Opinions About Toddler Speech Therapy

My eldest son is 3.5. At 28 months he still was not speaking. He too could use sign language and did often. He too understood everything you said to him and could follow directions. The doctor said he should be putting several words together and he wasn't. I signed him up for speech therapy and they came to the house every week for a month. I saw no changes at all after a month and stopped the speech therapy. By the time he was 30 months old he had a huge vocabulary. My second son is now 19 months and does not talk yet either. I think when kids are ready to talk they will.

Please don't listen to emotional comments that all doctors are "nuts." Research has shown that speech therapy done between the ages of 2-3 has the greatest impact on speech development (it's an important window of brain development). That is why the early intervention programs are available at that age. There is often no-cost or low-cost therapy available and they can come to your home. If you do nothing and your son is really delayed you will kick yourself. Your doctor is encouraging you to do therapy for a reason. There are also psychological issues with children who attend school who have speech problems. My advise, give therapy a try and let the expert (the pediatric speech-language therapist) give you an opinion. Good luck to you.

I agree with Karen, if you don't help him now, early intervention services only help until age 3. If you wait too long they might not even evaluate him. It is better to help him now while he still has a chance than wait until he gets to kindergarten or first grade and have problems in school. I don't have a child in speech therapy but my nephew is 3 and just started speech therapy and only said 3 words in 45 minutes. Also as a child care provider I would refer you to an early intervention specialist.

If you can get him into speech therapy...do it. It can't hurt any. My daughter started speech at around 3. There wasn't alot of people around that could understand her. 2 years later, she is up to speed and will require only random check ins with her speech teacher and everyone can now understand her. Its amazing how many people mention just how much better she is talking now! I think it will be worth having him start sooner than later.

Speech therapy can only help your child. It sounds like you are very involved considering you have taught your child signs and other forms of communication. You may find you learn a lot from the speech therapist as well. I had both my boys in speech they too were both taught how to use baby signs at an early age. It turns out my older son actually had a physical reason wiht his tongue for not talking and my other child learned a lot from it. Hope this helps!

I'm not going against what your doctor says but I have a friend who taught her child the baby sign language and he didn't talk til he was 3. He was a SUPER intelligent kid, but since he could sign, he didn't feel the need to talk. Maybe he feels this same way too!

First, don't blame yourself about sign. I taught my son sign and he knew over 300 words before he was 2... so that's not it. I've read that sign actually can help w/early language development. I have a few friends who did speech therapy with their kids and it really helped. Sometimes learning new ways to move their mouths and things we could do differently and don't know about really make a difference. I have one friend who's boy doesn't talk but put any word in front of him he can point and spell it out (small and caps)... so its not a sign of intellegence. Can't hurt, i would absolutely do it if i was at that point. I think it was Einstein who didn't talk until he was like 3 or 4 or something... hee hee

D.,
I don't see any reason to wait. Speech Therapy will only help, I can't imagine it hurting your childs development.

My DD is almost 5 and went through 1.25 yrs of therapy from 22 months until 3 yo. It was amazing what progress she made. The early intervention program is one on one weekly therapy and we paid $100/month based on our income. Please keep in mind early intervention only covers them until 3 years old, then they are covered by the local school district. Many of their programs are in a group (not one on one). My only regret was was I wish I had started it sooner. She was so frustrated not being able to tell me what she wanted. And once she turned 3 the school district group program was not very helpful. Fortunately, she had progressed enough that we dropped it after 6 months (plus the school district program by me did not continue during the summer, but the therapy did). When she entered preschool at 3.5 yo, none of the teachers could even tell she had not been talked at 2.

Hi D. -
I'm a speech therapist and I absolutely think that you should look into getting your son evaluated. It's great that he knows sign language and that you think that he's getting better each day. However, if there is reason that therapy might help him, now is the time to do it. The sooner he gets help - the better! Invest a little time now for a lot of peace of mind later! Believe me - you don't want to put if off if there is a need for therapy. And - if the evaluation proves that no therapy is needed - that's great news too!

The state of IL has an Early Intervention program that offers therapy to children birth - 3 years old. I think that you should look into it! Good Luck!

PS You have a great Pediatrician.......good for him for making the recommendation to you to look into speech therapy!

D.

