Late talker...When should I start to worry?

[HomeOnTheRanch]

I'm not really concerned about my 22mo son yet, although complete strangers are beginning to raise their eyebrows and give unsolicited advice about his lack of verbal vocabulary. He started talking at about 10 months. Hot (around oven, woodstove, etc.) was about the extent of his consistent vocabulary. He also says "up" (for up or down), "ock" for sock, block (duplo), etc.

 

He grunts and points, and usually one of us figures out what he wants pretty easily. He signs all the words 10yo has bothered to teach him (please, thank you, milk, water, eat, book, airplane, medicine, help, all gone, more, shoes, etc.) and makes 2-3 word sentences out of them. All the info on the net I could find says that grunting and pointing is fine, but screaming and grabbing is not. He is definitely a grunter and pointer.

 

His hearing is fine. We are sure of that. He follows instructions quite well, even when his back is turned or he is across the room. He is completely normal in his crawling, walking, running, playing, and interaction with others.

 

He does have extensive allergies (mostly food) that we deal with by special diet and a nightly dose of Benedryl. He has not had any immunizations except for tetanus due to his allergies.

 

He will copy sounds. The other day we were talking about sonic booms and 10yo made the noise. 22mo copied it exactly. I was stunned. He makes all the appropriate motor noises for toy cars and planes. He makes a few animal noises (moo, quack, baaa).

 

He loves to "sing." As soon as he could scoot and crawl, he would spend as much time as possible under the piano bench listening to 16yo practice. His current favorite song is "Deep and Wide" with all the hand motions. Last week I saw him playing by himself doing the motions and I am sure I heard him sing "Eep and Ide" although nobody else was around to verify.

 

There is already enough noise in this house, and I'm not too anxious to add more, BUT should I be concerned? Perhaps he is just a budding Einstein.

[blessedwith7]

FWIW I have a 22 month old son who fits the description of your son almost to a T... He does finally say mama - he started saying it about a month ago - and he says all of his siblings names - although nobody but us would be able to understand him.

 

We have 7 dc - the oldest dd started talking at 6 months, the 2nd dd at about 2 1/2 years (and I mean not mama or dadda or anything) - and the rest have been somewhere in between. I tend not to worry about it - they all are very articulate now with no speech problems - sometimes I wish they would go back to the no talking stage :D

 

The only problem I have had with the late talkers is that they tend to get frustrated when they get old enough to have more complex thought processes and can't verbalize them. Those children seemed to have more temper tantrums than the others.

 

HTH, and as with everything, if you are really concerned, it doesn't hurt to ask your pediatrician...

[Rosie_0801]

He's further ahead than my dd was at that age. She's 3 1/4 and has only started using two word sentences in the past few months, and her first word for meaning was fairly early, at 7 1/2 months. Her receptive skills are fine, so I haven't worried because it seems to be an attitude with her. She tells me to shh if I talk too much. She just doesn't seem to put the same value on language as a communication tool as everyone else does. She actually learns vocabulary better from the telly than from me, so dh and I are in the process of making more Auslan/English resources. She also learns by repeating dialogue from repeated viewings of videos. I don't think she is supposed to learn that way, but there's not much point telling her that.

 

Does he do something else instead? Dd took a whole year off language acquisition to focus on climbing. She's very good at that. :glare:

 

Rosie

[HollyB]

For many kids, that age can be completely normal, but since you are already wondering, it wouldn't hurt to ask your pediatrician for an evaluation. My SIL worried about her son's speech for a long time, but the doctor said it was normal, so she waited. It turns out he had some developmetal delays that were resolved with a couple of years of therapy. Less therapy would have been needed if they had started it sooner.

 

It could just be in relation to his allergies, so I wouldn't worry too much about it, but you could ask at his next appointment.

[KerriF]

Well I have a 21 month old girl and she doesn't talk much at all. She does "communicate" with us but it's through grunts or pointing etc. Right now she says: yes, Dad, (no mom yet!), bye bye, and then there is some word she says for Blues Clues.

