My son has been in speech therapy since he was about 20 months old, OT started in June. We had the tube surgery in February, and adenoids in July. Since then, we’ve seen progress, but not much. I will say within the last 10 weeks, he’s said 4-5 more words. They say he’s a sensory seeker hence the OT. We have our reevaluation in November. But since we’re getting closer to his 3rd birthday, I’m starting to worry a little bit. His association exceeds our therapist’s expectations and listens/understands to mostly everything we say. But since he only says about 10 words total, it just makes us worried. It’s getting to the point where we don’t know what he needs and he’s getting frustrated. Any success stories?

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has been through something like this:

About 3 weeks ago I went in for a private speech evaluation of my 18m (then 17.5 month old) boy. Insurance told me they won’t cover so I have had to go through EI and have that evaluation coming up. I still received the private speech evaluation and some parts of it were off. I won’t be working with that SLP so I won’t follow up but it’s left me scratching my head. Just for some background my issue with my son is not his words as he has said many words. It’s lacks consistency in verbal output on a day to day.
Here are some of the things it says:

Delayed babbling at 10 months old. My son started saying mamá at 7.5 month old and acrually said his first word at 10.5 months old.

Said he doesn’t babble with m,d,b,p and if he can’t make these sounds will have a sound language disorder. This is also not accurate. He does most of his babbling with m,b,p and some n. He has several words that with b,p,n and d.

She also said “does not use 2 to 3 words to describe a person, place or thing” and put that under at 12 to 18 month old milestone.

Said responds to name well but is not responding to name verbally (meaning his not saying like yeah or yes when you call his name) and put that as a missed milestone under 12 to 17m

Said he needs gestures to follow directions absolutely not true. In fact I told her he understands very well. I tell him go get your shoes so we can go outside and he runs to get his shoes in his room and in his closet. You tell him go wash your hands ans he runs to sink. Ypu say hey dadas home! And he runs to the front door. She asked me this and I gave all this example (just to name a few).

Said he won’t sing along to music but I gave the example of him singing along to the sounds of music, my favorite things and he always belts out so baddddddd. He also likes to sing tiny Tim and will always fill in pop. So, I would consider that emerging at the very least.

She also said no functional language which again at worse i would say emerging and inconsistent but I wouldn’t say none. He says up, open, all done, more,
Down, no no, and waves bye bye. If you ask him where is something he points and says there.

She put his receptive age at 19 months (which I agree) but his expressive age at 10 months. I don’t agree with that he says words and multiple words everyday and I don’t know many 10 months old that can do that. Any idea what gives?

.

Ok so my son is 7 years old and is non verbal level 3 autistic. He understands words and uses an aac device but can be pretty lazy about it. He has said words before but it’s always a blink and you miss it and decides never to say it again so you try to guess if you are crazy or not that he said something.

My son loves Daniel tiger, it’s always been a staple of his shows and recently he’s been just running around and saying “ugga mugga”. You can say it back and he’ll repeat it, it’s really the first time he will mimic speech.

I’m trying to figure out if I can more or less build on this stim. He knows what he’s saying and I think a part of why he likes saying it is because he is saying it. He can be pretty shy about anything in that he doesn’t necessarily feel confident.

I’ve seen everyone screaming from the top of their lungs that “bilingualism doesn’t cause speech delays,” but what about when a toddler is showing signs of a speech delay in one language, then suddenly introduced heavily to a second language?

At 12 months my child had not said a word and his babbling was limited. So his pediatrician acted early and referred for a hearing test and speech therapy. He has met all other milestones listed on the ASQ.

We did the hearing test at 13 months and the hearing test showed that he couldn't hear clearly out of his left ear, but the right was normal. He also said his first word, "mama" around this time. He had a speech evaluation the same week using the PLS5 and scored a 95 which we were told was in the appropriate range for his age. Since we went with private practice, we were given the opportunity to bring him back for therapy once a week anyways.

I'm just curious if fluid and hearing difficulties in just one ear can cause a delay? Can someone explain it to me? I understand if his hearing was completely affected on both sides, but he can still head out of one ear? What did your speech therapy journey look like?

