Speech - Staten Island,NY

Contact the BIRTH23 program they are FREE and GREAT

http://www.birth23.org/

PLUS whats better than free

I used them for my son,

M

Early Intervention is a great program and wonderful in NY. If you think there is an issue get him tested. If he qualifies great and if not then do not worry. After 3 the program is harder to get into since it is through the board of ed and not the health department

Dear K.,

I am a mother of 5 children ages 2 to 28 years old. Three of my children have had speech delays. You can call Birth to three and ask that you child be evaluated and they will come to you house and evaluate him. Also, we have gone to Yale Children's Hospital. All you need to do for Yale is have you doctor send over a script to evaluate. We have worked with Virgina at Yale and is is one of the best speech people I have worked with.

As you are aware, children develope speech at different rates but if you are concerned at all I would have him evaluated so that then you will not worry.

I too am a stay at home mom and happily married to my best friend.

Enjoy the day!

E. S

Early intervention services are amazing and FREE! When you call for an evaluation they will come to your house to complete it. I am a social Worker in an Elementary School as well as I mother of two, one of whom has been in speech services since 17 months of age. My experience has been the earlier you catch speech issues the better. My son also understood everything, followed multi-step directions and said not one word. We found out after the evaluation that he had mucus in his ears so deep it was only found by a ENT and Tympanogram. He was unable to hear certain sounds but could make out the majority of the other information, so had no problem following directions. Its worth the call even if it is just to give you a sense of security.

I went through this with both of my children (now ages 6 and 3 1/2). Discuss with your pediatrician. See what they advise. It never hurts (even if your doctor says everything is ok) to have your child evaluated by a speech pathologist. Your insurance probably covers a private evaluation-you can check.

ALSO-but more importantly, you can have your child evaluated by "early intervention" in whatever state you live in. In NY, NJ,CT this is easily done. You can get the phone number from your pediatrician or from your county or the internet. An early intervention specialist (usually a speech pathologist or someone with a special ed degree) will come to your home to evaluate your child. They will tell you if the child is eligible for speech from the county/state. Speech services are available in-house for free in some states and on a sliding scale (depending on income they will request a W-2)in others.
I live in NJ and did this. Both of my daughters received early intervention speech therapy once a week in our home. The early intervention assessment helps them become eligible for pre-K services at the age of 3. (Do it any way, even if you do not accept their speech therapy. You would pay a lot privately for this full evaluation. ) Later I supplemented with private therapy I paid for. My daughter then attended our town's "pre-school disabled program"-- she is far from disabled as were the other kids in the program. This is in NJ. The pre-school was really just a school for children that needed a little speech therapy or some physical therapy. All of the kids were very bright. It was great! (And free) She is now in first grade and top of her class.
My second child has articulation problems, but is also very bright. Due to her speech, we received early intervention speech and she is now attending the same pre-school program. Look into it. Never underestimate the power of speech therapy and early intervention. (I am not a speech therapist, I swear!) Good Luck!

My oldest son was a late talker but I didn't call early intervention until he was nearly 3, and at that point it was too late since they age out at that point. I then tried to get him into the preschool disabled program in my city, but as another poster said, it is more difficult to go that route without having been in early intervention. Now I pay for private speech therapy. I was told that a good indicator is that they should be saying about 20 words by 18 months.

I would highly recommend calling early intervention to get evaluated. It is free, they come to your house, and it doesn't hurt to call. You should call now since it sometimes takes a while to get an appointment and by the time they come, he will likely have turned 2 at that point. I regretted not calling sooner. Good luck!

Hello.....My son was 2 1/2 and hardly said much himself. One day he just started and would not stop. He was the same as far as being able to comprehend very well and I could not understand why he was not talking. I would give it a little more time and not worry too much yet. I would check with your pediatrician as well and see what he/she suggests.

I'm a mom of 5 and I have 3 girls,2 boys. With my boys I noticed my oldest son wouldn't want to talk except to say mamma, dadda, and a few other words. I was concerned he could have a hearing problem but he acknowledged commands I'd give him but it was frustrating not having him talk. I brought this up to our family doctor but at the time they said he was still in the "normal" range. He eventually outgrew it at the age of 3 when we moved back into my in-laws house and he was surrounded by other cousins and he had to start talking if he wanted to play with them and voice his opinions for the most part. He's a healthy normal 5 year old but I've noticed with my 2 year old he's way more vocal than my oldest son. My oldest son started walking at 10-11 months much sooner than his other siblings. He had great coordination skills and loved putting things together and taking them apart. So he was excelling in other areas so look for that too. If you have any concerns though bring them up at your child's next doctor visit. Sorry if I made this too long of a reply. Good luck with everything :)

