, I always point out things like cup, table, dog, etc. He knows what things are, anytime I ask him to get something he goes right to it.

He has always been way ahead of the curve in other developmental areas. He was walking at 10mos and running by 15mos. He climbs everything!



What's the upside to waiting? Also, I don't think climbing and talking have much to do with each other. My girls' only delay is expressive language. Keep in mind,if you wait a few months, it may be a few months after that to get evaluated, appointments don't happen immediately.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

What's the upside to waiting? Also, I don't think climbing and talking have much to do with each other. My girls' only delay is expressive language. Keep in mind,if you wait a few months, it may be a few months after that to get evaluated, appointments don't happen immediately.

:yeahthat:

my nephew walked at 9 mos, was climbing to the top of six-foot shelves by 15 months yet he had very significant speech delay...i don't think one necessarily has to do much with the other.

i agree i don't see much advantage in waiting if you have a concern. if it's truly nothing, then at least it will give you piece of mind. it took well over a month to get an evaluation for my DD. my ped recommended an eval at 9mo well check after i mentioned she didn't babble much and was not mobile at all (she could roll over, that's it,..couldn't scoot or crawl or bring herself up to sitting or even pull up). of course 2 days before the eval she began scooting and the day of the eval she said "mama" for the first time... :) i am still glad i had the eval done...they let me know of other delays i didn't know she had (she had delay in receptive language) that i have since tried to work on with her (she had delays in language but not enough to qualify for services). i felt a lot better after i had the evaluation...i would have been worried otherwise, bc she was very slow to do other things ( my DD could not pull herself up to sitting position until about 11-12 mos, and that was shocking to me, as my DS at that age was literally running around).

[lilycat88]

DS is will be 19months next week. He basically says Mama, thats it. He has said bye bye, and dada but not regularly. He basically points and says uh, uh.

This was DS at 18-19 months. His main vocalization was "da" and he used it for everything except bye bye, mama and dada. We started being concerned at about 17 months and really questioned having him evaluated because of the "boys are later" thing. We made the appointment expecting it to take a while to get it done. Surprisingly, it only took about 2 weeks. He did really well with the "overall" evaluation and his gross motor scores inched his "total" score almost too high to qualify for services even though his speech wasn't where it should have been. He knew what everything was but had no words. He's only receiving therapy 2x a month right now (Indiana, apparently, is reluctant to approve more than that for under 2 years old) but it's made a big difference. His therapist wants to move to 1x week. He's moved to more of an articulation issue now but he has "words" he attempts for everything.

[momm]

Oh my goodness! I didn't expect such a response, to be honest!

I suppose it makes sense.. all the other, younger kids in the playgroup can easily speak much more than her. I feel bad. I need to think about how to speak to her.. maybe I'll ask the wise BBB ladies for advice on it

[JBaxter]

I'm another that will suggest you check into the evaluation. I know people that have put off the evaluation waiting for the child to catch up and the only thing it did was have the child lose out on 6-12 months of therapy. I had 1 who did need speech therapy and at his 2yr check up I addressed it and my ped agreed. He was in speech for 2.5 yrs.