 

I hope that we shouldn't be worried yet :)

 

Sorry I'm not much help but thought I'd let you know you aren't alone.

[Kim in Appalachia]

we had a few people (many were doctors) tell us they thought something could be wrong with our son because of his lack of speech. He could talk, but he did not talk often or even make good sentences. He also seemed to have trouble following directions. We let it go for awhile, but by the time he was 3 we become concerned. He could hear us but couldn't seem to process it correctly. So, we took and had him evaluated, which was no small thing. We live in a rural area where there are no speech therapists. We had to travel, and our insurance does not cover those types of expenses at all. The speech therapists spent over an hour (almost 2 I think!) with my son. She played with him, talked to him, and watched him play on the computer. At the end she said he was fine! He was within the range of normal for a 3 year old boy. She laughed (gently) when I told her about the docs concerns (all of whom were our friends). she knew about the practice my dh works at, and even knew most of the docs. She said they needed more experience with little boys. :001_smile: She was very sweet and didn't even charge us for the evaluation.

 

Anyway, my son is now 10 (11 soon!) His speech is fine. He does tend to score low on his verbal skills, high on math and analytical. He still has problems following directions, you can not give him more than 1 at a time. :D

 

If you continue to have concerns for your son you could have him evaluated. You know your child best, and if at any point you think something is not right, do get him tested. But I would probably wait. You know his hearing is fine, and he is understanding you. Speech will come.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Starr]

I read somewhere that they particularly worry when a child's verbal skills regress. It sounds (he, he) like your little one is happy with sign language. But it never hurts to get it checked out.

[Lovedtodeath]

My son is just now not worrying me. He was 3 in April. I thought of him as a full year behind my daughter when he was that age, but he is fine now.

[rootsnwings]

no worries, at all! Neither of my two boys started saying real words before 29 months. We're about to have ds3 evaluated for speech therapy, but its because of articulation difficulty, nothing else. So long as he's COMMUNICATING with you at 22mos (and yes, grunts, points, etc count!) then he is right on track!

[OlgaLA]

I wouldn't worry yet. Although when my son was 24 months and barely saying a couple of words I did. However, at 25 months he started talking, and at 27 months he was talking in long sentences. Your son may just not see a need in talking, especially since he is signing.

[Crimson Wife]

By 2 years, the normal milestone is at least 50 words and 50% intelligibility. If his receptive vocabulary (what he understands) is good, there's less of a concern.

 

I would recommend calling Early Intervention. The assessment is free and if they agree he would benefit from treatment there's usually a sliding scale.

[PinkTulip]

My then-26-month-old was very much like your son. He clearly understood everything we were saying, pointed, and grunted, and did a few signs. We were starting to worry about him, and actually had scheduled an appointment for him to meet with the pediatrician, and also with his older brother's speech pathologist. Then, one night during the summer, we were having lime-ade for dinner, and my son comes up to me and says, "More . . . lime . . . juice . . . please . . . mom?" His first words were a five-word sentence! He is now 9, has tested to be profoundly gifted, and is doing great.

 

My advice is this: trust your gut and get him checked, but don't stress too much that this is a sign of problems ahead. He may just be taking everything in, and processing everything in his mind.

 

Good luck!

[silver]

He sounds exactly like my son was at 22-months. We got him assessed and they said that he was fine. By 27-months, he was making two word sentences.

 

The main reasons they gave for saying he was fine are things that you said your son has/does--good receptive language (can follow directions) and tries to imitate sounds.

 

I don't know if this is the case with your son, but my son had a lot of "sound effects" in his vocabulary (animal noises, car noises, etc) and very few words at that age. The lady that assessed him says that sound effects count as words when you are counting vocabulary size.

[Mandamom]

My 19 year old was similar and so I went through Early intervention through the public schools and he's been in speech for almost 4 years. He has come a long way -- problem is that he still has a long way to go. My son is VERY bright but there is a lot of learning disabilities in his genetics (his father, several grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). His receptive language is advanced also. He is now 4.5 years old.

