2-Year-old Not Speaking Enough?

You said he sometimes "signs" the word "more". Have you been teaching him sign language? I read that it's very good to do, but that sometimes children who learn signing learn talking a bit later because they don't NEED to. They can communicate and get their point across, so they don't need the actual spoken words, so they don't learn those as soon.
Apart from that, my nephew was 2 and a half and still couldn't say a single word. Now he's a motor mouth. He DOES go to speech therapy twice a week to work on pronunciation. And before he was doing that, the doctor said that it helps to phrase things differently. Like instead of saying "where is the clock?" and letting him point, they should rephrase that and point to the clock and say "what is that?" because then HE has to do the speaking. If you are reading a book with him, you can leave a word out and let him fill it in. Like "And then the dog grabbed the ....." and you point to the ball and let him say "ball". If he needs help, make the sound of the first letter. So "dog grabbed the.....b" so he has to finish it.

Hope that helps!!

Both of my boys had this problem. One got tubes in his ears and then started walking and talking right away. One only started to talk when he was 3. He used big sentence though and not single words. Give it a little more time and try to expose him to other children also.

My daughter was the same way. She was very 'lazy' about wanting to talk. I found a company called Child Find by Developmental Pathways & if you live in Douglas county it is free to have your child evaluated & free to receive speech therapy if needed. My daughter gets a weekly 1 hour session at our house with a speech therapist & Douglas County School system pays for this. It has been wonderful & she is now using her words to communicate. Good luck, I know it is frustrating for both your child & parent!

Talk to your pediatrician about getting his hearing checked because that's the first thing you want to be able to rule out. Then there are many many speech programs throught the school districts because if a child can't communicate while they're in school- schooling isn't going to go very far right? so they've got a lot of FREE programs for three yr olds and such to make sure that they can speek correctly before schoolb age. You're a great mom for worrying but just make sure you don't stress too much ;)

Don't stress! All kids are on different levels at that age -- my guess he's really good at something else (running, climbing, fine motor skills, etc.)? If he's 3 and talks the same, then I would be worried and look into a speech therapist, but first I would try working with him more with one word phrases -- making him say what something is before you give it to him, reading books with one word for each picture, point to things when driving in the car, always talk to him while you are cooking, cleaning, etc. My 18 month old copies everything I say right now. He may not know how to say the word on his own and say it on cue, but I believe that he knows it. This last month I've taught him all the parts of his body. It's so cute and great when they do it on their own. Also, about putting tubes in ears, make sure you see a chiropractor before you consider that option. Best wishes!

I agree with the other posts, he is probably saying more words that you realize. It doesn't matter if he says them "correctly," just that he uses the same "word" for the same meaning each time.

Kids develop at different rates. Some kids start talking early, others develop small motor skills early (like picking up small objects, manipulating things with their hands), and others work on large motor skills first - running, jumping, climbing. Take a look at his overall behavior, is he working on some other skill right now?

And, he will be two soon, make sure you talk to the pediatrician at his 2-year-appointment.

We took my daughter for a speech therapy eval at around 19months because we (mostly I) didn't think she was talking enough. They did recommend therapy sessions, but because of our $500 deductable we decided to postpone to the first of the year. In the mean time, she started saying more words, and we never did do the ST sessions. Now at 3.5years, she talks non-stop to anyone who will listen! Full sentences, huge vocabulary, doing well! She does still mispronounce quite a few things, and has a few funny mouth movements that I think she might still need a little speech therapy for, but now that she's over 3 the public school system can provide some group ST sessions for free, if we get evaluated by them again. Now my son is 22months old - and also doesn't seem to have a big enough vocabulary for his age - but I'm much less worried second time around.

Sorry this got so long - but just wanted to share my experience, and hopfully it might help you to worry a little less. I say your response that sounds like you already have a little peace of mind that he will blossem in his own time! Just wanted to reassure you that I've been there too, and everything seems to be working out fine on it's own.

Good luck!
S.

There is a scale/checklist your pediatrician will use to determine if he is "normal" compared to other kids his age. They use the smae checklist for fine & gross motor skills, etc.

My son is 18 months and at our last visit he was supposed to say 7-10 words other than "mama" and "dada." He's a bit low on the scale verbally, but is super with all the other areas of the checklist. I'm not worried at all. Boys tend to be a bit delayed in speech & he's home with me all day & I've noticed I have the bad habit of giving him something when he points and grunts.

To help matters we are looking into a few hours of daycare each week or some classes where he can interact with other kids more, and perhaps pick up language better.

If your son understands you when you ask him to do something (go put your toy back, etc.) then it's probably not hearing related.

My sons (in Wyoming) work with Children's Resource Center to overcome these issues. It is essentially preschool, they just encourage the children to talk. I know there are similar programs in other states, call a state agency like the department of health or look online. The department of family services may know about these also.

