2.5 year old and talking please help

Elissa - posted on 04/23/2013

Go with your gut instinct. My oldest daughter was the same way. We had her speech evaluated at just over two as she only said about 10 words consistaly, they said we could do speech therapy or we could wait a few months to see what happened. We waited a few months, and her language took off, but she was very hard to understand. At three we talked to her pediatrician who wasn't overly concerned but I pushed, and got her a second speech evaluation where they ended up diagnosing her with a severe articulation delay. We then spent the next year in speech therapy. It helped a ton! Speech therapy is different for everyone depending on their needs. Usually it's half or or hour long sessions, and at least once a weeks. The big thing to find out is if your insurance covers speech therapy, and under what circomstances they do. For instance ours covered speech therapy ONLY if she was on the autism spectrim ( she wasn't), had had a stroke, or had an accident involving a moose (or some other weird animal my child would never be close to! Can't remember now what it was) that caused her to loose her tongue. We ended up paying out of pocket for her therapy until we met her deductible. Also the price for speech therapy can differ greatly from place to place. Our local children's hospitals price was $120 for half an hour. When insurance isn't paying that was to steep for us. The local speech and hearing center (was just as good as hospital therapy). Was $69 per session. So do your homework on what all your options are before settling on one place! Hope some of this was helpful.

Brenda - posted on 04/22/2013

Wow. All of these comments have helped me a lot. I am in the same position. My daughter doesnt talk. She has very few words. I think she honestly just chooses not too. I had her in therapy but it just wasnt helping. We put her in daycare because a lot of people said it would help, and also due to me needing some time, being new to having two babies. A lot of the comments are reassuring. Knowing the are other kids dealing with it. Daycare honestly seems to be helping. I also read to stop doing everything for her. Thank you! I need to let her be more independent. Thank you everyone (:

Leah - posted on 02/05/2011

Hi, like most posts on here I agree reading to her lots, make it a bedtime routine, even when you are doing something tell her what you are doing and describe everything like 'mum is brushing your hair', 'you are eating toast for breakfast', 'this is a toilet', even labelling things around the house can help.
Also you don't have to join daycare if money is an issue, join a playgroup, mothers group (most are free) or join a club that is designed for kids such as kindermusik or gymbaroo etc as kids can interact together while you interact with other mums and get helpful information too. My library has a kids reading class (free) every month, check out what your local library has to offer for kids. Most areas have free child heath centres run by nurses and other qualified staff check that out also.
But if she can understand what you are asking and telling her to do she obviously doesn't have a hearing promblem so she clearly understands words and there meanings. Every child is different my daughter talks a lot more and says a lot more than my son, I'm not too concerned as he does clearly understand what I say. Some kids are just chatter boxes and some aren't just like adults. But for your peace of mind I suggest trying a few of these options and go from there.
Good luck and all the best.
Cheers Leah

Rebecca - posted on 02/03/2011

I totally agree with what everyone has said. My doctor also suggested that I put my daughter into day care once a week where she would be forced to use her language. We were doing EVERYTHING and still nothing was improving. She understood instructions and picked up things easily but her vocab was still so limited. I have to say... it worked a miracle.

Lisa - posted on 02/02/2011

Ok, so my son didn't talk at 18 months and I had him evaluated just to make sure everything was alright. They said wait until 2 years. At 20 months I started calling around and got him in speech therapy. We use a service that comes to the house twice a week for a half an hour and she just plays with him and we have seen great success. My husband has late talkers in his family so that is what sparked my concern. My son has been in speech therapy 6 months now and has over 50 words and 25 signs, I am really happy I jumped in and to him speech therapy is just play. Early childhood intervention is free in every state.

Meredith - posted on 01/18/2011

hey! so like amanda said, ditch the baby talk now. ditch the falsetto high voice too. talk to her like a person, and talk to her continuously. my son is 26 months and all i did was talk to him and read to him from birth and he is doing full conversations. he even uses article lol. also this might surprise you but are you doing everything for her? start making her do things and you will be amazed how much her confidence goes up and her speech too. have her put her dirty sippy in the sink, put her toys away with you assisting, put bath toys in the tub, bring you books to read, take off her coat ect. the more confident she is the more she will pipe up....becarefull though once they start talking they never shut up!