 

My daughter, now 8, who went through speech at 19 months because she was delayed grew out of her speech delays by 3 years old and 5 months later she was reading on a 2nd grade level. You can't tell now that she was in speech.

 

Looking back, I have no idea what the language differences between them where one grew out of speech delays and the other one didn't. They both had the same speech teacher through Infants and Toddlers. At 19 months they both acted like your son, pointing, grunting and getting frustrated. By 3 one had grown out of her delays, while the other did not.

 

My son has just started private speech (expensive) and absolutely loves it. He is also in the public school speech program also and enjoys that also. He still gets very frustrated that he can't be underrstood so we're hoping that between the public and private speech he'll make some headway this year. I really wish we had started private speech sooner.

 

I'm not sure that helped any but that has been my experience.

[Pamela H in Texas]

He sounds fine to me and I have a lot of toddler experience. But his receptive language sounds great. His understanding is good. His signing is a good sign. He is speaking several words though some of them sounds similar. You didn't mention "mama" and "daddy" so I'm assuming he's also saying that.

 

He'll probably take off about 25 or 27 months.

 

If you're worried, do the screening, but I think you'll find that he's fine for now. I'd wait til 28 months if he doesn't have at least a mini explosion.

[In The Great White North]

Dd, around 2 1/2, was barely talking, when her brother started kindergarten. As soon as we dropped him off and drove away, she started a non-stop conversation from the back seat! Turns out he had been shushing her every time she started to say something and we had never noticed.

 

So, sibling dynamics may have something to do with it also. Just one more thing to watch.

[Niffercoo]

I would get an evaluation, including a complete hearing test at an ENT's office (not a screening at a ped's office). There could be hearing loss due to the allergies, even if he hasn't had ear infections.

 

My daughter didn't speak, and I got lots of advice to wait it out and lots of stories of so-and-so's child who didn't speak until he/she was 4. Well, it turns out that my daughter had 25% hearing loss in both ears, despite only ever having one ear infection in her life. We only took her in for a hearing test at the request of the speech therapist as a way to 'rule out' hearing loss and instead we ruled it in. She had ear tubes placed, and started speaking quickly. However, she has had some long-term speech impediments resulting from the time when her hearing wasn't good which are just now starting to resolve 5 years later.

 

We don't believe the speech delay was related to the autism, but was related to the hearing loss that was caused by poor ear drainage from the shape of her inner ear. I wish I had taken her in when she was 18 months -2 years old when I was first starting to question it. The "worst" they can do is tell you everything is fine.

[cin]

Our dd didn't talk until she was past 3. Our pediatrician gave us a referral for speech eval. but we didn't follow through. Hindsight, I wished we had. Now, at 9 yrs old, we finally have a diagnosis of PDD-NOD.

[OrganicAnn]

It sounds like receptive language and expressive language is good. The only thing I would worry about is if there is some physical issue. Definitely talk to your pediatrician if you feel that you need to.

[TKDmom]

I haven't read the other posts yet, but maybe he's just a perfectionist? Little kids don't speak too clearly, and maybe he doesn't want to say words until he can say them well. Just an idea.

[Dobela]

I always believe that it is better to be assessed and get assistance early than it is to wait. That being said, my son at 2 wasn't talking much and didn't seem interested. I went thru speech language testing and hearing testing and he was fine - and about 2 weeks after all that he finally exploded language wise. My dd3 OTOH talks nonstop, has a big vocabulary, can be understood by most, and still she qualified when evaluated earlier this summer. Honestly I didn't expect it.

 

There are some developmental milestones you can watch for. Insteadof copying them here I am just posting links. I hope they help.

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_development.shtml

 

http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/devel2.htm

 

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart.htm

[x02100sks]

The standard response I've always received was that unless they were WAY behind on milestones, 2 years old was the typical early speech intervention age.

My now 3 y/o (39 mo) twin DDs received a referral from our doctor (at our request) at 28 months (would have been sooner, but we moved right after they turned 3), all other milestones were fine, just really refused to talk- much like what HomeOnTheRanch mentioned. They were both happy to grunt, fuss, point, etc to get what they want.