My oldest child had this problem, but her vocabulary begin to flourish just after she turned 2. I found that getting her to use her words when asking for something, instead of just pointing, helped tremendously. I would say the word I wanted to hear from her and have her repeat it.

If doing this does not work over the next few weeks, I would talk to your child's pediatrician about it. Good luck!

Make it a GREAT holiday weekend!

S.

We have a 2-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son who was definitely speaking more when he was 2 than our daughter is now. Our doctor told us that this is typical with a second child because the older sibling does a lot of the speaking for them. We have been working with her, and don't give anything unless she uses her words to ask for it, and we've seen a bit of improvement!

My daughter was also a bit of a late talker, and when I asked her pediatrician, I was told that at 2 the threshold is around 30 words, with a few two-word combinations. "Word" was defined very loosely - any combination of sounds that the child consistently used to mean something that you can understand would count. It doesn't have to be said correctly. When I actually kept count (I used a piece of paper to tally different "words" I heard from her over the course of a day) she did indeed have about 35 words, which surprised me. I guess I had been looking for full-fledged words, when I should have been looking for consistent spoken units of meaning.

Try a count using the looser definition of word and see how he's doing. Write down the examples you hear to help you keep an accurate count. If you're still coming up short, consult with your healthcare advisor - if there is a problem, early help with speech is generally very effective, and at his age, many states provide the help for free.

As for what you can do to expand his vocabulary, one of the best things you can do is talk to him about what you see and do every day when you are together. ex. "Mommy is making lunch now. I'm making sandwiches. Here is the bread. Now I need the peanut butter. Here it is..." Running monologues like this may seem a bit odd to you, but they are what give him the tools he needs to connect words with things they represent. Reading to him for at least 20 minutes a day helps, too. Instead of just reading, discuss the illustrations. Identify everything in the pictures, or ask him to do so by pointing to things. Also give him directions like, "Find something blue in this picture."

I hope this helps.

I would check and see where you can get help for him. Our son was in speech therapy before his 2nd birthday, and he had a much larger vocabulary than what you're describing. If I recall right the land mark is 100 words by the 2nd birthday. You should have Head Start or something like that in your area. The evaluation and treatment would be free. If you're in a more rural area, it might not be available. That happened with our older son. GL!

My son is three and in speech therapy for his speech delay. He was diagnosed with speech apraxia. He was always a really quiet baby and was very slow to start talking. If I were you I would take and have him evaluated and maybe they will start speech therapy. The earlier they do this the better the results My little one also had issues with earinfections and needed tubes... has yours done that? That could also cause the delay because all that fluid does mess with their hearing. Good luck.

I agree with the majority of the responses. I have two sons and both have had speech delays. We did Speech early with David but he was premature too. We had Daniel evaluated at 18 months and started Speech through the Early Childhood intervention program. You can find through your Doctor or School district. At this point a evaluation gives you all the information you need to proceed. Read more to your children is always good. Put words around house like door, bed, milk, crackers.I found some neat picture and word sticky notes at the store once and posted around house so we would just go over words over and over.
I wish you all the best. Speech Therapy is great and through the Early Child program she came to my house which was great!!

First check under his tongue. A lot of kids are born tongue tied and aren't ever checked for it. My eldest son was born tongue tied, so tongue tied that he couldn't nurse so it was taken care of right away. My cousin's son was born tongue tied and they didn't figure it out until he was 2, once they got it take care of then he started talking.

To tell if he is tongue tied look under his tongue at the little muscle that connects the tongue to the base of the mouth. If it is up close to the tip then he is tongue tied and they do a little clip surgery that will take care of it. Shouldn't hurt to bad and shouldn't take long to heal.

Second thing, is he is the second child and so he has his big sister to talk for him. My second son didn't talk for a looong time. His first word was bicycle. He is a studier and so he has to have things right before he'll talk. And if there is someone in the room that he doesn't know really well then he will just sit there and look at them. He won't talk at all. He is 2 1/2.

My 2 year old son is in exactly the same boat as yours. He has about 12 or so words he uses regularly, but gets frustrated when he can't express his needs/wants otherwise. We even use some signs (please, more, milk, thank you...) but he still babbles and whines and then has little "meltdowns" when he can't get us to understand.

We asked our pediatrician for a speech-language pathology consult and he was evaluated- we found out he has an expressive language delay of several months. We were told to have his hearing evaluated formally by an audiologist (totally normal) then were seen by the Early Childhood development program through Boulder Valley Public Schools. (Each school district has an early intervention program for kids Birth-3 years old that works along with Child Find to provide speech therapy sessions if the child is eligible.) We found out last week that our son qualifies for speech therapy- we will be starting weekly sessions later this month.

Talk to your pediatrician about getting your son a referral to be evaluated. I think a speech delay is pretty normal as many of the other moms have mentioned, but it can only help to have a professional work with you to expand your son's vocabulary.

