Talking & a 19MO **Updated 3/13/14**

Background: My boys are 4 and were early/constant talkers. They still talk all.the.time. They inherited it from me.  :FIFblush:
 
My singleton is 19 months old, was born at 40 weeks exactly and is not a talker. She has really 1 spoken word- "MAMA!" and a couple of signs- More, sometimes All Done and she'll also shake her head yes and no.
 
She does not seem interested in attempting to speak. I can't get her to say Dada or anything else, just Mama which she uses for everything from "Look at this!" to "I'm hurt" to "I've locked myself in my room. Help!"
 
She has really good receptive speech. IE she understands and follows spoken directions really well. She also points to things and makes sounds and babbles kind of the way the kid in "Knuffle Bunny" does, if you've read that. But there is no attempt at repeating a word if you ask nor does there seem to be any new words.
 
DH & I have been trying not to worry but worry is starting to creep in.
 
According to her 18mo well check she is on the low end of normal- anybody have kids in this position? Should I have her tested by Early Intervention? Her next appointment is at 2 but if there is a problem I don't want to wait.

 

If it were me, I'd have her evaluated. There is nothing wrong with sending out a team to evaluate her. And if nothing is going on, they will give you ideas to help her along.

My boys had wonderful receptive language. They understood everything I said. No issues there. But they couldn't verbalize it. So...in came EI. I, of course, thought my boys were geniuses. Hahaha! But they tested at a 7/8 MONTH old level.

Long story short, they qualified, they got services, and within sox months, they tested out. They just needed someone to come out and get it out of them.

One session was like this: elissa(their therapist) would have a book(just pictures), and would read the book to them. And ask what the object was. She would say ball. And wait for them to say ball. Now-any sound that came from their mouth...constituted the word she was looking for.

Another time she came...she would have the book and read the word again. But this time, they HAD to give the b sound. Or she wouldn't turn the page. Until "b" came out!

So all that dribble to say-make a phone call. And you're better off being proactive.

 

I think we had the boys tested around that age for the same reason. The speech lady wasn't concerned, but gave us some really good suggestions for encouraging speech. When they finally started to catch up they really caught up.. went from virtually no words to full sentences in no time. It doesn't hurt to have an evaluation done and just see what is going on.
 
Some of the exercises we tried were like Meg mentioned; withholding items until they at least make a sound and then getting progressive about the "right" sounds. If they pointed at an item, we'd hand it to them, but hold it back for a second until they made a sound. Other things were ongoing chatter (sounds like your boys have that one covered ), and just generally frustrating them a bit into making more communication attempts.

 

My kids were 2 and they were not talking too much - maybe ball, water, mama, daddy and book- but they understood everything. We are raising them bilingual and I knew that would delay them, plus although I am really talkative I didn't say a word until I turned 2. We kept reading to them in both English and Romanian and doing what Jen and Meg suggested. Now at 3 they speak both languages and they don't confuse them, and they know who speaks what. They also took the eye test with letters at their 3 year old appointment. You keep talking to her and read to her, and she will start talking. Maybe she feels she's not as good as the boys so she is holding it in until she's ready to speak clearly and take over ?
 
Of course, it doesn't hurt to call Early Intervention.

 

My son will be 2 in three weeks and says about 5 words.  Mama, bubble, kitty, uh-oh, wa-wa for water, & yah.  That's it.   He has his 2 year check up next month and I'm starting to worry.  Honestly though, I worry more that they are going to push him into speech therapy or label him when it could just be he's not ready to talk for whatever reason.  I do worry that he might have a hearing issue, although he does follow commands very well.  So I have no advice, but I'm going through the same thing!

 

Oh! Kate's response reminded me; the other benefit of speech therapy was that we also had the boys hearing tested so they could rule that out. Probably if her receptive language is good, it's not a concern, but you never know.
 
My boys are also in speech now because they had an evaluation and free program at their daycare. I wasn't too excited about it at first because I was also worried about labeling, but they have come a long way with some of their sounds after only a few sessions, so I think it's worth it.

 

I wouldn't worry. My kids had a huge range in when they started talking from complete sentences at 12 months and then 1 didn't talk until 3. For me as long as they understood what I was saying, communicated with me in other ways and wasn't frustrated by the lack of talking I didn't push them. The ones that talked later usually had an older sibling talking for them so they didn't feel the need to talk.

 

All 3 of my kids have been on the low end of normal - anywhere from 1-5 consistent words at 18 months. The girls are totally fine now at 5 and Emmett has just in the last couple of weeks had a language explosion.

