Speech concerns w 2yo

[Ritsumei]

So, I recognize I may be worrying over nothing, or seeing asynchronous development, but my gut says there's something gong on w/ my 2yo's speech. He's clearly very bright like his big brother. I actually think he's pretty close to figuring out cvc blends, even though he's only barely 2. He understands a ton of what we say to him, and he tries to tell us a lot of stuff, but we miss a lot of what he says because he's short a mess of consonants in his speech. V, C, S, F, T... I don't even remember them all. So, does anyone know enough to tell me how normal this is? Or even get to the point where I could frame a question for my pediatrician? I have talked to a few people about it, and the consensus is that he's 2 and it's no problem. But I can't shake the feeling that there may be something going on. I wish I knew some speech games to play with him.

 

What says the Hive?

[dbmamaz]

somewhere i've seen a chart of when children master certain speech sounds on average - i was worried about my son still having some trouble at 6, and on that chart, the sounds he was struggling with were still within the normal range of having not mastered. if that makes sense. anyways, i'd look for that chart.

 

its generally a physical development, though - thats why they say a lot of kids can sign earlier than they can speak, because their parents can help form their hands to help them learn signs, but you cant do that with their mouth!

[2smartones]

Here's a chart that shows normal language development (including consonant, vowel, and blend sounds) through early elementary. For now, I wouldn't worry a whole lot. Those are sounds that should be mastered by age 6-7, not 2. http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/language_development.shtml

[Ritsumei]

Here's a chart that shows normal language development (including consonant, vowel, and blend sounds) through early elementary. For now, I wouldn't worry a whole lot. Those are sounds that should be mastered by age 6-7, not 2. http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/language_development.shtml

 

Thank you for that chart! All I really had to go on was that he's not as clear as I remember Hero being at the same age. I don't know enough about speech to really even know what the search terms that find good charts like that one. The charts I was able to find were much less helpful. :001_smile:

[MomatHWTK]

I think it's hard to tell when the child is clever in other areas. When the receptive language is very high, the parent is looking for matching expressive langauge and the child is frustrated by the lack of it.

 

I know our little guy understands way more than he can say. He is 2.5 so at our last well-check our ped. offered us a referal to a speech therapist. We aren't going to go yet because I see him making progress. It is just important (IMO) to be mindful that the receptive is there so the child needs outlets for the expressive.

 

ETA: For speech games, just make funny sound effects using the sounds you'd like him to develop. Also, exaggerate your facial movements for the sound. In general, offer various methods of muscle movement. With my oldest, I gave him straws and different types of sippy cups to drink with so he used different muscles and we played blowing games with bubbles and pinwheels.

Edited August 18, 2012 by MomatHWTK

[boscopup]

None of my kids even talked before 2. The one that had speech problems talked at 3 (he had ear infections and got tubes at age 2).

 

If in doubt though, you can have your local school do an evaluation. My son started speech therapy at age 4, and I wish I'd gone at age 3, since I thought there was a problem. My ped at the time said to wait until he was school aged to worry about it! Most SLPs prefer to get kids EARLIER, before bad habits set in. I'm glad I went before school age. :tongue_smilie: DS2 has good articulation now. He still has some issues and is still in speech therapy again this year (took a break over the summer), but I suspect he'll "graduate" from therapy this year.

 

Basically, if your mommy gut thinks there is a problem, get him evaluated. They'll say whether it's normal or not. Two year olds really can be all over the map, so it may be normal, but if it's not, it's good to get a head start on fixing the problem. I know our lives were MUCH better when we could finally understand my son!!! It caused a huge reduction in meltdowns. :D

[Uff Da!]

nm

[Storm Bay]

It all sounds normal, I think. My 3 kids all talked at different ages, & my gifted cousins (in two particular families, one on each side of my family) spoke late. We have both very early talkers & late talkers in my family, as well as more average, even though the kids are all gifted. My ds needed minor speech therapy, but I was able to do it myself with a few tips from a speech therapist I know. It turns out that dh needed some help, too, but didn't think to mention it until the past year or so.

