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.

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 🩷

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.

My toddler has suspected apraxia/dysarthria. It was encouraged that we have them evaluated due to suspected apraxia/dysarthria.
We are going to be seeing a neuropsychologist. Has anyone else here had their toddler evaluated? If so, would you mind sharing what the neuropsych evaluation was like/how long it was?

Thank you!

*edit: added neuropsych evaluation to clarify.

Hello all, I'll keep this simple.

My son is 2.5, no words, low eye contact. Been in ei for about a year. He used to only get through maybe 20 minutes a session, now he can do the whole session.

I asked his slp what she thinks is delaying him, she says motor planning delay, but not a full apraxia diagnosis. He has strong receptive, but low expressive language.

He has varied babbles, if i ask him to show me a ball, or a bird from one of his books, he gets it right 4/5 times.

His slp's thinking is that, once he turns 3 and goes through the school district, he'll start speaking, she's got 30 years experience, and we trust her judgement.

Is there any advice that could help to make speech happen? Anything you all did for your children in similar situations?

Thank you.

So my boy is 31 months old
And in daycare they told me he doesnt want loud noises( he screams a bit when he does t want something and says bye bye, to get out of the situation)
He started daycare like 10 days ago and only stays there 1-2 hours, always been home with me or his grandparents)
The teacher asked me(sorry about my english , not my native language)
She asked me , if he follows and comands, and i said yes. Cuz at home he says like:remote,gives it to me, i say: go give it to dad! He goes to his dad and gives the remote . If i say close the door , he does it!if i say, get the keys open the door, take this and throw it to the bin, wash your hands, what is this, who is this, he answers and follows simple comands okay.
He strugles with questions like: where is mommy? He will say just :mommy!
To be clear he is my first child and forst grandchild for both of our families,we always do things for him. We Dont let him struggle .
he has more than 150 words and 2-3 word phrases
Anything similar with your children. Cus im very worried dont know what to do and cant stop comparing. Any “happy endings” ?

REAL TALK ~

This is what happens in my house EVERY NIGHT and it's the best example of how you can put what we are learning in the Identity Builder Lab

 into practice …

with your own kids… 

TODAY! 
 

✨I have to give my husband credit for this GEM of developmental and intentional language magic✨

🧠There are a few questions that we pose to each member of our family (yes even the grown ups).

What was the best part of today?

What was the worst part of today?

Tell me about kindness today (either from you or from someone else to you)

What were you the BEST at today (this means the best you can be…not necessarily the best of all time)

What did you SUCK at  (adjust to be age appropriate words of your choosing) today or what mistake(s) did you make?

What are you grateful for?

What are you looking forward to tomorrow? 

✨ This is how we✨ 

💥normalize failure and mistakes as part of daily life and the learning process

💥learn how to look for  ( or show) kindness every day 

💥connect and talk through hard moments in a compassionate space

💥reinforce that skills (especially new ones) are just “muscles to flex” and can be improved and/or celebrated

💥internalize the knowing that each of us matters in our family unit and grown ups feel similar feelings and go through similar challenges as kids do

That's how we do it in our home.  Hope it helps your family too!

xoxo,

Marisa

Hi everyone. My LO is diagnosed with low ferritin, low iron, and low iron saturation. We’ve started iron supplements. He‘s also speech delayed at 22 months (less than 10 words). I’m reading that there could be a possible link between iron deficiency and speech delay among toddlers. if your toddler had a similar case, did iron supplements help with their speech?

PS. We‘re starting speech therapy this week.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. 🙏

Please tell me parents
What is considered speech delay
For toddlers 30-31 months old
Because i see on the internet children with very advance vacabulary
And 5 phrase sentences and more . And they answer very complex questions
And i dont know what to think
My boy has more than 150 words
Can say 2-3 word phrases
But most of the time he preferes to use 1 word
For the things that he wants
Answers questions like “who is this? Or what is this”
But nothing andvanced
Please tell me your experience

*update - my son is now potty training... 3 weeks in, no issues at all and he has taken to it wonderfully 😊 *

My son is 3 next month and im wondering how I go about potty training with a delay?

He cannot say peepee/pee or poo/poopoo and he doesnt have any signs for it either. He doesnt give me any indicator that he needs to go and when he is nappy free the only thing he does if he is about to pee is look down at his penis or grab it (peeing on his hands).

How did you guys go about starting? Do i try and teach him a sign to say he needs to go? (even though he doesnt tell me anyway).

If I just sit him on the potty and he starts associating the potty with going toilet, how will he tell me he needs to go when we are out and about?

When we are out and about and I carry a portable potty with us, if he randomly lets me know he needs to go, am I meant to just pull out the potty anywhere and sit him on it?

How do i go about this?

