28 Month Old Speech Delayed?

What your son is doing is called echolalia. It's not a speech issue, but can be a sign of a developmental issue. (but not always! don't freak out!) He's probably fine and just learning the art of conversation slowly, but there's no harm in asking your pedi for a referral for an evaluation. And in the meantime, you can play some simple games with him to teach the meaning of where, why, when.

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My son is 3 1/2 and has been evaluated twice-- both times it was decided he's at the lower end of normal. Remember that normal is ALWAYS a RANGE on a bell curve. It sounds like your son is ahead of where my son was at that age. But it would not hurt anything to call your school district and have the early intervention people evaluate him. It's free, it's fun for the kid and more information never hurts!

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It sounds like he knows what where means but doesn't know, what, do, or other questioning words. It also sounds like he doesn't actually understand the proper format of a question. If that is the case it is not an issue of understanding but an issue of never being taught.

Like maybe you played where is mommy, where is your hand but skipped the what do you want to play now, should we play......

Like when you point to a picture he is seeing you point so is saying what you are pointing to but not understanding the word what.

This is kinda the drawback to some of those teach your baby to talk at six months programs. They understand the process but not the actual words. Sorta like you show the picture of grapes and they say grapes but you show them actual grapes and they are dumbstruck.

I would buy into the echolalia except he does know at least one questioning word. Add to that the way you taught him words and it seems like he was taught to repeat, not learn. I really hope I am right on this one.

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At this point he should be able to answer questions and not just echo back what you are saying, especiall\y since he has a large vocabulary. It is called parroting or echolalia and can be red flag for some developmental issues. Get him evuated for sure and the sooner the better. If there is something going on, the earlier you catch it, the better he will do.

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My 3.5 year old still does this. I keep going back and forth on whether to bring him fin or an eval. At 28 months old he sounds just like your son. Very large vocab, and would randomly answer questions and then other times just repeat back.

My son still does not answer the why or what questions at all. But if you ask where or when he does. Now he's not necessarily echoing back what I say, but he's fishing for the answer and often his answer makes no sense at all. I brought it up to his Pediatrician at his 3 yr check up, mainly because I just didn't see him on par with his fellow peers. She said to bring him back at 3.5 yrs and we can have him evaluated. In those 6 months he did improve horrendously, but I find his sentence structure just isn't as complex as others? If you can I'd go ahead and try to get him evaluated. As I'm typing this out I'm leaning towards doing the same with my son! Good Luck

definately not behind I would love for my 3 yr old to talk like that. relax. he is learning.