Since our insurance covered speech services (about 10 minutes away for us) the girls have been in speech for the last 10 months. I don't think they will qualify to continue when the authorization runs out- they are talking a lot, but I'm not thrilled with their clarity.

We hand them tested with the school system (special services start at 3 via school) and the speech teacher decided that they qualify for speech, so they go to speech at the school once a week.

Now might not be the time to worry, but it is the perfect time to start receiving services if you are concerned.

[parias1126]

He sounds fine to me. My youngest who will be 4 in January has been in speech therapy for over a year. He started at the age of 23 months. He wasn't saying anything at that point though. He would only grunt and he didn't understand a lot of what we said to him either. He is doing much better now, but starts speech therapy again in 2 weeks. He is talking great now, but a year ago I was really worried (especially about his hearing). If you really are worried though, contact Early Intervention. We receive therapy through the public school district.

[Mom in High Heels]

Indy preferred to sign than talk for a long time. He could talk (meaning he knew words), he just didn't use them. One night when he was about 2.5, we put him to bed and the next morning he woke up using complete sentences and hasn't shut up since. Seriously. The child talks all the time. ALL.THE.TIME. Even in his sleep. It can be exhausting. Sometimes I miss the days when he didn't talk. :lol:

[mommaduck]

Some children wait until THEY are ready. In the mean time they are perfecting it in their heads. Susana Wesley had a child that they believed could not speak. At five he just started spurting out intelligent, complete sentences.

 

I started baby-signing with my oldest daughter. We thought she had a hearing/speech issue. As soon as we started signing, all frustrations for her went away, we understood her, and her words started coming with her signs.

[Sandra in FL]

When I hear the words "extensive allergies," I would be concerned. If you are missing/not eliminating just one allergen, he might be having congestion/fluid in the ear, etc. If you've eliminated all the allergens, he shouldn't need Benadryl every night.

 

My ds had fluid in his ear from allergies, was diagnosed with apraxia (didn't speak/babble until after 3). After years of expensive ST, he's fine now, but there was a time that I thought he would never speak.

 

If you've had his hearing tested (not just you know he hears you if you speak across the room) and he's okay, then give it a little more time. If not, I'd get him tested and in speech therapy asap. The Early Intervention Program only pays up to age 3. After that it's group therapy at the local public school (which is not enough). Mom's instinct is usually right. If you're concerned, take action.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Sandra in FL

[Carrie12345]

 

There is already enough noise in this house, and I'm not too anxious to add more, BUT should I be concerned? Perhaps he is just a budding Einstein.

 

At 22 months, I'd keep an eye on it and consider making an appointment for an evaluation simply because the wait lists tend to be SO long. You can always cancel it between now and then.

 

I had similar concerns with #4, especially because I do have a son with ASD. His language did start to explode right after his 2nd birthday. At 3, I can't shut him up, and he actually has a rather *impressive vocabulary!

 

So I wouldn't really worry, but I would continue to observe and to put an action plan in place, just in case.

[Paintedlady]

He sounds fine. With everything you described, I wouldn't be concerned at all. My 9 year old son didn't say a word, only babbled, until he was 23 months old, and has talked non-stop ever since. He's a very bright kid too. No worries.

[ElizabethB]

You could try having him watch Leapfrog's Talking letter factory.

 

My son watched it at that age, and it really improved his speech and vocabulary. My daughter watched it around the same age, but she was already speaking well and clearly, so we didn't notice a difference.

 

Have him watch it daily for a month.

[Rivka]

I think at 22 months I would be a little concerned but not totally freaked out. But I agree with the suggestion to go ahead and get him signed up for an EI assessment.

 

It doesn't seem like there's a downside to having him evaluated - either they'll tell you he's fine and you can go on your merry way, or they'll tell you he needs services, in which case the earlier you start the better.

[unsinkable]

All 3 of my kids were late-ish talkers. All 3 had ear infections & reduced hearing. My 1st DS didn't have a normal ear exam from 3 months to over 3 years old. All 3 had early intervention speech therapy.

