Talk to me about speech?

My twins are almost 22 months (33 weekers) and they seem to be behind in the speech department. They say quite a few words ball, dirty, paper, purple, puppy, baby, jojo (joshua), tutu, more, hi, grandma, grandpa, this, broom broom (car), nana (banana), apple and there's more but they are all unclear....ball is bahhh and more is moh apple is apah. They do a lot of grunting and screaming and pointing if they want things instead of trying to talk. At our playschool there are kids much younger talking real clear. Mine still aren't stringing two words.

They had an OT appintment since they are preemies at 18 months corrected and the OT wasn't concerned but I am cause I can't help but compare. So what are your experiences with speech? When did your toddlers start talking clearly and expressing wants. They seem to be bright and can follow all sorts of direction. When should I worry more? I tend to go through worrying phases when we're hitting milestones, just before they started walking I thought that they would never walk and perhaps had a mild form of cerebral palsy....so I'm a real worry wort nut.....I seriously can't help it.

 

Your twins sound like they are doing great!!! I wouldn't worry at all, I know easier said then done
My ds is in speech and it isn't how they say words but that they try to say words at this age. Also the pointing and then understanding what you say are very important at this age.
It's great that the OT isn't concerned, I think that a big plus! You could always talk to your ped as well. GL!

 

sounds like our twins.. and they are the same age! our speech is very unclear, but they are consistent with how they pronouce things and I understand... I was stressed over their lack of any words back at 15 months, but got over it quickly and they are really picking up more and more. I am amazed at what some of my friends say their kids say... I haven't really heard it personally, but I'm sure others develop sooner and some later. good luck not getting too hung up on it.

I did spend a whole day last month writing down the words each twin said... my ds had over 25 and my dd about 7! love that.. but they both follow commands and do simple instructions.

 

My twins at 2 years old knew maybe 4 words. It really sounds as if yours are right on track. You can certainly talk to their ped. about it at their 2 year appt., but I would guess that one day they are going to have an explosion of words!

 

I think it is good that your OT is not concerned and I would say that if your are concerned definitely keep track of what they are saying and address it with your pedi at their 2 year WBV. To me it sounds like they are doing good.

 

I agree with the PPs; it sounds like your LOs say a lot of words! I found this great site from a speech pathologist that talks about language acquisition, and it has all sort of charts that tell you at what average age kids pronounce certain sounds, etc. HERE is a neat chart that explains when particular pronunciation "errors" are gone in children. It says there that final consonants are often not pronounced until about 3 years old ("final consonant deletion" on the chart)! So it's totally normal that your twins would be saying "bah" for "ball" at this age.

HERE is another article from this site about intelligibility (to parents and strangers). So by 24 months, only 50-75% of all child speech is even understandable by parents!

I find all this very reassuring, because my guys say a lot of words, but they are very unclear. I often can't tell the difference between "ball", "bar", "book", "boat", etc. unless they sign it as well.

Hope this helps!