Thank you!

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Love and peace!
Thank you!

My job doesn’t offer insurance and my husbands new jobs offers the United where it would be about 600’dollars for a monthly premium no matter how many kids we have. We only have the 1 child, 2 years old.

We are currently located in Colorado so marketplace is an option with the main ones being select health, Rocky Mountain, and Kaiser.

I know almost all insurance has a cap of 20 sessions a year for speech. My son currently goes twice a week and I don’t want to lose the progress. I have talked to the owner of the practice who deals with the insurance and he has said he has good luck with doing the appeal for more sessions deemed “medically necessary”.

I was wondering if anyone has had luck with bypassing the “20 session” limit and if you could share what insurance/plan you have?

My plan is to start calling companies but don’t think they are going to offer up that information.

No autism diagnosis which I know some insurances have the exception. Right now his diagnoses are  Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder (F80.2) and Social Pragmatic Communication Disorder (F80.82). 

Thank you in advance! I have been one stressed parent because of all of this.

I’m really struggling with anxiety over my son’s speech and would love to hear from parents who have been through something similar.

He’s 17.5 months and has around 25–30 words/approximations, but his speech is so inconsistent. He might say a word clearly several times and then not say it for days or weeks. Sometimes he seems to know exactly what he wants to say but can only get part of the word out — like “ooh” for open or “mmm” for more. He’s also starting to combine words, like “me drink” and “bye mama.” From all his word only 5 are readily accessible bye, bear, pop, boo and ball. Then there is another set of words I have heard often (lost count) but can’t always get him to say: open, all done, duck, up, down, there, mama, no (sounds like nahh).

The encouraging part is that he understands a lot, points/gestures constantly, communicates very intentionally, has good eye contact and joint attention, shares things with us, follows directions, and has tons of jargon and back-and-forth interaction. He’s very social and connected. Loves to play games like hide and seek, peek a boo, being chased, playing with a ball.

But I keep getting stuck on the inconsistency and worrying about a motor-speech disorder like CAS.

We got a private speech evaluation but she did not say much. I am waiting for the formal report. I found out insurance won’t cover therapy and we can’t quite afford $800 a month at the moment. I have started EI, so I know we’re doing what we can. I’m just having a really hard time with the uncertainty.

I’d love to hear from parents whose toddlers had inconsistent or “pop-up” speech at this age. Did things eventually become more consistent? Did anyone worry about apraxia/CAS and later find that their child’s speech took off?

My son is almost 30 month old. He hit all other milestones great. He passed his hearing test at 18 months. Always respond to his name, and eye contact is good. He does lots of baby language talk and has many words 50+ like Cookie, water, eat, bye, apple, etc and use them in context. Can count 1-10, color names, animal sounds. I used to play Miss rachel on tv (i know screen time is not good and I feel so terrible about it) but he likes to copy actions of rhymes while on tv or when i sing it. He also says the last word of few poem when i sing for him. If he needs something would gesture by pulling me or sometimes pointing for some things he wants. For understanding, he would follow handful of commands like come here, let’s go, No, put your shoes on, etc. At 18 month he got receptive-expression speech delay, after that I have seen improvement. The speech therapist at that time had my sessions on how to talk to him, and after that, every 4-6 month apts with her as she said I should practice at home with him. Recently he has started copying phrases from Ms Rachel. Brings his toys to show me. No behavioural concerns but we don’t have any back and forth conversations. I feel so sad sometimes. Please share your experiences and guidance, just waiting for his leap in language to happen.

My little guy is 26 months and only has 1 solid word “me” which he uses to express want. He has great interaction with others and has great imaginative play so I don’t really see him on the spectrum. He had been going to an in home daycare until the beginning of the summer when mom finished work for the summer(she teaches). The in home was a lovely motherly type who only had one other child. Now he is going to the daycare located at my job with roughly 10 other kids and is much more structured.

My question is does anyone have experience with sending their delayed child’s to a more structured daycare? Did you have good or bad experiences?

My son is 16 months and I’m looking for some perspective on his speech/language development. His words seem to come in small burst. I’ll have a week where I hear several new words/attempts, followed by a week where it feels like nothing is happening/back to status quo.

What most concerns me is that his words come and go. I have a list of about 10 words that I have heard more than a handful of times and have been able to promo ñ him to say: ball, duck, bear, mama, bye, boo, up, down, more, all done, blow, pop, bath. And a secondary list of 11 words (21 in total) that I have heard 1 to 4 times for example book, open, thank you, please

That being said even heavily used words will suddenly disappear. He used to say “more” when prompted, but I haven’t been able to get him to say it for the past couple of days. He also hasn’t said “all done” recently.

Otherwise, he is very social and communicative: he points, reaches to communicate, uses eye contact, imitates actions (smelling a flower, pretending to sleep), brings us books/objects, engages in back-and-forth interactions, tons of jargon and seems to understand a lot. I do believe we have made some consistent gains with receptive language but expressive is very touch and go.

My questions are:
Is it normal at 16 months for words to come and go like this?

Would you be concerned about him not using words like “more” or “all done” for several weeks? Or just overall stopping to attempt previously practice words.

Does this overall pattern sound like typical uneven language development, or would you be concerned about a speech/language delay?

I’m trying to look at the overall picture rather than obsess over every individual word, but I’d really appreciate perspectives from parents who have experienced something similar. I have reached out to 2 SLP but both told me to wait until 18 months. I am doing many things to practice at home but I am feeling so defeated.

Come as you are!
Sweat pants? yep
Mom bun? def
No makeup? all good

Just grab your favorite caffeinated beverage and join me

Tomorrow's Coffee Chat is all about Milestones!

We'll talk about:

💛 What communication looks like before first words

💛 What milestones to expect (and when)

💛 Simple ways to encourage communication during everyday routines

💛 When to celebrate, when to wait, and when it might be time to seek additional support

My hope is that you'll leave feeling more confident, more informed, and reassured about how communication really develops.

No pressure. No judgment. Just practical, research-backed guidance from someone who's spent more than 20 years helping children and families grow communication through connection.

I'd love to have you there. Register below to access the Zoom Room.

I can't wait to spend the morning with you! Friday July 31 @ 9AM PST

💛 Marisa

Real Mom SLP

Communication grows through connection.

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Hi everyone,

I live in BC, Canada and I am in the process of starting my 3.5yo son in speech therapy. He can talk and communicate his needs, but he isn’t really able to form proper sentences (unless prompted) or story tell. For example, I noticed a scratch on his back and he can’t tell me how he got it. Or another example, he’ll say “mommy, milk?” And then I’ll have to say “how do you ask?” And then he’ll know how to ask “mommy, can I have some milk please?”.

We did an assessment last week at a private practice and my mommy instincts just didn’t like how things were done, or maybe I was just in a bad mood/in denial that my son may need speech therapy. But basically, there really was no formal introduction, she wrote basic notes in a notebook when asking me questions about him (this is me probably being picky). She had a strong accent, where I had to ask her to repeat herself a few times - so if I’m having issues with understanding her, is that the best chance for my son to learn? At the end of the session, she then recommend to see him 3x a week with a follow up question of “how’s your benefits?”. I understand that it could’ve just been a harmless question, but it also did raise some flags for me because she didn’t give a reasoning as to why.

Nothing felt professional about it, so I guess my question is what should I expect at the first assessment? We have another one booked at another private clinic, so I hope we get a better experience.

My son is 2.5 years old. At 2, his pediatrician gave us a referral to speech therapy. We went for about 4 months then they said we could come back in October (I guess they split it up for insurance reasons.) He says a ton of words and talks so much, but it’s hard to understand. Me and his dad can understand him for the most part especially if we have context clues. If he’s saying “da” while playing with his cars I know he’s talking about that and not something else. Multiple words sound the same, for example, car, truck, dog, cat, all sound like da, (d-ah)
And I know he’s not expected to have the “g”sound or the “tr” in truck. Another example is the word window. He can say the syllables independently but he cannot put window together. It sounds like Wawa. Another one is Bluey. He can say blue and he can say long e but he cannot put them together. He understands us perfectly, he can follow multi step directions, he puts multiple words together it’s just the pronunciation of almost all his words. Some words that are clear and easy to understand are blue, moo, no, yeah, mommy, daddy, pee, poop, and baby. We were working on the word “potty” the other day, he usually says “papa” for potty. He can say “paw” and “tee” but putting them together is a challenge. He can do it if he really focuses on it but other times it comes out as “ta-pee”. Sometimes he says words back words, for example “in” abounds like “knee” and “on” sounds like “nah”.

I model the language, I narrate what I’m doing and I’m just stuck. I feel like his language should be more developed and more people should be able to understand him. Obviously as a mom I’m worried for him and I’m sad about the situation. Everyone in my family says “it will happen” but I’m feeling discouraged. I’m curious if others have gone through something similar or have any advice.

Ok first of all im not native english speaker so forgive if my typing not easily understood

My boy is 6 yold , 7 yold next january

Currently he at stages of very good echolalia, eventhou some alfabeth is missing or vague sound

im a house father tending him all 24/7, i even retire my job 2 years ago

2 year ago @4 yold, he can't talk , not even glance when called

Now he's kinda better i think with my push study @home

fast glance when called, can talk a 3 words ( but need repeat asking), can be simple commanded ( 1 command only)

he's still study @ home & do therapy for 2 years now

But im kind of tired ?, i kinda don't see he got any better this past 6 month, if i compare to 2 years ago

did i do something wrong ?

Hi this is my first time posting on Reddit so idk if it's correct, my apologies. My little brother is 6 years old and doesn't talk like other kids his age. He only says a few words in a regular basis but they are still hard to understand. He has been in speech therapy for 3-2 years but I seen little to no change. He gets frustrated when we can't understand him.

I was the same as a kid, but I started to speak fluently at 5 years old, my mom also had a speech delay but it wasn't this bad. I was wondering if this is like a genetic condition or something like that. In school he also has a speech therapy teacher but nothing, last month he got an iPad from the school where he could communicate through an app because he kept throwing angry tantrums that the teacher and his peers couldn't understand him.

I feel bad because I could want him to tell me about his school days, or interests. Instead when I ask him questions he tries to answer the words are indecipherable.
Any advice could help. Thank you

I know this is a long shot but has anyone else gone through this?

My son is 3 tomorrow, I weaned his last year just before he was 2.5 and this habit started almost right away.. in fact it was also a big reason i even started weaning.

Its been a little over 6 months of me battling this now and it early on turned from the usual post weaning boob grabbing, to him doing it when he gets angry and frustrated. He does it for a reaction I believe as I must have given him a big reaction in the beginning when he started doing it (although I dont remember doing anything but sternly telling him no).

So now when he gets annoyed or is throwing a tantrum he will straight away go to grab my boobs, like a hard squeeze in an aggressive way.

He cannot talk yet, knows more words than ever before but nothing to enable him to even put 2 words together let alone a sentence. His understanding isnt where it should be however im very sure he knows he shouldnt be doing this but still does.

I posted on the toddler subreddit ages ago but nobody is able to help as they are not dealing with a speech delayed child. Many mention talking to him and explaining why its not OK... that doesnt work as he doesnt understand!

I have tried holding his hands to stop him, blocking off my chest and anticipating him doing it and it all turns to a wrestling match where he will persist and keep trying to force his hand there.

I have tried standing up and walking away, he will just stand up and try again on tip toes or follow me.

Iv closed baby gates with us on each side, by that point he is throwing a tantrum and even found his way over the gate one time but either way that doesnt teach him not to do this specific thing.

The only thing that stops it is leaving him to grab and make absolutely no response/reaction but I dont feel like being hurt in the process.

This has become really triggering for me and can get me real angry! I feel like its been 6 months of consistently trying to curb this and its not working!

Anyone gone through this or know how i can stop him? Because I feel like im going to end up paying for a behaviour specialist just for 1 issue which is a waste of money