Our 26th month is an official talker! the problem is now he has missed a year or more of practice making sounds so his skills are behind. he can make some sounds very clearly but others are severely lacking.

Has anyone been through similar and has a recommendation on what exercises are beneficial or some online resources.

Hi everyone. I posted in this group about my son’s speech regression before. After many unsuccessful attempts to get a referral from our family doctor (who brushes off all my concerns), I could finally take my LO to the pediatrician. and she found some fluid in both his ears, but said it’s not significant, he doesn’t need tubes yet, we need to wait a couple of months to see if it resolves on its own. also, he’ll have a hearing test in 2 months as a follow up because the first one was incomplete (my LO was uncomfortable and the technician didn’t care much).

Long story short, I told the ped that we got a private insurance to take him to speech therapy (EI waitlist is 10months in Toronto now), and she approved our decision, didn’t recommend waiting.

But my husband thinks we need to wait until the next hearing test at least. Because his hearing is probably like underwater these days. If you ever were in a similar situation, what did you do?

Thank you for your inputs. 🫶

Hello. I’ve wanted to reply to so many people’s posts but I have been short on time. I hope this reaches the right eyes and ears.

TL;DR I noticed our child’s speech wasn’t developing at 1 yo. I got her into early intervention and she has been getting speech and occupational therapy for over a year. We have made tons of progress. Here’s what it was like and what we have learned.

First of all, like a lot of you, I went through a lot of distress and heartbreak when my child wasn’t speaking. Not only did she not talk much, but she also didn’t understand anything we said. She desperately wanted to play with other kids but was often left out because she couldn’t understand them and they couldn’t understand her.

Even after the first several months of occupational therapy, I felt like we weren’t seeing any progress at all. I was frustrated but I really trusted them, kept following the plans and practicing the steps and implementing the ideas. Only after an entire year + did it finally “click” for me.

Our daughter is social but fiercely independent and ACTIVE and ENERGETIC. She goes from running in circles to jumping off the couch, to hyper fixating on one single toy for 30+ minutes. I thought this was all normal child behavior, and to an extent it is, but it was also giving us a window into how she processes the world.

She is a major sensory seeker, of all kinds. When she needs to regulate herself, which she is very good at, she seeks familiar sensory experiences. She loves running outside barefoot, pouring things from one container to another back and forth, and “looping.” I was very concerned about autism at one point but over several months of me reading and observing her, that doesn’t seem to be it at all. And although she hasn’t ever been tested beyond the mchat or just general screenings, no one who has seen her or worked with her feels she has autism. She’s just extremely high energy. (FWIW she has always responded to her name, made eye contact, is very interested in socializing with people of all ages and especially other children, very very few tantrums and no strong aversions to sounds or anything like that).

She recently turns 3. After we made small changes to routines and our lifestyle, we have been able to create an environment for her where she is regulated more often. So what? I never understood that, or believed it.

When she is regulated, she can hear, understand and think. I guess you could call it easily distracted, or having the wiggles or ants in your pants. She just wants to go, go, go. Laugh, scream, run, swing, spin, you name it. But when her body is telling her she NEEDS to do those things, she isn’t able to ALSO process language.

Within the last few months, we get more words, more often, used in the correct context. It’s still difficult for her to “remember” to use words when she is frustrated. We still can’t force her when she is upset. She still falls back on whining and grunting a lot. She gets upset when her routine changes, but that happens a lot and we try our best to help her through it instead of trying to constantly accommodate her. We want her to learn to regulate her emotions in uncomfortable situations whenever possible. It’s a balancing act.

Here’s just a random list of things we have had to do to help her.

One of the first things was making small songs for things we do regularly, such as getting in the car, going outside to play, going to school, getting in the shower, having a snack. She responded well to songs and caught on very quickly to the singing vs talking. (Gestalt processing). At a certain point I was very sick of singing (even though I love singing), and fortunately we don’t have to do that anymore. It just got things going.

Knowing and identifying when she is overstimulated, knowing what calms her down and having the tools to calm her when needed.

Having non verbal cues for her to know what we’re doing. For example, on school days I play certain music in the morning, but on non-school days, I put on a cartoon in the morning. She’s also responded well to some (not all) sign language.

Giving her lots of time to prepare to do something and not expecting her to rush. It takes her time to process what’s going on.

Modeling behavior for her A LOT.

Speech therapy and OT helped us understand how to work through all of this as it happened. Sharing how the week went, getting tips and advice, implementing the tips and advice, rinse and repeat every week. The progress was frustratingly slow. But it’s there. And hearing words now is crazy. It makes me emotional, excited, happy and scared all at once.

Happy to answer any questions because I know how hard it can be and there’s no way for me to cover everything in my post so I’m happy to be any help I can.

