# 30 month old late talker?



## lynnesg (Mar 28, 2011)

My DD is 30 months old and is, at least unofficially, a late talker. I really took notice around Christmas when out shopping and the other kids her age were asking questions and talking in full sentences, where my LO was just putting together a few sentences by then. I know that kids can be ''late talkers/bloomers'' but aren't girls and first borns usually quicker at the whole talking thing? I hate to compare her to other children, but it is so obvious she is behind. I stay at home and talk to her all day, ask questions, show her things, read, listen to songs, but to no avail. She is making progress, but painfully slow. She has just now starting asking ''where'' and ''what's that' related questions. She also doesn't really use pronouns, apart from ''I''. She has a pediatric appt. tommorow and I am going to ask for a referral to a SLP, since I refuse to take to ''wait and see'' approach. She is also starting preschool in a month which I am hoping will help. Any of you ladies have late talkers that experienced a language expolosion? When? Did your child need speech therapy? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks!


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## lynnesg (Mar 28, 2011)

Really, no one?


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## olien (Apr 21, 2008)

Really cant help, but I just had a discussion with my Mom along these lines. She said my brother didn't really speak until he was around 3 or 3.5. Then it was like an explosion of words. Maybe she is just not ready yet.


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## AFWife (Aug 30, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *olien*
> 
> Really cant help, but I just had a discussion with my Mom along these lines. She said my brother didn't really speak until he was around 3 or 3.5. Then it was like an explosion of words. Maybe she is just not ready yet.


This sounds like my brother and, now, my son. With both it's like it's just a lack of caring about words. Is she physically advanced by chance?


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## lynnesg (Mar 28, 2011)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AFWife*
> 
> This sounds like my brother and, now, my son. With both it's like it's just a lack of caring about words. Is she physically advanced by chance?


No, she's not very physically advanced, walked, crawled, all at average times. She understands everything we say to her, but no matter how hard I try, the talking isn't coming along very well.


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## JBaxter (May 1, 2005)

DS3 was a late talker. He did not have the 50 words at his 2 yr check up so we did Early Intervention from about 26 months. EI stops at age 3 and it gets handed over to the school system. EI was great they came to the house weekly to work with him. They did a global evaluation on him. I can speak highly enough of the services we got.

Curious... did you ped not ask about her speech at your 2yr check?


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## JudiAU (Jun 29, 2008)

My nephew had delayed language. My mother (Masters in Special Ed) really encouraged my SIL to do EI and she wouldn't. He didn't have any real words until after 3 and didn't real develop any grammer until his younger brother started speaking in sentances. His language skills where very poor when he started kindergarten and were a real issue for many years. He was in a small private school and they real didn't have the resources to help him and they didn't refer him to the public school for assistance. He was also physically big and the combination was really poor for his self esteem. He got picked on a lot.

I'd encourage your to get your LO evaluated and accept whatever help.


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## lynnesg (Mar 28, 2011)

I have twice asked the ped. if he thought she was behind and both times he gave me the brush off saying she was just really shy and that he felt she was doing fine. So when I go in tommorow, I requested a different pediatrician and I am going to get the referral; I refuse to accept the ''she's fine'' bit.


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## ElliesMomma (Sep 21, 2006)

if you have concerns, then get her evaluated. i think most public school districts have a 0-3 yo program that is free for evaluation.


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## pbjmama (Sep 20, 2007)

You don't need a ped to get an evaluation. Call the school district and ask for early intervention, special services, they will know what you mean.


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## Peony (Nov 27, 2003)

You can just call EI yourself, since he is under 3 it is still EI and not through the school district yet where it gets tricker without referrals. All 3 of my kids have lagged in speech. The first two were considered at the very tail end of normal, there was a bit of a problem but not enough to qualify for EI. Here the child has be operating at a 25% deficient before they can get services. DS will be 2 next month and has been receiving speech therapy since Dec since he is delayed enough to get services. He still only has 1 word but he is at least trying to make more sounds.


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## sarahmsquared (Jan 25, 2011)

Actually I don't think you'll get too far with EI, based on our experience. DS is a late talker. At his second birthday he had zero words, although he and I communicated fairly well. We had him evaluated both privately and through public EI services and got very different results. Privately we were told that he was in the "less than 1st percentile" for both receptive and expressive language. The other evaluation didn't take place for a couple of months and by then he was up to maybe 25 words (most of which were colors) at 28 months and they said that while he was behind but not significantly. He only qualified through them because he didnt say two word phrases at all. Apparently they have to be more than three months delayed on something before they can get services. I could be interpreting your post incorrectly but it sounds like she won't be far enough "behind" to me.

Anyway, that's just what happened with us. I was much closer to the "wait and see" mindset but we did go ahead and try therapy because we didn't see any reason not to. It doesn't hurt him to play with the therapist for a little while every week. I don't honestly think it has helped that much -- he has made some progress in the last seven months, but not more than I would expected without therapy. Although it looks like we might be in for a big burst of new words/phrases so that's exciting.


