Late Talker....Ideas for Home

We went through EI too. The best part is you learn the best ways to help with speech. The eval is free and the services are on a sliding scale too. Get the speech you won't regret it!!!

I have my 17 month old in speech therapy. It really can't hurt them, even if they don't need it. Early Intervention will come out and do your evaluation for free and will tell you if your child has a 30 percent delay to qualify for speech therapy. It might just be good to get the evaluation and go from there...you just have to call early intervention.

Go through EI and get the speech therapist. Trust me. Our son started seeing a speech therapist at 17 months and it was the absolute best decision we've ever made.

If you don't want to take that route, then DITCH THE DVDs! He will learn best from you, listening to your voice and watching how your mouth works.

Labeling - Hold up familiar objects close to your face, label it by saying 'puppy' (or whatever the object is) several times, then give the object to the child. Read through books and label the objects as you read. Do this over and over and over. When it is mealtime and you hand him the cup, hold it close to your mouth and say 'cup'.

Sign Language - I'm not on the sign language bandwagon, but at the request of our therapist we have started with a few. At mealtime don't just give your child all of his food at once. Put a few pieces on the tray to satisfy his initial hunger. Once he is finished with those and starts crying for more, tap your fingertips together and say 'more'. He will eventually start either saying 'more' or signing for more food. It literally took our son one day to start signing 'more' when he wanted more food. We've since added 'please' and 'thank you', which he now repeats as well.

Dialogue - Give your son a play-by-play of his days events. For example, when you are dressing him or changing his diaper, talk about what you are doing. Repeat similar words or phrases over and over.

Good luck to you and don't be afraid to try the speech therapy.

As a special education teacher, I say follow your Doctors advice. Give you child every opportunity you can

Ditto on the referral to Early Intervention. The state pays for the evaluation(it is not billed to insurance). He has to have a 30 percent delay(i.e. his speech would have to be at a 16 month level to qualify). If he doesn't they will be able to give you some ideas to facilitate speech. It is incredibly hard to get speech services after the age of three(through insurance) without a medical diagnosis so I would encourage you to take advantage of EI now. I am an EI physical therapist so I've seen families struggle to get services later who were referred late in the game. If you need more info on how to contact the Child and Family Connections office for your area(they go by county) email me.

Hi A.. I agree with MR below...go ahead with the EI process and have him evaluated. I'm not sure what your hesitation is, but I am currently going through the process and am thrilled with it. I've learned that sometimes options for help become a bit more limited once the child turns 3 until the time that the delay is causing an issue in school. (And, most children aren't in public school until at least 5 years old.)

If you are seeing daily changes in your son's language development, then your son may not be eligible for any help. However, you will be given many concrete ideas/instruction on how you and your family can help his speech development from at least two qualified therapists (for free!!) For us, it is a win-win situation.

I'm a baby sign language enthusiast and saw incredible results with my daughter. Somehow it helped her connect the concept that every object has a corresponding word. She loved learning to say new words along with the new signs we were learning. She now (at age 31 months) helps teach it to my younger son. We took a baby sign language class together, but there are many how-to books on the subject. Once taking the class, my daughter loved learning from the Baby Einstein "Baby Sign Language" DVD and the Baby Einstein "Around the House" DVD.

Best Wishes!

There is a state agency that will come to your house and evaluate your child on speech, OT etc. If your child needs therapy it there will be a small monthly fee no matter how much therapy is needed.It will give you peace of mind and some pointers on what you can work on. It's better to start now beacuse the evaluation is free before the child turns three.They are great! They just evaluated my twins today :)
The agency is called Child & Family Connections . The number is ###-###-####. It's office is on Glenwood in Joliet but it serves Will,Grundy,&Kankakee Counties. If you aren't in one of those counties they can give you the agency that does. My friends twins started Troy right after they turned three in the middle of the school year to get therapy for speech . this agency will help with the transition .Good luck !

Get the early intervention testing if your Dr. is recommending it. Make sure that you have also completed some basic hearing tests in the Ped's office to rule out any hearing concerns. Don't take it personally that your son is not talking. My son was the second child (firstborn is a girl) and he qualified for speech for 3 1/2 years. My daughter's verbal communication skills were wonderful. I knew my son needed help in speech but it just worked out that I waited until he was 3 to have him evaluated in many areas of childhood development. I just kept thinking the speech would "click in" because I talked to him all the time (and so did his sister and dad). What my son lacked in verbal communication skills, he made up for in small, large motor skills and social skills. If he would get stuck on "how to say something"...his sister was always there to translate (in retrospect, it could have been part of his problem!) He could ride a bike, without training wheels, by 2 1/2 years and he loved disassembling/reassembling everything. The majority of children, every year, in his speech class, were composed of busy young boys. It was interesting to see many had older siblings in school. You'll find that the development of certain consonant sounds form only after other sounds are mastered. For instance...the process of learning t/th came ONLY after my son successfully learned the "ch" sound. And...it can take weeks! The "L" sound can challenge a child for a long time and the process can be long and tedious. A Professional, in this field, will teach you all this and will equip you with the proper methods to develop age-appropriate sounds/blends and will outline a goal/plan for when they should be learned. Every week, my son and I played word games (many times in the car) to develop one or two specific sound/sound blend. He's ten, now, and speaks very well...better than most of his peers. Follow your instincts. Good luck.

Get a hearing test too. My daughter at 2 wasn't talking to much and it turns out she had a lot of fluid. We took care of that, and she hasn't shut up since!

Definitely do the EI evaluation, and I also highly recommend the book:
It Takes Two To Talk - you can look it up online and also if you go through EI there is a resource library where you can borrow it from.
good luck.

get a 2nd opinion before following your docs advice and not your heart. try other things before medical intervention.
how many other 2 year old boys have you met that are much more advanced in language? other ladies say after 3 it is hard to get medical help but your son is only 2...you have plenty of time. always follow your heart. you know your son best.