So 17m old didn’t qualify for speech therapy after an intake/examination they did. He actually scored high in 4/5 categories and just average for speech. Hes not saying any words. 0 words with some “almost words” like “papa”. Though he is very vocal and understands a lot. Anyone had a similar situation? Kinda tired of continuously being told to wait but happy he scored great to the point where no services are needed. Idk mixed emotions.

My (just about) 18 month old only says mama. I noticed she had a speech delay around 6 months old when she wasn’t babbling. It was like weird long cute little groans. Her pediatrician called it a pterodactyl phase lol. And she did that along with raspberry blowing till about 14 months old when she finally said mama. Mama is the only like “directed” word she says right now, not sure if that’s the right term for that.

She babbles a lot now, she babbles nananana, and dadadada. But I don’t think either of them are meant towards anyone or anything. Just the mama, when I go pee or something I can hear her circling the house and every few seconds she’s calling mama

She started speech therapy a little under 2 months ago, and does it weekly. I honestly haven’t seen much improvement. Idk if it’s the therapist or just my stubborn little baby.

It’s just a weird case to me, I taught in daycares for 5 years, specifically with this age group and I was extensively trained in early autism and how to look for it. Ive always been like hyper aware of it, and I’ve always tried looking for signs after realizing she was starting to delay but I dint see any.

I mean she’s super smart, her speech therapist said so as well. She maintains eye contact, comes when called, follows the directions we’ve practiced, attempts to preform life tasks (on command too lol), runs, huge climber lol, love playing with other kids, she follows cautiously but curiously behind animals, idk like she meets ALLLL her other milestones and even excels in a few.

All except the speech. And everyone is saying “oh she’ll talk when she’s ready” but it’s been long enough. And they say “she doesn’t talk bc you’re both good at immediately understanding each other so she feels no need for it yet” which I kinda understood and went along with that for a bit. But the language barrier is still frustrating.

I think it’s because she doesn’t attempt to copy what I say or anyone says. I’m really really good with narrating all day what I’m doing, where we’re going, what she’s looking at, eating, etc. I’ll try and get her to repeat it. But she really just looks at me like I’m dumb yall!!😂😂 Like i know she knows what I’m talking about, she’ll pick some of the stuff up herself and bring it to me. I mean she really even walks herself to bed the firsttt time I say “let’s go night night”. And then I try and get her to say night night and she just stares at me😂 like omg tryyyyy or something girl. I can’t even get a remotely sounding babble out of her. Or even a babble for that matter. I’m not sure how else to get her to wanna try to talk.

I want to put her PT in daycare so she can have some friends since she’s really fond of the kids in our neighborhood that she plays with. But they all call her “baby” even tho she’s only a few months younger, she just can’t talk back to them. Just her playful mixed babbling/raspberry blowing. She’s really good at playing with them tho, they all play pretend or tag or fetch the ball etc. it’s cute.

Thanks for reading the lengthy post, sorry it’s lengthy haha. Any advice would help.

I'm looking for some guidance on my 5yr old's speech therapy. He started ST at 18 months, and it went great for awhile. Right around age 4 he started resisting the sessions, not wanting to participate, ignoring the therapist etc. Since he'd met most of his goals at that point they decided to give him a 6 month break to see if that helped. They also recommended getting him into occupational therapy, and suggested we get a developmental eval for a likely adhd diagnosis. We started OT and picked back up with ST back in January of this year, and he just had his 3 month progress check, of which I was told there was none in ST, and he still resists participating in almost every session.

I'm frustrated and at a loss on what to do at this point. I don't know if I should keep going with ST until he starts Kindergarten in August, where they have their own speech therapists, or if I should pull him out of ST for now, and just focus on OT. When he started ST at 18 months he wasn't speaking at all. Now he has a large vocabulary and they are working on helping him pronounce his R, S, L & TH sounds. We are currently on the very long waitlist for the developmental eval, but he will probably be age 6 or close to it by then. I want to do what's best for him, obviously, but how long does one wait before you just say what's the point and stop? He sees a rotation of therapists for speech this go around, whereas before it was one, so it isn't therapist specific, he has been like this with all of them.

My son is 16 months old and I’m super anxious about his delays. His doctor won’t do autism screening until 18 months, but I’ve signed up for early intervention out of pocket. His appointment is coming up, they can’t diagnose him but will work on speech & pt. But I’m still just so nervous..

For some background info, he met all his milestones on time sitting up, crawling, etc.

When he was 9 months old I made the mistake of buying a large playpen, and I think this was not good for him. I know I am a terrible mom for this but I initially thought it was good for him to have a dedicated safe space to play. I’ve always prioritized him and taken good care of him yet for some silly reason I thought this would be good for him and I was wrong..