It looks like you've gotten some good responses so far...sorry if I repeat any advice.
First,I would have his ears checked to be sure his hearing is not impaired...this can cause major delays in speech.
Second, relax. If you are stimulating him verbally by reading and talking to him regularly, then just give him some time. Some kids are talkers and some kids are listners. Let him discover his voice as he's ready. Those little ones always end up doing things on their own timeline and it seems that we only frustrate the process when we try to dictate their development!
Third, as someone mentioned, if you are signing with him, then he may not see the need to verbally communicate right now. But it will come...and when it does, you'll be in for a vocabulary explosion! I sign with my daughter (she's 14 months) and so far her signing vocab. is HUGE, but her spoken vocab. is around 10 words. (I also use the term "word" loosely) She doesn't need words to communicate with me right now. I feel that when you give your child a non verbal means of communication, it takes the pressure and anxiety off of them to have to try to master spoken language faster than they are ready. When they become ready, though, their lnguage skills really excel.
Your son is figuring out how this whole language thing works at his own pace. Nurture his growth, but don't try to force it. Good luck :)

My daughter use to do the same thing, said 5 things. I hated it, I had to sit down and think about what I was doing. Everytime she wanted something, she pointed and got. So for me it was kinda my fault, please dont think I'm saying its you, its your fault your child isnt talking becuase its never always just your fault, there could be something wrong. Like a hearing problem. But I would have to tell her what it was she wanted, then have her repeat it to me, before she got what she wanted. And it worked out for me. I've had to do the same thing with my oldest son, and I'm sure I'll end up doing it with my youngest son. But that is my idea on how to help your son speak more. Just have him repeat what the item is, it doesnt have to be perfect the first time he says it, but the more he does have to say it, he will get better. He will start using more words. I would also try to stay from baby talk with him. I wish you luck with this, I know its hard to have a child that doesnt talk very much.

Hi S.!

I have three children spaced just about the same as yours. My first just talked and talked, had an amazing vocabulary for her age, etc. However, the second usually just smiled and spoke one-word sentences when she was two (she's a S., too!). She'd knock on the fridge and say juice or knock on the back door and say outside. Usually she'd shake her head yes or no rather than speak. Always smiling, always happy. I was freaking out! I took her to the pediatrician and he told me that since she usually got everything she wanted or needed, she didn't see the need to talk and was perfectly content. He told me there was nothing wrong and to give it a little while. When she wanted orange juice, not apple juice, she'd let me know and most likely in a full sentence. He was absolutely right. Within six months she was talking in complete sentences. Since we see the doctor so much when they are young, I'd mention it during your next visit to the pediatrician to ease your mind.

Best wishes,
L.

I suggest that if you have concerns that you should consult your pediatrician. I had the same issue with my son. I consulted his pediatrician and she was not too concerned because he was fine developmentally. For my son he didn't pass his new born but he past his second exam. That is why we had it checked a third time and found that he had a moderate to severe hearing loss. We have no record in our family history with anyone having hearing issues. He will be 3 in Sept and he just started wearing hearing aids in April. I guess one question that you could ask yourself is, are you having to repeat yourself or raise your voice a lot? Also, with him being two and having possible speech delay you may qualify for speech therapy. Something to look into.
Hope that helps. Good Luck
A.

i would recomend making learning fun,for example tell him what things are before giving them to him, like "do you want the ball?" and show him the ball as you say ball. then say look at the pretty ball and again hold up the ball or what ever and then ask him to say ball and when he tries it give it to him and repeat it a few times. do this with everything from food to toys drinks. you could even add the color of the object like look at the pretty blue ball. have him try all the words before you give them to him.and dont baby him talk normal to him the way you talk to everyone else and he will soon pick up on the word. we do this with our boys and my grandma told me that our three year old talks like he is sixteen. he looked at me today and said 'it is a beautiful day?' sometimes make up conversations about boreing daily stuff like cleaning up or bath time or anything keep a run on conversation. when your out walking or at the park point out the things you find obvious say things like look at the dog, what a nice dog and repeat dog over and over pointing. hope this helps, best wishes K.

don't worry, he'll talk when he's ready. my son, almost 3, is/was the same way, and in the last few weeks his vocab has come a long way. it just takes time as each kid learns differently. encourage your son to use his words, but don't be discouraged if he doesn't. again, he'll talk when he's ready. also, my girlfriends youngest didn't really start to speak til he was four, not that he couldn't, he just wouldn't. now we can't get him to be quiet for five minutes, lol. your little boy will be all right. another thing. when i'm doing something with my kids, like putting on their socks or shoes, i say left foot, left sock, left shoe and they'll make the connnection and give me their left foot. shirt over head, gloves on rt/lt hand, etc. repetitive motions are a good key to beginning their learning process, but we have to be patient, they won't get it the first time. good luck