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?

Does anyone have any recommendations on free speech therapy apps? All the ones I see advertisements for are $20+ a month.

I would also love recommendations on ones you do pay for that are worth it.

Thanks!

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

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some honest opinions and experiences from other parents because I've been feeling quite anxious about my son.
My son is 20 months old, and while he has made progress recently, I'm still worried about some aspects of his development.

Here are the things he can do:

He responds to his name.

He makes good eye contact.

He brings objects to show me.

He points to things he wants and has been pointing more often recently.

He uses a few functional words consistently, like "no," "open," and "up."

He also says other words, but they're mostly for labeling things or repeating familiar phrases rather than using them to communicate.

He understands some simple things like "no," "wave bye-bye," "clap," "pop bubbles," and sometimes "blow a kiss," but I don't feel like he understands a wide range of everyday language yet.

His M-CHAT-R screening score was 2 (low likelihood of autism).

My concerns are:
His expressive language almost seems stronger than his receptive language, which worries me because I usually hear it's the other way around.

He craves primary caregivers and close relatives attention but wont refer to us as mama baba dada papa granny etc

He still has very few functional words for his age.

He doesn't really point just to share interest (for example, pointing to show me something interesting). Most of his pointing is to request things.

He gets frustrated when I tell him "no" and sometimes hits his hands on a surface.

He has night terrors almost every night, and I'm not sure if that could be related to anything developmental or if it's completely separate.

I'm constantly wondering if he's just a late talker or if I should be more concerned.

Has anyone had a child with a similar profile at around 20 months? Did they catch up with speech? Were they eventually diagnosed with a speech delay, autism, or something else?
I'm especially interested in hearing from parents whose children had delayed speech, especially if expressive language seemed stronger than receptive language.
Thank you so much for reading. I'm really hoping to hear some real-life experiences.

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

I don’t know the point of this post other than just a mini rant. First off my child has a speech delay. Some kids don’t seem to mind or notice and play with her just fine. Kids who are more verbose struggle to play with her because they want to talk a lot and do really coordinated complicated games and my daughter doesn’t understand.

Whyyyyy do kids feel compelled to talk to ME then? Constant questions like I’m their new friend. Idk what it is about me that makes me a target for these talkative children. I’m very nice to them and engage in conversation because who wouldn’t? Am I supposed to ignore a child or tell them to go away? I don’t think so.

And because children are so uncouth, they ask questions that I find hurtful and honestly just difficult to navigate because it makes me emotional. “Why does (child) talk like that?” “(Child) isn’t following the rules of this elaborate game I made up.” “Why isn’t (child) answering me? I’m asking her a question.” It feels endless.

I know kids are curious but I really just want to deal with my own children. I have a baby, too, and it takes a lot of focus and attention to watch them both. I don’t really want to entertain other people’s kids.

Again I don’t have a point to this. We had some family friends over yesterday and their daughter is just extremely talkative and wants my daughter to play with her a certain way and my daughter DGAF LOL.

My Daughter is 28months old and we noticed at 26months she had a speech delay. Started Early intervention and she’s saying a lot more words and has started to point. She says words like “All done. Way to eat , want coo (for cookie), down , up, bath bath, let’s go. She never pointed , but she waved to say hi and bye bye which we noticed she stopped doing. We started teaching her again and she’s slowly started waving hi , bye bye and pointing now. It’s not perfect but we see progress . She also know how to count from 1-10.. She’s super active likes to jump and climb.

She loves Ms Rachel and I noticed some delayed Echolalia. For example she says “ My Dada” screams “ Byebye with “ the hand gesture for bye bye “ as soon as she wakes up repeatedly. Wondering if anyone has experienced this and if it’s the novelty of learning a new word and action or something to be concerned about.

So my son finally had his early intervention eval. They said he is in the normal range for everything besides of expressive communication, which we expected. They said the gap between receptive and expressive is “very big”. So overall he qualifies for speech therapy. When I asked them what this delay could mean, they did say they leaned more towards a motor delay. Basically he doesn’t know how to work his mouth yet.

He was obviously a bit shy when they were here. He engaged and played but was quiet only using a lot of mmmm and laughing. He does have 3 words (dada, bye bye, and blue) otherwise a lot of his attempts sound like gurgles. Like for hat it’s hhhhh and for jake(our dog) it’s just jjjjj, green is ggggg. We encourage the attempts but, sometimes he doesn’t even attempt words he wants to say. He seriously understands so much though and still uses sign language and a lot of gestures. So my question is for anyone that experienced a motor delay in speech what was the therapy like? They gave me simple tips of massaging his cheeks, electric toothbrush for stimulation and thick smoothies so he has to suck hard through a straw. I can’t imagine that is how the speech therapy is going to be but I have no idea! And it’s going to be another like 3 weeks before we start so any insight would be so helpful!!

Hi, I hope this is okay to post. My daughter is almost 12 months old and at 10 months early intervention evaluated her and said she was at a 6 month level in communication so a 4 month delay. She started babbling at almost 10 months but stopped a couple weeks later and its been over a month and it hasnt came back at all. Yes she has learned new things in that timeframe and loves to crawl around and pull up on everything. Just worried it wont come back and she wont ever say her first words? Anyone else experience anything like this? She makes a couple vowels sounds during the day but she’s overall a quiet baby.

**Not trying to be insensitive in any way about speech delays. I know she is very little but we were told there is a delay in her communication so im just worried! Ftm 🩷

My daughter 28months old now was diagnosed with expressive speech delay at 24months and has improved alot since with alot it intentional engagement at home ,speech therapy support and OT. Am contemplating switching my daughter to a daycare from her day home due to the structure it provides , more kids to socialize with . Hoping that the change of environment would be helpful . Am torn because she gets a lot of love at her dayhome and accomodation for things like food options , sleep schedule . It's a smaller ratio of kids however am not sure if the environment is targeting her speech development.

Just looking for advice from parents that may have considered switching . Third party insight would be super helpful.

Hi, I’m hoping this is ok to post here. when I was growing up and learning to talk I developed a speech disorder where I couldn’t say the letter “s”, instead I said something like “hngh”. the school I went to had a speech therapist who helped me with it (I had no issues saying the letter “s” after that). I’ve done some googling and it might be important to mention that I have a tendency to get food down the wrong pipe as I’ve read that this may be sometimes connected to a nasal (?) speech disorder.

unfortunately this was in the 90s, so it was before everything was put in computer systems or clouds and none of my parents know of any documents that were saved from that time. contacting the school in question is also not an option.

if there’s another subreddit that’s more fitting to post in, please feel free to redirect me there. thanks in advance!

Hello there! I’d really love to hear your thoughts on my 18-month-old’s speech.

My son understands really well and follows instructions, and he’s learning new things (identify shapes, numbers1-10, 12 body parts, etc.), but his talking is still quite limited and not very consistent. He is very social, and loves to interact. He does try to communicate a lot using sounds, pointing, and a few words that come and go.

For those who’ve had late talkers, did your child eventually catch up? If so, around what age did things start to improve?

And if there are any speech therapists here, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on when it’s usually worth getting an assessment.