Should I be worried that my 20 month old doesnt say a lot??

[dliver316]

I have a 2.5 year old that has been getting weekly speech therapy through early intervention. I can not say enough good things about early intervention. Even with all their help, you just have use your mommy gut. For us, a trip to the dentist actually gave us the answer to ds speech problems. Early intervention is a free and wonderful service. In my state, once your child qualifies in one area, then if you have any concerns about another area of development they are automatically eligible for services in any other area.

dliver - glad your son is talking more! I do agree with the one poster that it doesn't make sense why they would encourage you to wait. I know I had to wait a month or more for my evaluation appointment, so keep that in mind that if call on his 2nd birthday, it could be another couple of months before they do the evaluation. Sounds like you are doing a great job, though.

We are getting the evaluation done this Friday ....one day after his birthday. So I will let you all know how it goes.

[ELLE-TN]

Just so you know, if he does need speech therapy.... your county school system is REQUIRED to offer him speech therapy and evaluations for FREE since he is 3 years old. And, you don't need to worry about their qualifications as school speech therapist are REQUIRED to hold a Masters Degree unlike those at your local therapy centers. So you basically will be getting the best treatment available.

[njha]

She actually asked me several questions over the phone about his speech and just suggested that I might want to wait until he was 2 b/c she did not think he would qualify based on these answers. I dont know if it was legal or not, but I think she was just trying to let him actually have a chance at qualifying for the program. :shrug7: I could be wrong....maybe she also just didnt have time to do it, but I hate to think that.

Today one of social worker stop by just to do lots of paper work and to get started . She also did some very basic test. Based on those test she made similar comment. She said she is just too young right now and she maybe borderline. She said that usually kids qualify if above 2 years and delayed otherwise if kids are 30% (something similar) or more delayed in one or more area. She infect encouraged me that it's good I called -- and If my disqualify than apply again when my daughter turns 25-26 month old. She think around 22-24 month kids get growth spurt. So I have to wait till next week for audiologist and speech therapist. I hope they get started --or if it comes naturally in that case happens soon :) I do not have patience!

[taylordvd]

We are getting the evaluation done this Friday ....one day after his birthday. So I will let you all know how it goes.

So, how did the evaluation go? Ours lasted for three hours and it seemed like they were at my house forever.

[dliver316]

I wanted to update everyone of the Early Intervention evaluation we had.

He does not qualify for their services. She said he just had a mild delay with speech but b/c he is understanding everything and passed all the tests he would not even come close to qualifying. She did recommend as some of you did to have his hearing checked just in case...although she said she really doesnt think there seems to be a problem with that. But it is free also.....I will do that next week after the ear infection he has clears up (this is only the 2nd one he has ever had.)

I may still check with my insurance to see what they cover regarding speech therapy...but he is saying new words everyday.

The evaluation lasted about 1.5 hours...and it was very comfortable and informative. She did say if I was still worried in a couple months she could come back out and reeval at any time before he turned 3.

[taylordvd]

It may not feel like it, but this is great news! There's no harm in getting his ears checked.

[wvumountaineergirl]

If all the tests turn out okay, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

According to relatives, I didn't talk until I was three or four years old. I made the normal simple sounds, but my mom tells me that rather than talking I communicated with my own made up sign language (I would tap my thumb and forefinger together to indicate I was thirsty, etc). Nobody worried about it because I seemed to understand everything fine and found my own way of "speaking."

When I got to kindergarten I still wasn't speaking much and I did the all normal evaluations. Turns out, I was developmentally AHEAD of the other kids - and stayed that way. I understood and processed info at a 10 year old's level, and could speak perfectly when compelled to (by M&Ms!). They suspected I didn't talk because I was just absorbing and learning. Go figure.

Sometimes kids just have nothing to say. I was one of them, and I turned out pretty okay.

[neglectarino]

I would encourage you to contact early intervention. There are no negatives to getting him evaluated.

I second this recommendation. My son was dx with autism & w/o the speech delay, we would've missed it early. He had intense intervention & is now in a regular ed 1st grade class, no supports. For all intents & purposes, he comes across as a typical 6yo, albeit quirky. The outcome would have been dramatically different if it weren't for the very early intervention he got.

And this isn't to say your son has autism. But you don't know if he's delayed significantly or not & an evaluation will get him any early intervention he requires. The earlier the better for developmental delays of all kinds.

And it can take months to get appointments, etc. so setting them up now can't hurt. The worst that happens is you need to cancel them because he outgrew whatever you were worried about. And get the hearing test as recommended.

Early intervention evaluations will mainly cover gross & fine motor skills and expressive & receptive language development. In NJ, they came to my house & "played" with my son for about an hour, then went over their opinions. A final report followed, I don't recall how much later (if at all--I might've been given a copy right then & there).


ETA: well, duh. Serves me right to respond before reading the entire thread! Glad to hear things look OK, just slightly delayed!

[neglectarino]

If all the tests turn out okay, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

According to relatives, I didn't talk until I was three or four years old. I made the normal simple sounds, but my mom tells me that rather than talking I communicated with my own made up sign language (I would tap my thumb and forefinger together to indicate I was thirsty, etc). Nobody worried about it because I seemed to understand everything fine and found my own way of "speaking."

When I got to kindergarten I still wasn't speaking much and I did the all normal evaluations. Turns out, I was developmentally AHEAD of the other kids - and stayed that way. I understood and processed info at a 10 year old's level, and could speak perfectly when compelled to (by M&Ms!). They suspected I didn't talk because I was just absorbing and learning. Go figure.

Sometimes kids just have nothing to say. I was one of them, and I turned out pretty okay.

Well the thing is, you were at least attempting communication. If there is minimal to no attempt, that's a concern. If the OP's son points to things & brings them to others just to share (not to fix or otherwise interact with), that's good. My son would bring us stuff to interact with, but not to share in a "hey, mom, look at this interesting thing!" way.

Additionally, my son wouldn't look at things I pointed at, like the fish in a tank. I had to practically bring in a circus in front of the tank to get him to glance at it. That is a joint attention problem & reflects communication impairments. Combined with speech delay, joint attention can signify hearing problems, or as in my son's case, autism.

Sign language was the first step his ABA therapist took in teaching him communication & speech. We used it with his typically-developing younger brother, too.

And you're right, IQ often has nothing to do with it. My son initially tested below average before his language skills developed & was retested at significantly above average by preschool.

Good luck OP! Don't worry about what the diagnosis might be, just focus on getting whatever interventions & services your son needs, if any.

[raster44]

There's a cute program on Nickelodeon called Word World that has characters and objects made up of words. Pretty entertaining and a fast learning system for kids. My two year old granddaughter is amazing how she can read storybooks since she started watching that show last year when she was 18 months. Now at almost 2 1/2 the she has surpassed her 4 year old cousin. I bought her some DVDs of the show for Christmas but my two daughters thought it best to have the 4 year old watch them. Check out the show, it's on at like 9:00 AM on Nickelodeon.