I was on the verge of getting the girls tested a number of times but their comprehension was so good I kept feeling like the verbal was just around the corner so we never did get them tested. With Emmett I've been less worried as he seems to be following their pattern almost exactly. Like others have said though, it can't hurt to get her evaluated if you're worried.

 

If you are worried, have her evaluated.  It can't harm.  Both of mine only started to talk at 2 and now they don't stop.  My son had stuttering issues and I was so worried that I had him evaluated.  It was developmental, but it gave me peace of mind.

 

All three of mine were in speech.  They were slow to talk and say words but very high on receptive (they understood what we said).  I'd get her tested!  I looked at it as she was getting 1:1 attention.  I fully support early intervention!  Why should any kid start out at a deficit.

 

I would try not to worry.  My boys were early (2-3 word sentences at 18 months!) and Hannah barely spoke much at all at 18 months.  When she got closer to 2 I started to worry but then we noticed when she was trying to talk to us, it sounded like she was out of breath and would say a bunch of noise with a few real words thrown in.  THEN I realized that between the way the boys, DH and I talked amongst each other is what she was trying to mimick!!!!!  We slowed wayyyyyy down on our talking to her and got very repetetive with words we knew she should/would be able to say  By a little after 2 she was talking in sentences and even now at 3 she is still behind where the boys were but she talks in complete sentences and everyone can understand her

 

Thanks everybody.
 
It helps to see that some kids utilized EI; some just exploded on their own but it's a typical thing.
 
I think we'll give her through the holidays to start trying to copy sounds/words. If at that point she's no different then I'll give EI a call. She'd be a couple months shy of 2 at that point. 

 

And she's got a new word.

BOO.

I was kind of hoping for an useful word but its a word. ardon:

 

I wouldn't worry either. My kids didn't talk much at that age either. I was worried sick. But now, they talk talk talk talk all day long!!!

Also, it depends on her personality as well. My boy loves talking. He talks, laughs, sings all the time. But my girl doesn't. She only talks when she has to. But when she plays with twin bro, then she talks alot 2. Lol. And they will talk, when they feel the need.

But if you worry, it wouldn't hurt to call EI.

 

In the last couple of weeks she's added a few more new words and tries a bunch more. My mind is much more at ease.

Thanks everybody!

 

So she's still not talking/keeping up the pace to where I would think she should be. Her birthday was Tuesday (yay!) and I called EI last month.
 
This morning she had an evaluation and she does have a delay.
 
Her expressive speech is around that of a 15mo; her receptive is around 18m. She qualifies for in home speech therapy as her expressive delay is 33% and receptive is 25%.
 
I'm kind of glad I waited to get her evaluated as she had to be at least 25% behind to qualify and I'm not sure even last month she would have with receptive speech.
 
I'm trying to be positive and think of things we can do to our lifestyle to facilitate speech (with the guidance of the speech therapist of course), but it's been a tough day.  On the one hand I'd been feeling like she was a bit off and it's validating that I'm not crazy but then again It's hard the first time your baby is not well/doing things as they should.

 

I completely understand how you feel; my boys tested well behind too, and even when they had their evaluation with their current therapist they were lower than I though they were. However, the speech therapists do wonders, and you've already done some excellent momming by getting her what she needs to catch up.

 

Michelle, I know it's hard when your little one is not where they should be or they struggle with some issue (both my kids see a speech therapist at school for articulation)  but you are getting her the help she needs and the speech therapist will have her where she needs to be.  :hug:  And let us know how she progresses!

 

My 2 year old son has been in speech therapy since mid-November.  His evaluation had him at about the 9-12 month range for speech at 2 years old.  But the therapy is doing wonders, his speech has just exploded the past few months.  The "therapy" is really just games, his therapist just gets on the floor and plays with him, she just really enunciate different words and sounds with what they are doing.  She also does flashcards with him and gave us a set to practice at home.    I think you'll notice an improvement very quickly.

 

I know how it feels when you feel they should 'be there,' but they are not.  I worked harder with my youngest hoping that perhaps I was just not 'talking' to my twins enough and that was why they had to be in speech.  Evan had to get speech as well.  Did I do my best?  Yes.  You are too!  I cannot help but like how much extra 1:1 attention they got because of it.  Glad you had the evaluation!  At least you know.

 

I wanted to update this: as of today Annabelle is discharged from Early Intervention. She speaks her mind, yells, tells me no, asks me why- all of it. Sometimes it's a little annoying but mostly I'm just incredibly grateful that the delay is gone and she is able to express herself.
 
Thank you all for your support.

 

That's great news! Way to go Annabelle.

 

Great news!  Good job Annabelle :yahoo: