Speech therapy for 2 year old?

[RcdM]

I wasn't able to go to my dd's 2 year well check so OH took her. She's healthy and the Dr isn't concerned about her eating habits... but OH doesn't ask the questions I would or at least as many. So when he got back he just said all is fine but that the Dr wants dd to try speech therapy. I was so caught off guard by this! He said the Dr asked about how many words she can say, and OH told him a few but she repeats words more often than actually using them to communicate. Which is true... but I guess I never ever thought that she might have a problem? I figured she was right where she needed to be.

DD was a preemie so her adjusted age is just under 22 months if that makes a difference.

Anyway, OH said the Dr didn't seem too concerned but wanted to refer us to someone who would come out to the house and assess her and stuff. I feel like this would be pointless because she is really shy and she rarely talks around other people. But when we're home with her she talks up a storm, although a lot of it is still baby talk nonsense. Maybe that's a problem? I dunno. I was just not expecting that at all and I'm open to having a speech therapist come for a visit but I just didn't think she was behind.

I google'd a few things and found that maybe she is - this website says by 2 she should be saying at least 50 words, and starting to form small sentences or phrases. DD really only says one word stuff. She says thank you, all done when she's done eating or playing with something, love you, night-night daddy or night-night doggy, and she can sing a really good portion of her abc's, twinkle twinkly little star, and a few other songs. But communication is different. When she wants something, she just says "want! want!" and I try to get her to say "want water" or "want chicken" but she hasn't really strung those words together. When she is thirsty, she says water, she can identify a ton of things in the house, and if I ask where is your ear/eye/nose/mouth she can point to all of those places.

Anyway, I don't know what my point of posting this really is. I guess I was just really caught off guard about speech therapy, although I don't have anything to compare her to so maybe that's my own ignorance. Does anyone have experience with their kids going through this and was it very successful? What do they do? Surely they have had shy kids that won't talk in front of them much so what would they do in that case?

Thanks

 

[emma4g63]

hi there- exactly how old is your dd in months as you dont have a ticker - it seems to me for a 24-26 month old what your dd is doing is perfect and iif shes saying more than 50 single words i certainly wouldnt worry - she will start to sting words together in her own time and wouldnt worry about that until after maybe 30 months or so.... thats what most sites say.
your right in saying though there checks are done by strangers and of course there shy my little girl doesnt shut up in front of close family and friends but strangers she is really shy and quiet - im sure they cant judge of that-
i would just think what you think yourself but if she says alot of things but doesnt want to communicate for them maybe shes just being stubborn

sorry if not much help but didnt want to read and run

 

[annanouska]

my son is 22 month old. We have our initial assessment in 2 weeks time. He used to have about ten words 6 months ago, now he has three

Even then they didn't seem too over,y concerned but I've not had the assessment yet so not sure x

 

[RcdM]

Thanks - she just turned 2 on Saturday, so she's exactly 24 months. I guess we're going to schedule it and just see what they say, maybe they can give us some tips on how to help her use words to communicate rather than just pointing out random objects all the time. But I really don't think she needs it. Has anyone used a speech therapist? I'm just curious what they would do for the first visit.

 

[Rickles]

My nephew had speech therapy at 2 - it really helped, I am sure this is not the case for your DD but he is autistic and we have all been amazed at how much it has helped.

I mention the autism because he is not good with strangers, change etc. but still responds really well. A very good friend of mine is a speech therapist and she said the younger you start the better, with her non autistic patients, often they catch up in a few months and don't need to continue.

So I guess, it can't hurt??

xx

 

[sequeena]

You may find that once they've done the initial assessment they may not want to see your LO again. I wouldn't worry I think it's becoming more common for children to go to SALT.

My son has been going since just before he turned 2. It's not helped him yet. Speech requires many things - patience for one and my son doesn't have it. They have to work on other things with him before they can really do some proper work with him. He has however picked up sign language from them which we continue and he is doing very well. He doesn't get the signs exactly right but we know what he is saying.

 

[tina3747]

We was referred for speech therapy at our 2 year check. I was getting a little concerned as he only had around 5 clear words and a few others that I knew what he was saying but nobody else did. It was a block of 4 group sessions, I wouldn't say they helped my ds at all but they were very good at giving me tips to get him talking such as looking at him when your speaking to him.. Quite often if your busy your mouths moving but if your not looking at them your not engaging.. Gave me a lot of food for thought!
All of a sudden he just started talking, now I can't shut him up! I think like the PP said, it's all about patience, they get it when they're ready! I will say though, his behavior improved immensely once we were having conversations!

 

[RcdM]

I know I'm very late to respond but thank you ladies! We're interested in the initial appointment but having a very hard time scheduling it! Our case worker guy has not been returning our calls and I've now left a message with the office manager to try to get someone to call us back. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Tina3747, that's a good point - making eye contact. I will keep that in mind when my dd is talking! She still makes a lot of baby talk though, like full on conversations, and I always listen to her and try to look at her. But then I wonder what she's expecting from me as a response. I usually say "Well that's so interesting!" or "That's what I was thinking!" Lol so who know if that's what I should be saying or not. But thanks for sharing!

 

[SarahBear]

I know I'm very late to respond but thank you ladies! We're interested in the initial appointment but having a very hard time scheduling it! Our case worker guy has not been returning our calls and I've now left a message with the office manager to try to get someone to call us back. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Tina3747, that's a good point - making eye contact. I will keep that in mind when my dd is talking! She still makes a lot of baby talk though, like full on conversations, and I always listen to her and try to look at her. But then I wonder what she's expecting from me as a response. I usually say "Well that's so interesting!" or "That's what I was thinking!" Lol so who know if that's what I should be saying or not. But thanks for sharing!

Hah, when Violet is babbling on, I often times say "You have a lot to say about that!"

 

[the why bird]

My daughter had some help from the speech therapy team when she was 18 months until she turned 2. I say 'help' because what we had was lower-level intervention than actual speech therapy.

A lady from their team came to see her at home about 4 times, for about an hour each time. She just sat with her on the floor and played with her. She would bring a bag of toys to get her interested - sometimes dolls, sometimes play food, sometimes animals etc. She would also sing nursery rhymes with her. She would ask me questions about what she was like when it was just us, too. They know that children react differently around strangers and will take your opinions into account.

In our case they decided our daughter was a little behind the curve but not so far as to cause concern. They offered us a place on a programme called 'chatterkids' which was basically a play group once a week with high adult to child ratios (4-6 children, each with a parent, plus 2-3 people from the speech and language team). Every week they had a theme like the farm or families, and they would do one or two activities around it, then have some free play, then sing some songs.

They mostly just played with the children and narrated what they were doing like 'What do you have there Daphne? Oh, the cow. The cow is having a drink of water. Do you know what the cow says?' It was all extremely low pressure. They would send us home with sheets of ideas for simple games and tips for talking.

After 2 eight week blocks we all agreed she had moved past what she could get from the group and we were discharged.

In our case, she probably would have caught up without the help but it was great fun for her and it was nice for me to get some reassurance that I was doing the right things to help her.