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## oaktreemama (Oct 12, 2010)

We have had a wonderful experience with EI. For us it was to ensure DS did not fall behind socially/verbally because he has some gross and fine motor issues. The county sent him once a month (that was plenty for us but you may get more visits) and he not only watched to ensure ds was where he needed to be but gave us a lot of hands on examples of what we could do in our day to day living.


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## babygirlie (Jun 4, 2009)

23 months and 0 words. Got evaluated by EI and she is on the spectrum. She has the communication skills of a 3 month old. If you child is pointing and expressing himself in other ways I wouldn't worry too much. You can always get evaluated.You have primal rewards like food. So when you offer him some food you can say eat and do the sign language but keep the words very simple and no sentences is what I am being taught. If they can't say a word then work on the first sound of the word and then reward them with some small treat like a lick of something.. not enough to ruin their diet if they like say ice cream or to fill them up.


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## Latonya (Feb 5, 2011)

This forum really helps me alot. My son is 27 months old and he too is a late talker. I have exhausted myself by pointing to everything in sight and talking to him all day. He is so energetic and friendly, yet he wont even let me know that he wants juice!!! I am waiting for this "explosing" to happen. He is seeing someone who is helping him with his speech. Sometimes I wonder if I am just worrying too much. My husband seems to think so.


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## lynnesg (Mar 28, 2011)

Had our appt. today with the speech pathologists and DD tested at the 30-33 month level across the board, which was so surprising to me. Speech is typical for a 2.5 year old. The SLP explained that toddlers her age repeat or ''parrot'' back things that they don't know or don't have the answer to. I am soooooo relieved!


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## SeekingSerenity (Aug 6, 2006)

My Lil' Man will be 3 in July and is only just now starting to talk. He has been communicating just fine - he understands commands and can respond with pointing and noises, but until he started daycare, he just didn't use words. Now in just a few weeks, he's up to using several words strung together in sentences. His doctor, at his last checkup, was acting very concerned that he was "speech delayed," but honestly I was not worried because he DOES communicate. Just not verbally. I had another child who did this (who's now 13) and so I tried to explain to the doctor that Lil' Man was fine, and didn't need evaluation. She agreed to wait for three months to check him again - and I'm glad he's started talking now. I figured once he was around other children his age he would open up more, and he did.


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## Belia (Dec 22, 2007)

My little guy only had 16-20 words by age 2, when I think the "standard" is 50 words by age 2, so we got a referral to EI. But the first thing we did was a hearing evaluation by a pediatric audiologist. It turned out that he had lost approx 50% of his hearing! He had the tubes put in, and that's another long-ish story, but there was a physical / medical reason for the delay.

By all means go forward with EI, but get his hearing tested as well. If we hadn't done that we would have been treating the symptoms but not the disease, KWIM?


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## lynnesg (Mar 28, 2011)

I also told the SLPs that I had enrolled her in preschool which is set to start next month and they all thought that was the best thing to do for kids her age.


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## indigosky (Sep 4, 2007)

My firstborn, also a girl, was also a very late talker -- although it sounds like yours is way ahead of mine! Mine said "mama" and "dada" at 23 months, and started using 2-3 word phrases at 26-27 months. Now (3 years, 4 months) she chatters nonstop all day long. No one would EVER guess that she got a late start.

My understanding is that receptive language is really a far more important indicator of problems. If your child understands what's being said, the speech will kick in on its own.


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## FallenofTrack (Mar 15, 2010)

My three year old daughter was a late talker as well. She barely had any words at two years old, but her receptive communication was on par. She could follow directions and understood most of the statements that her father and I said to her, but she just didn't have the expressive skills. At my daughter's two year check-up, the pediatrician asked about her communication skills, and when I told her about the lack of expressive development, she referred me to the birth-3 program in Connecticut. After that, I still decided to wait a couple more months to see if there would be any improvement, before contacting birth-three. After a couple of months, I still didn't observe improvement, so I called birth-three and got my daughter registered. A special ed teacher started coming every week to work with my daughter. After several months, I also decided to get a speech therapist involved because even though my daughter was talking a lot more, she wasn't speaking clearly, which was the major issue. So a speech therapist started coming once a week.These interventions helped, along with me just continuously reading to my daughter, pointing things out to her, demonstrating proper pronunciation of words, and asking her questions to get her to respond in full sentences. By the time the birth-three intervention was coming to an end, a lot of my daughter's speech still wasn't very clear. I went to a couple of meetings for the special ed program, and they also did an evaluation of my daughter. Around this time, my daughter' speech did start to clear up, so when the staff evaluated her, they didn't want to make a decision right away, so they invited us to attend a pre-intervention weekly activity and then a final decision would be made at the end of this school year. Luckily, my daughter ended up not needing to do this activity because her speech and clarity of speech rapidly developed during the last couple of months before she turned three. Now at three years and a couple of months, my daughter's communication skills are where they should be and her father and I can actually have conversations with her, and understand almost everything she says.


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## tjk88 (Apr 5, 2011)

My ODD is also 30 months old and I've been concerned about her speech lately as well. After reading this thread I feel a little bit better. I was a "late" talker. My mom said that I hardly said anything at all for a long time and right around the age that my DD is right now, I just started talking in sentence after not saying much before then. And I am a first born, too, to address that part of your post.


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## Fay (Sep 21, 2005)

I have also BTDT. I have 1 autistic kiddo & 1 late talker who spontaneously began speaking in sentences at age 31 months. Research has demonstrated that the single most effective method to stimulate speech is maternal imitation (primary caregiver repeats every sound that the child makes), not preschool peers or any type of instruction. I strongly recommend the book "Play to Talk" by MacDonald, who is a celebrity superstar in the world of early childhood speech pathology. The book is super easy to read, supportive of AP, and it explains exactly how to help your child in real life doing the normal things that you do every day. Many public libraries carry this book, because it is recommended by most early intervention programs.


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## Kaydove (Jul 29, 2010)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Belia*
> 
> My little guy only had 16-20 words by age 2, when I think the "standard" is 50 words by age 2, so we got a referral to EI. But the first thing we did was a hearing evaluation by a pediatric audiologist. It turned out that he had lost approx 50% of his hearing! He had the tubes put in, and that's another long-ish story, but there was a physical / medical reason for the delay.
> 
> By all means go forward with EI, but get his hearing tested as well. If we hadn't done that we would have been treating the symptoms but not the disease, KWIM?


This was me. I had tubes put in and loss hearing when I was learning to speak. It sounded like people were underwater. I went to speech therapy for 6 years at a public school since I developed a speech impediment. I didn't start speaking for a long time and then rarely spoke in public/people I didn't know very well.

I still have hearing issues due to weak eustachian tubes; they collapse randomly and frequently (like when your ears are plugged), and I hear a slight ringing in one ear. Speech is fine. I can't hear people at all unless they're looking at me, especially if their back is facing me. That's probably a brain developmental thing vs. a physical hearing issue. I had my hearing tested twice in the last 2 years, and its normal.


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## Emma Bryan Fuller (Dec 17, 2007)

I have 2 boys now 7 and 9 yrs. The younger one was a very advanced early talker. The older one was late. I was told by strangers all day long how smart the younger one was. He surpassed his older brother (18 months apart).

Now they are both at Montessori and the older one is doing great and ahead for his grade and finds learning easy. The younger one has stayed back and is slow at learning. I don't think it matters much when they learn to talk, much like walking etc. It does make life easier but that's all.

Good Luck...soon she will be talking your ear off!!


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## RubenZ (Dec 18, 2009)

My daughter will be 18 months in 2 weeks and she will not stop talking. She says ABC, counts 1-10, Says 2 words in a row now, can name about 15 of our family members, and just pretty much can repeat any word we say. We are very proud as we pretty much read to her a lot and ask her to repeat words we say. It gets embarassing when we are out though as she talks too much LOL. I called my wife Stupid one time jokingly and she repeats that too. You can pretty much say we cuss no more in our house for fear she will repeat them.


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## anjsmama (Apr 6, 2011)

My DS is 31 (almost 32) months. At 30 months (mid-February) he was not really talking. It had driven me crazy, because my niece who is only 4 months older, had been walking around speaking in full paragraphs for over a year! I did ask DS's pediatrician at his 2 year check about his speech and he said it was completely normal. He had about 20 words that were his favorite and he knew well, but he never put any words together. I was getting really worried, like I always do, and then it just.. changed. He woke up one morning and said "Hi Mom" - his first 2 word phrase. Then he said Thank you, Mom - Cereal, please - Find crayons - etc etc etc - it was so choppy & broken sounding for the first week or so. Now he is speaking in full sentences and knows too many words to count. He knows things I don't even remember teaching him. He counts to ten and talks about what the weather is doing, and where the birds live.. It reminds me of when my mom said "You just wish they will learn to talk until they do... & then you wish they'd be quiet!" He now talks all day - to me, to his new baby sister, to himself. It's only been 6 weeks or so since he started talking and it's just been an explosion! I feel like he's been holding in all this knowledge for so long and now is just pouring it out.

His pedi (and my oh-so-calm DH) always told me the most important part as far as toddlers are concerned is what they UNDERSTAND. Though my DS wasn't talking much, he could identify pretty much everything in the universe by pointing, and could follow 3 and 4 step instructions (Go into the kitchen. Your brown shoes are on the second shelf. Please get them and bring them to Mom). If your DD is comprehending well, the speech will come. Likely the pediatrician will not see it as a concern unless she doesn't start talking by age 3. Hang in there - I have felt your stress!


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