[LittleIzumi]

You can get a free evaluation through Early Intervention, if you want to make sure. My dd is a bit delayed in articulation but never quite enough to need speech therapy (as evaluated by EI).

[2smartones]

As someone else touched on, if you think there's an issue with speech, the first things you need to test are the ears. Go to a pediatric ENT for a thourough test, not to the regular ped for a screening or quick otoscopic peek.

[Embassy]

It depends on many factors. Some things that kids do to simplify speech (i.e. using w instead of r) are a normal part of development and other times they aren't (i.e. leaving off the first sound in a word). Also, a child missing one or two sounds that are age-appropriate errors is quite different from a child with 8-10 sounds that are age-appropriate errors.

 

In general by age 2 they should be about 50% understandable to strangers. By age 3 a child should be about 80% understandable to strangers. If he has trouble being understood at those levels I would get an evaluation through Early Intervention. Progress is quicker when you start getting help at a younger age.

 

The chart referenced at the link above is quite a bit off when it comes to speech sounds. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association's chart relates speech sound development more accurately: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/23.htm

 

Former SLP

[Tracy]

I would encourage you to go with your gut. I had concerns when my ds was 18mo, but my pediatrician told me that I should wait until he was 2yo. Specifically, I was concerned that he never babbled as you would expect a baby to do and that he seemed to have an unusual aversion to spoken speech and singing. After getting him into speech therapy, my speech therapist assured me that there are lots that could have been done at 18mo to help him along. Once my son started speech therapy, he made very fast strides and no longer needed speech therapy at 3.5yo. That same therapist is now working with my friend's son, who is 18mo, and they are seeing great strides. An evaluation through your state's Early Intervention program is free, so take advantage of it. You will likely need a pediatrician referral, so if your ped is not willing to give it, then find one that is.

 

All that said, there are only a very few sounds that you would expect a 2yo to be able to make. It is possible that your dc can compose speech in his head that he is not developmentally capable of producing yet. From your list, those are among the sounds that he would not be expected to make yet. Nevertheless, intelligibility is a very large factor in determining eligibility for speech therapy. My ds could make all the sounds in isolation, but he had trouble putting them together into words and sentences, so his eligibility was determined largely on the basis of intelligibility.

 

Go with your gut.

[boscopup]

In my state, anyone can refer to Early Intervention, including parents, grandparents, etc. No ped referral necessary.

 

I just called up my local department of education, but I think before age 3 you call the Child Find number. See if your state has something similar.

[kohlby]

At 2, they want people to be able to understand 50% of what the child says. Use that chart linked to see at what age the mastery of different sounds should happen. At 2, most kids don't have perfect speech. That being said, I'd also focus on change. Focus on how his speech is improving. I looked at it in 3 month time periods. ODS's pronounciation was horrid, but his vocab exploded right before 2 years old. And continued to increase faster than the norm. His sentence structure became more complex. And his communication as a whole increased. But pronounciation was still lacking. Right around his 3rd b-day, pronounciation stopped improving. I got him evaluated at 3.5 and he tested as a "severe articulation delay." I knew he had an articulation delay, but was shocked that it was severe. I wish I had paid closer attention to articulation on its own, but no one else was concerned due to his progress in other areas.

 

My second child's vocab and sentence structure were always ahead. I wasn't so sure about her pronounciation. It was MUCH better than my oldest's but still seemed behind. I debated getting her tested sicne I didn't know if it really was an issue. I asked my oldest's speech therapist who said she had some interesting substitutions and I should get her tested. To even more shock, she also tested at severe articulation delay.

 

Then there's my youngest. It's very, very rare for them to care about articuation at a young age. He started speech therapy at 20 months due to articulation. He could only make the sounds "b", "d", and a couple of vowels. He couldn't even make the "m" sound which is one of the most basic sounds that most kids can do around 12 months. With him, it was obvious that he had an articulatin delay quite young.

