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Ripeberry
13-12-2010, 11:18 AM
My mindee J who has been with me since 12 months old, still only talks one word at a time and mostly is quiet, does not even babble to himself much.
He is now almost 28 months old and only has three word sentences at the most and does not seem to know more than 20 words.

When should I get concerned? I'm sure my own two girls talked LOADS more than this at his age and when he is with other children his age, the difference is quite stricking.
The parents have not shown any concern but he is their first child. It's just I'm going through the LJ and all the areas that are not being 'met' are to do with communication (verbal)
But he does understand everything you say and sometimes does imitate words, but for some reason they seem to be 'swear' words, such as 'Damn' which he loves to say over and over again :rolleyes:
He also loves to scream his head off, especially in the car when I've collected my own children...so nothing wrong with his voice.

catlyn
13-12-2010, 11:21 AM
my grandson was exactly the same...he was referred to speech therapist by HV at two and a half...then shortly before his third birthday he started talking and now hes 4 there isnt anything he cant say clearly....in fact we laugh about how we were worried about his lack of speech...the therapist told us that at 2 and a half his range of words was within normal boundaries...

grindal
13-12-2010, 11:23 AM
Its probably nothing to worry about. My own DS1 did not talk at all until he was over 3 yrs ols. Then he just did whole sentences at once - not words or parts of words. My old mindee was also a non talker, and I understand what you mean about the EYFS statements - but remember they are only guidance - not targets that children should be achieving.

You could talk to parents and suggest they speak to their health visitor. They may assess him and organise some speech therapy sessions.

Other good ideas with non talkers are making silly noises, blowing bubbles, asking them lots of questions and giving them time to speak.

Ripeberry
13-12-2010, 11:23 AM
Thanks. I suspect that he is 'holding' back until he is confident about saying everything he wants properly. He strikes me as a perfectionist and I'm sure he will surprise us all :)

appleblossom
13-12-2010, 11:58 AM
Thanks. I suspect that he is 'holding' back until he is confident about saying everything he wants properly. He strikes me as a perfectionist and I'm sure he will surprise us all :)

My own daughter was just like this. She was about three years old when she started talking properly and she was talking full sentences. As you say, it was as though she was waiting until she could say everything and make herself understood. She was referred to a speech therapist who simply recommended lots of language activities such as stories, and encouraging her to say something about pictures in books, even if they are only one or two word responses.

However, although she can now talk well and is very articulate with people she knows, she has recently been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. Her diagnosis has been arrived at because she has severe social/communication problems in unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations and environments. This also manifests itself through her written work, as she finds it difficult to get her ideas and thoughts down on paper. CAMHS has said that her early speech delay was possibly the initial sign that she is mildly autistic. Unfortunately her primary school dismissed my concerns and she was in high school, aged 11, when she was referred to CAMHS. She is now 14.

I am mentioning this because I believe that early speech delay does need to be monitored. It can be a sign of other underlying problems which may not be as obvious as the speech delay. It is quite possible that a late talker is perfectly OK, but other areas of development can also be a concern.

Blaze
13-12-2010, 12:56 PM
Ripeberry can you pm me your email - I want to send you something that may be of help:)