My daughter will be 3 in April. She seems to understand everything I tell her or ask her to do. But everything she says is just "ba ba ba". I have tried to pronounce a word slowly and have her repeat it, but it seems she can't get her mouth to do it. We are also a 2 language home, I speak English with her and spanish with her father. Her father speaks spanish with her, and she also understands him. I would appreciate any advice on this issue. I have taken her to the ped. and he just said she is developing more slowly because she is learning 2 languages at the same time. But she is almost 3 and doesn't pronouce one single word clearly.
Hi, just wanted to give a little up-date on this situation. First I will start by saying, I do not live in the US, I live in Honduras. So no "early start program" here. And yes I have mentioned this to her doctor time and time again. He has stuck to the 2 language home theory. I have never had her evaluated, because that type of procedure is not readily available here. But over this year, I have seen some major improvement in her language skills. She has a vocabulary of around 75 words (a big difference from 0). She chooses the easiest word of the 2 languages to use. For example she says 'agua' instead of 'water', and she says 'night night' instead of 'dormir'. She sometimes gets frustrated when she tries to tell me something and I do not understand what she is trying to tell me. I am aware there could be a real issue. I am trying everything I can to get her some help. But it is not easy here. I want to thank each and every one of you for your advice and similar experiences, it helps to know I am not the only one :)
Contact the school districts. Early intervention is available and is usually free. My son benefited from this for his pragmatic language skills. It definitely helped.
Even in a two language household, she's behind in her expressive speech. Sounds like her receptive speech is great, but yes - you should talk to someone other than the pediatrician. Call your state's Early Intervention program (quick - before she's three when she'll lose eligibility) and see if you can get a speech evaluation.
No, she is not developing slowly because of the 2 languages, your gut feeling is right. Many pediatricians are not up to date with the current understanding of speech and speech therapy. You need to contact your local school district special services. You can also call Early Intervention but it takes weeks to get an evaluation and then another few weeks to start services. Call them today as well. Call the local school district and demand an evaluation. She will most likely qualify for a free preschool as soon as she turns 3.
While it's true that multilingual children often progress a bit slower in their speech, that certainly doesn't mean that they don't speak ANY words, especially by the time they are three. My youngest child, who is two, is moderately bilingual and yet fairly fluent in English, at least (mostly just an understanding of Spanish, not really speaking it yet) and I can carry on conversations with her and she has a large vocabulary.
Your instincts are absolutely right, and this is not normal. I think it's time for a speech therapist to intervene, and other assessments can be done as well to see if she's on track in other areas developmentally. I agree that the first place to start may be your local school district...good luck!
You need to get a speech evaluation NOW. She is very behind and it is serious that she cannot talk. PLEASE call your ped's office immediately to get a referral.
Really, you cannot wait.
Dawn
I disagree with most of the responses you've gotten, mostly because I have been you. My youngest didn't talk (not one single word) until he was 3. I always felt ok with it because he seemed so smart! Ex: go up the stairs, bring me a blanket, a book, and a yellow crayon! He would return with those exact 3 things. We did attend groups speech therapy for a short time, and then the "switch" turned on. Here we are a yr and a half later and tonight at dinner he told me " mommy, do you know that 8 plus 6 is 14?". He is so talkative, and there are days I can't believe he took so long to talk. Your daughter will too. And you won't be able to get her to shut up!
Check to see if your county offers "help me grow". It's what we used for speech. It was free to those who qualify, and it sounds like your daughter does.
Get her evaluated as soon as possible. Usually you can do it through your school district with the Early Intervention program. However, usually you must do it before 3 years old for the district to pick up the cost. It takes a few months to get evaluations done.
If your child has been going to her annual check ups, the Pediatrician should have been told this.
let's not forget Einstein started talking at age 7. At the april visit address it to the pediatrician. my daughter started talking full sentences at 3.5, but at 3rd bday appt not so much. its amazing how much children progress within the age. my daughter never wanted to repeat anything, she talked on her own terms. i remember the judgemental mothers at the park making comments how their children started baby talk at 12 months etc. some suggested to see a specialist. i told those mother to take a good look on my child because she will be a boss of their children one day:) i never wanted to stress myself or my child by taking her to a specialist, so i just listened to my pediatrician. my child never baby talked, she does extremely well in school (almost six)
The pediatrician could be right that the delay is simply due to your bilingual family. However, my 3 year old daughter was delayed and we had her evaluated by a speech therapist. She was diagnosed with apraxia, which is a motor planning issue. With apraxia, she has to think about how to move her mouth to make certain sounds. Before we figured out what was going on with her, she would make vowel sounds and no words except mama and wawa. The good news is that she has been in speech therapy for about a year and she is speaking so much! They say she will need speech therapy probably through kindergarten just to keep improving but she will go to kindergarten with her peers. If you look online and look in library books you may get a better sense if this is what you are dealing with as well or not. Hope this helps and you figure out the best way to help your daughter!
My daughter spoke when she was little--but no one could understand her but me, and even I had a hard time sometimes, trying to figure out what she was saying. When she was 3, I took her to the free school district screening. Found out she had a Severe speech problem. She took speech from the age of 3 until 6th grade.
By the age of three years old, your daughter should be able to at least form some simple words and even put two words together, regardless of the fact that she is in a two-language household. I would get her evaluated for a speech/language impediment. The earlier you get her help, the easier it will be for her to speak and also read and write down the road.
I just finished the process of evaluation for my 3.75 yr son. He also does not speak clearly. The evaluator could understand only 3 words during the whole hour long testing. The hard part we noticed is he was to smart, in all the other areas to "fail" enough to get in to preschool. Thus we had to repeat the process a few times. The fact is she understands the language, that is awesome, speaking will be just delayed. My son didn't say mama to me til after his 2 yr birthday. We also used a second language with him, sign language. His vocab in that is over 150 words. It was what we used to help understand him. Hang in there and start the process after her 3rd birthday.
