Anyone have experience with early speech intervention?

[lulubelle]

My 2 year old daughter just got assessed for speech delay today. Someone will come in a few weeks to start speech therapy. Have you had success with it? Is there a reason behind being delayed? I forgot to ask this question today. She is about 10 months behind for her age group. How long could it take her to catch up? Thanks

[Mandamom]

I'm on my second go round with early speech.

 

My now dd6 started speech around 18 months and at the time she was considered equivalent to a 8-10 month old (no babbling sounds whatsoever and zero words) and by the time she hit 26 months she was on track. When she hit 40 months she read her first book by herself from cover to cover to cover (Green Eggs and Ham) with no help. So, speech was just a speech delay and not a sign of any major cognitive abilities.

 

My ds who is 23 months has been in speech since around 20 months and he is very slowly growing in his ability to say sounds. He can recognize letters and is starting to count (with his fingers). He is more severely delayed than his sister and will age out of Infants and Toddlers in February and the only way they school will help him is if we send them to their preschool program. I have been happy with 2 of the 3 therapists that we have had through the schools. The one I didn't much care for was a really nice lady but she just didn't click with my son.

 

So, to answer your question it could just take a couple of months to catch up or could take years. As far as reasons, my dh was speech delayed so I suspect that it is genetic in our case. My mom has dyslexia which is why we are always on the look out for learning disabilities and late speech is one indictator of possible delays so we tend to be proactive in getting speech services.

[Happy Camper]

My DD was an early talker, but my DS was speech delayed. We went the early intervention route and had a speech therapist come once/week for about a year (from 1.5-2.5ish). (He was also very delayed in gross motor skills - still wasn't sitting up or rolling over at 12 months, so they addressed that first with him, and he was walking by 17 months). The therapists were wonderful and used a combination of sign language (which we had done some of with DD just for fun), books, and various types of play during which simple objects, shapes, colors, etc. were identified. DS loved it, and it took time, but I think it was certainly worth it for us. Granted, he might haved learned to talk on his own without help, but the fact that I had support, and felt like we were DOING something about it was a huge boost to me. We both used to get frustrated when he would point to something and grunt and I would try to guess what he was pointing at and repeatedly fail. It caused lots of tantrum-type episodes (his, although I'm sure I came close too!!) that I'm sure could have been alleviated if he had a way to communicate. The sign language was a great bridge until his words caught up. He was caught up before he turned 3, so we didn't have to go the preschool route. He is 5 1/5 now and won't STOP talking most of the time! So be encouraged!! As for cause, the therapist seemed to think he might have had a lapse in his ability to learn quickly (putting it in my own words) and she said it might show up again when he learns to read. He's doing great so far, other than mixing up his d's, b's and p's - but I think that's fairly common. As far as the motor skills were concerned, I think he was just too laid back to put effort in! That kind of fits his personality - although obviously that's just my opinion. I hope things work out well for you! :)

[Quad Shot Academy]

My oldest was almost totally mute at age 2. We did an hour of speech therapy a day for years. At 3 he could barely say 30 words. The speech therapist said he could really only say 5, but he made an effort for 25 more. By 3.5 he could say almost anything, but still needed therapy for articulation and stuttering. At 6, he was discharged from therapy. He won't stop talking now. Really some days I think he is going to drive me insane . . . :D His slow speech was certainly not related to low intelligence. HTH!