 

At under 3, you need to contact EI. At 3, or almost 3, I'd contact your school district. Here, they start the testing at 2 years 10 months since the ST through the public schools can start the day they turn 3. (And the day they turn 3, they no longer qualify for EI). EI is not set up the same in every state. Here, my youngest qualified for EI but he didn't actually need it. But by signing up for EI, the EI coordinator helped him get a speech evaluation and got him ST. The speech therapist was paid for by the state's EI program, but she was more like an independant contractor, and not an EI worker. After 6 months, I dropped EI since he didn't need it but kept the ST on. When he turned 3, he then had to go through the school system's testing to get ST through it.

 

*About needing a ped referral, anyone can go to EI. However, they needed the ped "prescription" written in order to get paid for it. So I set up the EI appt and then they asked who the ped was. Then contacted the ped and had the ped send that over. There was a way around it if the ped had refused but that was the easiest route. In both my oldest and middle child, my ped was not concerned about speech - until the next appt when my child was already in ST. (So, didn't have any concerns at 3 years old but did at 4). The speech therapists we've used say that's common - that peds tend not to catch it until later.

Edited August 19, 2012 by kohlby

[Kathy in Richmond]

So, I recognize I may be worrying over nothing, or seeing asynchronous development, but my gut says there's something gong on w/ my 2yo's speech. He's clearly very bright like his big brother. I actually think he's pretty close to figuring out cvc blends, even though he's only barely 2. He understands a ton of what we say to him, and he tries to tell us a lot of stuff, but we miss a lot of what he says because he's short a mess of consonants in his speech. V, C, S, F, T... I don't even remember them all. So, does anyone know enough to tell me how normal this is? Or even get to the point where I could frame a question for my pediatrician? I have talked to a few people about it, and the consensus is that he's 2 and it's no problem. But I can't shake the feeling that there may be something going on. I wish I knew some speech games to play with him.

 

What says the Hive?

 

At two, my daughter was also missing many consonant sounds. Her receptive language was fine, and she was obviously bright, but she just couldn't make herself understood. I was worried, and that worry nagged me until I finally brought her in for a speech evaluation just before her third birthday. We used the speech therapist at our local elementary school.

 

I'm glad that I didn't wait any longer, since she really did have articulation problems that needed attention. The therapist met with her weekly & gave me lots of games and ideas to use with her at home, too.

[serendipitous journey]

... if you are concerned, and can have it looked it, I would recommend that you have the child evaluated; the Early Intervention advice you've gotten seems good. You'd hate to miss something; and the earlier the therapy, the better.

[Nart]

As someone else touched on, if you think there's an issue with speech, the first things you need to test are the ears. Go to a pediatric ENT for a thourough test, not to the regular ped for a screening or quick otoscopic peek.

 

:iagree: The first thing I would do would be to make sure that your child's ears are clear with no fluid. I knew something was off with my oldest child's speech but everyone kept reassuring me that boys talk later, kids develop at their own rate, you are exposing him to two languages, etc. When he was just over 2 3/4 I informally tested his verbal and nonverbal intelligence (I am a school psychologist). The testing isn't really valid when you are testing your own child and two year olds are really hard to test, but when I scored it and found over a 40 point discrepancy between his verbal and nonverbal IQ, I knew something was wrong. We paid privately for a speech evaluation because he was about to age out of early intervention (you age out when you turn 3), and he was too young to get tested by the school district. He was behind in his speech (articulation) and language and the speech therapist recommended he get a hearing test. We really thought he heard well because he could hear fire sirens from far away but now looking back at video we have I realize he really didn't look when someone was talking. We went to a pediatric audiologist and found out he had a mild to moderate hearing loss due to fluid in his ears. He never complained of ear pain and that we knew of never had ear infections. He just had persistent thick, sticky fluid that never drained. He got ear tubes and his speech and language exploded. I regret waiting so long because I first felt something was wrong by the time he was 15 months old.

[Storm Bay]

If it's hearing related, the sooner you get treatment, the better.

 

The chart referenced at the link above is quite a bit off when it comes to speech sounds. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association's chart relates speech sound development more accurately: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/23.htm

 

Former SLP

 

This is a great resource.