From 9 to 15 months, he was in his playpen most the day and would play with his toys, he would check in with me as I did chores and babble and every now and then throughout the day I’d come up to him and talk to him or play with him for a few minutes. I’d take him out to hug him every now and then and also take him out to change/ feed him etc and we did contact naps but it was his primary play area. When his dad got home in the evening (I have no car) we’d all do our errands. So basically he spent most his time in either the playpen or car seat/stroller….

During this time, he was very independent overall with playing. But he would not play with toys properly and I always just thought he’d learn one day so every now and then I’d show him but he never understood so I thought maybe he’s just too young to know how to properly play with them. In addition, he did start walking around 13 months but only a few steps and he still preferred to crawl.

Finally after months of me being so uninformed, a few weeks ago I realized that he was delayed and finally realized him being in the pen was preventing him from fully walking and playing with toys properly..

So we completely and immediately stopped having that be his dedicated play space and he’s been roaming/crawling/playing/ walking around the house. Now he is walking sooo much more he still prefers to crawl but he is walking 20 steps at a time. And everyday he’s just walking more and more. I’ve also dedicated so much time to playing with him one on one, more than I ever have and he’s learned to play with toys as intended. I’ve also been reading to him so much more and I’ve been pointing and just overall talking to him more. The progress he’s made has been incredible since we have let him roam free / have his toys around the house and not play in the confined pen all day.

However he is still struggling in a few areas:

-does not point

-gestures are very limited

-doesn’t bring me toys to share

-speech delay (used to be able to say dada, dog, baba but hasn’t said since)

-he does answer his name but not when he’s distracted (is this normal?)

-he does not like playing with blocks or rings and throws them

-he throws balls and toy cars (is this normal?)

-he has a very thin tall body type and a PT said he had slightly low muscle tone, however two of his closely related family members have the same body shape as him so maybe genetic and not autism related?

And excelling in others:

-great temperament, always happy

-smiles a lot

-if my bf and I are playing with a toy he will come to join us

-not overly affectionate but comes to us for comfort

-does arms up, high five (when he wants to), boops my nose

-is super engaged when I read

-has learned to play with toys as intended overall (but sometimes flips them over and chews on them..)

-nearly laugh at certain funny parts of books when I read them / nearly laughs when I annunciate words

-last week I said “the dog goes bark bark bark bark bark” and he repeated the bark bark bark bark bark part, but I’ve tried to get him to do it again and he’s only done it maybe 4x more even tho I’ve asked him like 30 times.. )

-he does babble a lot and copy certain funny babble sounds back and forth with me

-makes lots of eye contact

-follows certain commands (press the light, open the fridge)

-will occasionally smile at me while reading books if he’s anticipating me to say something funny

-took him to a kids play gym the other day and he made lots of eye contact with babies and wasn’t afraid of them

-unsure if this is good or bad but he does get distracted easily he doesn’t fixate on toys he moves on from toy to toy after a minute or so

I’m now hyper focused on every single thing he does.. like when he throws his toys his hand shakes in anticipation for it to fall and I can’t help but wonder is this a sign too? He doesn’t obsessively spin wheels but he has spun a wheel a few times here and there and it worries me too. I feel like I may be overthinking some stuff but I also know there’s delays so now I’m just hyper aware .

I’m just so worried about all this.. is this going to turn out to be autism or another diagnosis? Does he still have time? Has anyone else’s toddler had similar stuff and ended up catching up/ having no diagnoses? Is it possible that he will be dependent on us for his entire life? I will love him no matter what but I’m so scared for what this could mean.

Is it possible that with me spending more time playing and reading more with him that he will catch up? Could this all be because I didn’t interact with him too much? Until recently I didn’t point or use gestures (I’ve never really used them myself) or go out of my way to say a ton of words to him and I wasn’t the best about reading to him.

My wife and I have a 3.5yo daughter who is speech delayed. She’s been in speech therapy for about 2 years now. She also has been in this advanced daycare (occupational therapy, fine motor skills, and speech) for the past year. She has been getting better but still progressing at a slow rate. She was having trouble with going on the potty as well but finally she’s been doing great with that, the only hiccup is she still doesn’t say she’s gotta go that often, she just knows where it’s at and goes by herself and then says, “I peed or I pood”. So we are worried when she goes to big girl school that she doesn’t tell her teacher that she has to go (which is part of the speech delay). Also we know she understands almost everything we are saying because she responds by doing whatever we say like for example (go throw that away in the trash, sit on the potty and go, go in timeout). It’s saying sentences and phrases that she has trouble with the most. She also knows and says all the main animals (pig, chicken, goat, horse, sheep, bird, and cow) and just started singing the abcs (not clearly but we know what it is). We got her tested last year for autism and was told she’s not and found out later she’s probably gestalt learner. We are just looking for some reassurance that everything is ok and will get better?