Hi D.,
do absolute nothing.These Doctors are all nuts.THey told me the same thing and by age 2.5 to 3 my little boy was absolute fine.And I talked to so many mom's and they all agreed with me and said the same things about their children.
I have three children 14,13 and 3.5.Relax and enjoy your child, an if by age three his speech wouldn't get better than you can consider speech therapy.Good luck

It's normal for boys to talk late. Sometimes, babies are little observers, taking everything in and then when they start talking, sometimes surpass the early talkers. It sounds like your son has excellent receptive language skills and understands, follows directions well. That is awesome and a great sign that everything is alright. However, if there would be a language delay, early intervention is critical. I would suggest calling First Steps or Parents as Teachers (if you are in St. Joe county) to get a professional opinion. They are free programs and the best part is, it's fun and they come to your house. My son looks forward to the visits and sometimes gets toys and books.

We have been doing speech therapy with our 2 year old for a while now. I will tell you that you can get speech therapy thru early intervention until he is 3. Once he turns 3 if he still qualifies for speech he will transition to the school district which is a different program. The speech therapy has been very helpful for my daughter and I. Hope that helps. K.

Hi, D., I went through the same thing with my son. We went through First Steps of southern Indiana. They were great, they came to my house, played with him for a hour, while he didn't relize he was in therapy. I could sit with them or get some housework done while she was here and she always taught me things to do the rest of the week. He is now 4 1/2 and never stops talking!!!! I have to admit i had second thoughts at first, I didn't want to think of my baby having a problem but i really see now that it helped him alot. He's whole not talking was because he had 4 other people talking for him, all he had to do is wine or point and he got his way without talking. Good Luck!! Also all his therapy was free, so that helped alot too.

The speech therapy is only going to benefit him. I would say to go for it, or at least get evaluated.

I think your doctor is right, you should call the Early Intervention Program and get him evaluated. It is great program. My son was tested when he was 25 months and was in the same boat as your son. I taught my son signs but he was using signs and not talking. He is now 29 months old and he is saying go outside, ready to go, baby crying, etc. He has speech therapy once a week and they come to our house for one hour. I am SOOO glad that I did it before he turned 3. It just helps give them a boost into talking at least it did with my son. I had the fear that there was something WRONG with my son, but the evaluation staff that come to your house are WONDERFUL. They basically play with your son for 1.5 hours and observe him. They ask you answers as well. It is so easy to do and made a HUGE impact in my son's life. I don't want my son to go to school(Kindergarten) and have kids make fun or teachers putting him in a "special" group. I really think it would be great to at least get him evaluated. These people deal with kids everyday and know what they are doing. If you want my information, please email me and I will give you the number as well as we can talk more on the phone. I live in the city and can't say enough how speech therapy has changed our family.

I can tell you as a mother of a special needs child that working on their weaknesses is not a bad idea. Just because he is doing well in other areas, that does not mean his speech cannot be improved by speech therapy. My older son has been in speech therapy since he was around 20 months (he's now 4 1/2) and it was recommended for him around 17 months. The process can take some time so your best bet is to have him evaluated. That's great that he's communicating with you! If he catches up soon with his talking then you won't have to worry about his socialization as much when he starts school. You will be promoting his social-emotional growth by doing all you can to help his expressive speech along.

I guess I'm not sure why anyone would not want to get help for their child in this type of situation. My son is also in a research study for brain-injured children that looks at language development. In short, they compared brain-injured children who are receiving speech therapy (and have delays) with typically developing children (control group) who do not receive speech therapy. Preliminary results indicate that the brain injured children receiving therapy had in many cases surpassed the control group.

Speech therapy can only help your son. What's really the dilemma? It does not mean you are a bad parent or he is lacking in some way. Their brains are most plastic now so that is when they can benefit the most from intervention. My 10 yr old nephew did not start getting speech therapy until he was 4 years old and he still has major issues that will probably last through adulthood. Why take a chance?

In my view I have done both wait it out and then i have done the first steps stuff.

In my eyes i messed up the first time and didnt' mean to. Only reason i waited out is b/c my first child started taling better around 3 years old and i thought my second would do the same. She has not.she is 4 and now in speech with school system. They do help but i wish i done it when i should of done it.
Okay on my twins i have went and got help and am so happy i have. They talk better b/c of the ladies and they work with them in your own home and they come to you. I love the girls to come to my house every week. It is so much fun. For you and your child. They don't make you look bad and you are not bad for having your child looked and if anything they might not say he need speech. Just be happy if any thing with what you do. Another thing is that they had me to get their ears checked and i did. They was just fine and they can hear just fine. so don't be scared. if you need anything from first steps program. i can help you on that if anything
C.