Hi Ladies,

Being here for a month now, I just don't know where else to find information but through all of you! :lol:

Question: How can you tell if your child is having speech delay? I know that there is the old addage that your child should have about a 30 word vocabulary by the time that they are 18 months. Is that correct?

Kaelen is just starting to get vocal, but it is not actual words. He has said "mum" or "da", but we aren't even sure if he exactly knows what they mean. He has just started pointing to objects and making a sound so we figured that this was a normal stage. However, children around Kaelen close to his age can actually say words. He certainly does not make sounds that come across as words.

Is this something that I should flag for concern? Or am I just over anticipating a potential issue? Kaelen is a premature baby, so I figured that he could possibly be behind as it was.


Allie

Hi Allie -- I've found there is a huge age range for when kids become verbal. Generally, boys start talking later than girls. Our ST just said a two-year-old should have about 200 words, so I figured Daniel was way behind, but then she evaluated him and he came out only one to two months behind. And he was three months early! His score was only in the 20th percentile, which sounded pretty horrible, but I think that just means they pick up words really quickly at his age.

And, just so you know, the ST said they don't even start getting picky about pronunciation til age 2.5.

If you are concerned, your ped can probably refer you to an ST for an eval. I'm not sure if he'd be too young. I think D's first speech eval was around 18 or 20 months.

Thanks Becky! I will keep that in mind when Kaelen goes for his 18 month check up.

You just never know unless you are aware of things. Doctors these days just seem so busy that they don't really have the time or inclination to sit down and actually absorb a parents concern. They have probably heard it a million times from over reactive parents, so when legitmate concerns come about they often get missed.

Tonight we are off to the doctor again regarding Kaelen's constipation issue. I am going to ask to try something other than Zantec and Lactulose as we are not having great results with them.

Thanks again Becky!!

Since Kaelen is only 14 months old, I wouldn't be too concerned yet. Like Becky said, kids develop differently and at different times. You can always ask the doctor when you're in for an appt. just to set your mind at ease.

I have two of my three boys with speech and language delay. Walker was developing normally and had a few words right on track until he started with his blue episodes and then stopped talking altogether. That is a HUGE warning sign and went ignored by everyone until we dragged him off to a speech screening clinic at the age of 3 1/2 where he was found to be at the 1st percentile and suffering a major delay. We are still battling this delay. As he was our first son, we just kept listening to our experts and let it go until I could no longer ignore that other kids his age were talking circles around him and nobody could understand Walker, including us.

Iain was easy for us to catch as he is our third son. We knew he was not developing speech by keeping track of the milestones. We had him screen a few months ago and he also has a significant delay and we are awaiting an opening at the speech clinic for him but have started private speech therapy which has helped thus far. He is now 21 months old and has few real distinct words, but is usuing more and more sounds. The speech therapist looks for jargonning and babbling as precursors to speech. Pointing and jabbering is good as that shows he is trying. Keep it simple for him and speak with one or two word responses to his pointing. I would have him screened as it is NEVER too early to have it done so do not let your ped tell you otherwise. I think that you are wonderful for being proactive with this as peds will seemingly let this drag on and on until it is very hard to recover from, so the earlier the intervention, the better. Our SLP says they can take off around age 2 to 2 1/2 if intervention is early.

I do not know if you have to adjust for his being a preemie, do they Becky? It is true that there is a huge range for speech development and that boys do develop slower than boys, but I would stick to the milestones as they seem to be good markers.

Let us know how the ped visit goes.

I do not know if you have to adjust for his being a preemie, do they Becky?

You adjust til age two, then preemies are supposed to be "caught up." In my mind, I'm giving him those extra three months anyway because there's a huge difference between six weeks early and three months early! So Daniel has about seven more weeks to get on the ball!

For some reason I thought it was age three for the catch up. My friend with a preemie ran on that rule, but I have read about age 2. Let's face it, some extra slack should be given to preemies for sure. They had enough of a rough start, eh?

I would say then that Daniel is doing fantastic if you are giving away 3 months and he was 20th percentile! Wow. Just goes to show you all your hard work with him pays off, Mommy. :wink: