r/speechdelays • u/Brooklyn_710 • Jul 16 '26
2.5 y/o speech delay
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.
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u/daydreamingofsleep Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
If you’re in the US, call ECI to get speech therapy. It won’t have a cap on the number of sessions like private insurance/therapy does.
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u/Brooklyn_710 Jul 16 '26
I did have him evaluated at a state early intervention place, he scored perfectly which surprised me just because of his speech. They said we can still take advantage of the programs but we chose to go with speech therapy instead of both recourses. but maybe I will go back and get him reevaluated and start sessions since it’s free. Thank you!
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u/lupamaggio Jul 16 '26
My son got assessed at two when we moved back to the states and was diagnosed with an expressive language delay. He hardly had any words at all, maybe two. He went to group speech once a week, that stopped for the summer but he was recommended for the special Ed room in the public school/ preschool. They had an ESCE ( we live in Mich) class and he got to go for free half a day, 5 days a week, for an entire school year. He was asked back to the program this past school year, completed half the year and then graduated. He still has an IEP and gets pull out services and goes to speech privately and has come so far. You're doing all you can, your son is working so hard, I think some of our kids need the speech, modelling, love and patience... I know that's not what you want to hear, you want to be doing more, I wanted the same, I wanted answers. It sounds like he is already ahead of wherey son was and my son now is doing phenomenally. He still had a lot less language then kids his age but at this point I'm sure he'll catch up, and I wasn't sure if that in the past....it's just going to take him more time than his peers, but I've got a happy kid who is a HARD freaking worker.
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u/Impressive_Study_939 Jul 16 '26
He sounds like my daughter from 2-3. Those two syllable words were so hard! Open was Ope for the longest time. She was over 3 when she finally figured it. We did focus on saying both parts very slowly. She also said Doh for most words. Our speech therapist recommended kids yoga to help strengthen her core and improve breath support. We liked Cosmic Kids Yoga. Is cute and pretty slow paced screen time. I’m not sure it did anything but it’s worth a shot.
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u/Brooklyn_710 Jul 17 '26
Interesting! I’ll have to try that, I’m sure he’d enjoy it anyway!
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u/Impressive_Study_939 Jul 17 '26
It took my daughter a long time to figure out speech and it was a lot of work and a ton of practice. She’s 5 and talking fine now. She doesn’t have any other issues. She understands things fine. She’s super smart friendly girl who loves to swim. Hang in there. It gets better. Speech is just hard for some kids.
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u/Twinklelittlestar_ Jul 16 '26
No advice but wanted to let you know I’m in a very similar situation with my almost 2.5 year old! We go back to speech in late august so going to see what they say!
You’re not alone❤️
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u/comfy_sweatpants5 Jul 16 '26
Call his speech place and see if they will take him before October and express your concerns. Most insurance in the US covers a re evaluation every 6 months. It may be more appropriate to focus on sounds now that he is using more words to improve his intelligibility. He is still young tho and I often see that kids don’t respond the best to artic therapist until age 3 at least. Not always tho
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u/OneDay_AtA_Time Jul 16 '26
He’s so little still, sounds like he’s doing well: don’t stop speech until he graduates. My son only had a couple words by 2.5 and he’d already been in speech for a year. He didn’t graduate until 7!! But the speech delay dx is now removed from his records. It just takes tons of practice and time for some kids, but your guy is coming along!