Becky - posted on 01/16/2011

What about babbling? My son talks a lot, but it is mostly babble. It is like he is speaking another language (which he is). Mostly I just talk to him like he is regular, and one thing I have read recently was when you are asking him questions or to do things, keep it to 4 words or less. I also encourage him to repeat things, so right now he is really into repeating me. So I have to be very careful.

I wouldn't be worried yet, especially as the other moms pointed out - if she is understanding stuff. Just keep at it - eventually she will want to talk back!

Rebecca - posted on 01/15/2011

I'm in the same position as you. My daughter seems to understand everything i say but doesn't do a lot of talking. It makes me feel really concerned as well. My doctor isn't too worries either because she understands everything and does say things like 'where is it?' 'why is it?' 'what's that?', and words like mum, dad, nanna, doll, ball but it's still very limited. I was told to get her in for a morning once a week at day care so she can interact with other kids because he's sure she can say more than she lets on but gets away without having to talk. His view is that kids are competitive and when she's around other kids that talk then she should get talking more. So that's what we're doing once school goes back. See how it goes...

Donna - posted on 01/12/2011

I wouldn't be to worried. I know its hard not to be, but some kids just take longer. Now if those few words start to disappear then I would bring it up with your Dr.

Amanda - posted on 01/12/2011

I dont think therapy is really neseccary at this point in a toddlers speech learning, but as long as you talk you her all day long and make sure family member and or daycare preschool teachers talk to herand ask her lots of questions. And no baby talking this is a BIG NO NO, it enforces non speech comunication. Dont feel bad about correcting her when she talks either a few cute but mispronounced words can end up being a problem later, so be nice about it but correct her every time its wrong. My son is 27 months, he speeks clearly most of the time and has great pronunsiation of most words, but i have always talked to him as though he was a small adult who can understand everthing a have ever said, even his doctors and strangers are thrown back by his age and the fact he had hearing problems for over the first year of his life(he hear like he was under water) but after haveing his ears drained and opened with tubes his speech just took off! talking is a very important part of life talk to her and she'll talk to you! Good luck !!

Jessica - posted on 01/09/2011

if it makes you feel any better, I am in the exact same position as you. And i think the worst thing i do is compare her to other kids her age. I did the same thing with my son who is now 5, and his speech is perfect, but when he was 2 and 3, his speech was far from perfect. So i was super scared he would need therapy and such. But he turned out ok. Just know there is probably ALOT of people going through what we are, and i think it is normal.

Molly - posted on 01/08/2011

September and Jeneva have good advice. Talk to her a lot and read to her. This is the best way to encourage her. Dont ask her yes/no questions, instead ask - would you like toast or cereal? Encourage her to tell you what she wants, tell her you don't understand and ask her to show you. I understand you are concerened but it sounds like she does have interest in learning. It will come, just be patient with her ;-)

Jeneva - posted on 01/07/2011

The biggest thing is comprehension. If she understands you, can do things when you ask (like give a kiss, put something in the trash, etc) then you should be fine. It sounds like she is good with that so try not to worry (easier said than done, I know). The biggest thing you can do to help her is talk to her a lot (singing, reading, just telling her everything) and encourage her to talk to you. When you read a book, point something out and ask her to repeat it. When she wants something to eat or drink ask her to repeat it (May I have some milk please?) When she points to something, ask her to say it (she points to her nose, you ask her what it is and if she doesn't say you tell her then ask her to say it). Lots and LOTS of praise for saying words you can understand.

If you want to get her evaluated for speech therapy it can't hurt and her pedi should be able to give you a referral. I don't know how it works exactly but I do know it is play therapy and I think it is mouth and tongue exercises as well as practicing vocal sounds. All done in a playful, fun setting.

September - posted on 01/06/2011

Sorry I know nothing about speech therapy however I have some ideas about ways to help increase her vocabulary. Read to her often, talk to her a lot, involved her in conversations, explain things to her as you do them. Just hearing you talk will be super beneficial. Listen to music and sing a lot, this helps with sentence building. Do arts and crafts together. Talk about the different objects that you're using when doing the arts and crafts. I think it's best to make learning time fun and to never force it. With our 2 year old son I do things that our son enjoys and use those times as an opportunity to teach him as well. He learned how to count by counting the stairs that we walk up for each diaper change, he learned his ABC's from singing them with, he learned his colors and shapes from doing arts and crafts with me and so on, you get the point. Try not to worry she will get there when she's ready just be sure to interact with her a lot and in different ways. Good luck to you! :)