 

The funny thing is... they all started talking a bit after their 3rd birthdays. When I told one of my aunts this, she told me I had been a very late talker...well over 3 yo and then started talking in complete sentences one day.

 

I'd get him checked out for peace of mind. But his timetable might be his timetable.

[H.S. Burrow]

I'm not really concerned about my 22mo son yet, although complete strangers are beginning to raise their eyebrows and give unsolicited advice about his lack of verbal vocabulary. He started talking at about 10 months. Hot (around oven, woodstove, etc.) was about the extent of his consistent vocabulary. He also says "up" (for up or down), "ock" for sock, block (duplo), etc.

 

He grunts and points, and usually one of us figures out what he wants pretty easily. He signs all the words 10yo has bothered to teach him (please, thank you, milk, water, eat, book, airplane, medicine, help, all gone, more, shoes, etc.) and makes 2-3 word sentences out of them. All the info on the net I could find says that grunting and pointing is fine, but screaming and grabbing is not. He is definitely a grunter and pointer.

 

His hearing is fine. We are sure of that. He follows instructions quite well, even when his back is turned or he is across the room. He is completely normal in his crawling, walking, running, playing, and interaction with others.

 

He does have extensive allergies (mostly food) that we deal with by special diet and a nightly dose of Benedryl. He has not had any immunizations except for tetanus due to his allergies.

 

He will copy sounds. The other day we were talking about sonic booms and 10yo made the noise. 22mo copied it exactly. I was stunned. He makes all the appropriate motor noises for toy cars and planes. He makes a few animal noises (moo, quack, baaa).

 

He loves to "sing." As soon as he could scoot and crawl, he would spend as much time as possible under the piano bench listening to 16yo practice. His current favorite song is "Deep and Wide" with all the hand motions. Last week I saw him playing by himself doing the motions and I am sure I heard him sing "Eep and Ide" although nobody else was around to verify.

 

There is already enough noise in this house, and I'm not too anxious to add more, BUT should I be concerned? Perhaps he is just a budding Einstein.

 

 

I've read all the replies, and I have a bit of different advice....not alarming, just different. :)

 

My son was as you describe. This continued until he was 3 and I insisted on an evaluation. He ALWAYS followed instructions and we had no worries about anything else other than what seemed to be a speech delay. When he was 18 months I had to go back to work, so we thought it was because of the day care giving him a pacifier. We thought that his speech would improve as he aged.

 

They put him into speech therapy 3 days a week. This continued until he was 6 years old. One day I was walking him home from school and was alarmed when he didn't hear the car at the intersection. He had ALWAYS passed all hearing tests, so I thought his hearing was fine! I made an appointment at an ENT for a hearing test. When I voiced my concern to the doctor (that he'd been in speech therapy for 3 years with only a little progress and not being able to hear the car), the doctor ordered a hearing test. This hearing test was different from the "raise your right/left hand when you hear the beep" hearing test. The tester said a word and my son was to repeat the word. He missed over half. :001_huh:

 

They did further testing and he had a vacuum behind one of his eardrums; this caused it to not vibrate. He had very little hearing ability at the high & low frequencies.

 

To correct this, a tube was placed in his ear. The day I took him for his 1 week check-up, he starting panicking in the car wanting to know what that sound was......it was the school bus in the next lane....that he'd never been able to hear until then.

 

The doctor told me that his intelligence and observation skills allowed him to compensate for the hearing loss. The only evidence of it was his speech delays. We never noticed it at home because we were usually within a few feet of him when speaking or he was far enough away that we had to really raise our voice for him to hear us...so no "alarm bells" going off that he couldn't hear us. I didn't know enough to ask for more specialized testing when they tested him annually at school.

 

I am sharing this with you NOT to alarm you, but so that should you feel testing is necessary, you have information that I did not have. If we had had any idea that my son had a hearing problem, it could have been corrected at an earlier age and he would not have had to endure 4 years of speech therapy. Once the tube was in place, he was only in speech for another 3 months.

 

So, while chances are good that there is no problem, you can always ask your doctor for a hearing test from an ENT should you feel the need.