I have a 21 month old who only has 3-5 words. I just had him evaluated and his receptive language is age appropriate, his expressive language is delayed, but the therapist recommended that I wait and have him reevaluated at his second birthday. She said his cognition is appropriate, so she did not recommend services yet. Good luck!

first thing is dont compare your kids. i learned that as well. i have 3 girls. my middle daughter was the one who needed speech therapy. but she had articulation issues. if you arent able to understand your child's speech it may be because hes young yet. i am almost positive your child has to be aged 3-4 before they consider therapy. my daughter was almost 4 when we began hers. it may be hes not developed some words perfectly yet but neither has my 2 yr old(she was 2 last august) my daughter that had speech was unintelligible on alot of things and that wasnt baby talk anymore. something needed to be done.
my choice in your situation would be to wait and keep an eye on what develps and what doesnt. if something needs to be "tweeked" then that may be a bit later on in life. there are hs students who get speech therapy in our district. its good that you are aware that there is help out there if your child needs it(especially at an early age)
sounds like hes right on with development for his age i wouldnt worry just yet ;o)
hope this helped!

A.

My daughter didn't talk until she was over 2 years old. We worried about her as well. In every other way she was growing accordingly. I'm sure you have been told don't worry when he does start talking he'll talk in sentances. Well that is true!! When she did start talking she couldn't stop! Since your are his mother you should always go with your gut instinct. The good thing is he understands what you are saying. This leads me to believe there is nothing wrong with him!

as a mother that panics over just about anything that seems out of the norm (1st time mommy here) i would take him to a dr to see what it could be. only 2 things can happen from that, either there's something wrong and they can help with the speech, or there's nothing wrong and you wasted your time...i personally would rather waste my time then to wait too long. my daughter is 22 months, and she says 60-70 words now, and sometimes it's small 2-3 word sentences. i know that it's a little more then most her age, but not too much more then my friends kids when they were that age to say that 14-16 words is the norm...also,i'm not a dr. so you can't really go by what i say as fact on what the norm is..which is why i'd say definitely talk to his dr. about it. maybe the dr. will say it's perfectly fine and just to wait it out, but i'd rather be safe then sorry. GL.

ps...i have heard that sometimes a 2nd child (or younger sibling) just sits back and absorbs everything, taking longer then the older ones to show what they know (so to say). though i still stand by going to a dr. it's easier to be at ease when a professional is saying it's nothing.

I waited until my son was 2 and have Early Intevention come and evaluate him. Get him help as soon as you can. With EI you can have service rendered in your home, depending on the childs needs you will get a certain amount of sessions weekly. It has tremendously helped my son in the past year (he just turned three). Once he hits three years old they have to be evaluated through the schoool district and it is harder to get services and you also have to go out of your home for them or send him to daycare (paid for by the school district) everyday. My son will start in daycare next week and I am a nervous wreck. I much rather have the providers come to me in the privacy of my own home!

Hi K.!
My name is T., a very happy stay at home Mom with my
two year old son, Thomas Anthony. I read your "a little about me" and wanted to ask you a question. How do you like
being a Mary Kay Consultant. I started out a few months
ago, purchased the starter kit and only attended one meeting. I wanted to hold off on my involvement until after the holidays and my son's birthday.
Look forward to hearing from you. Have a great day!
T. :o)

Hi K.!
My fourth child was a late talker as well. We started early interventionw ith him when he was 2 1/2, the special pre-school in the Holmdel public school, which was great. He had some sort of oral/muscular issue-that his mouth just couldn't form the words. He was tested for everything, neurologist, autism, you name it, but he started talking at 3 1/2 after the speeech therapy at preschool. Now, he gets straight A's in honors classes, and scored 1450 on his SAT's and is applying to ivy League schools(obviously nothing was wrong with him) .So I would contact the child study team in your public school system for help. Obviously, if he understands what you are saying to him he is fine. Boys tend to talk later. i found out this is common.Good luck!
Cathy

My son didn't say anything except ma and da before the age of 2. After 2 he spoke perfect sentences. My daughter started to talk about 9 mo. old.. and we couldn't understand her at all... she is now in speech.. The words your son says... can they be understood? or is it hard to understand? If it's really hard to understand.. start sounding them out for him... like if it's the word zoo... say zzzzoooooo. My daughter would say sue for zoo.. things like that.. we worked with her.. and it helped and now speech helps even more.. Good luck..

K.,

I am a speech language pathologist and specialize in early intervention. My intuition tells me that you are right and your son is probably just a late talker. Having said that, early intervention services are provided at no cost and are available anywhere you live in the country. A team of early intervention professionals will do an informal screening of your son and let you know if they feel he could benefit from services (which are also free until he is 3) or an evaluation.

This just might bring you a little piece of mind. Besides, they will probably also provide you with a few strategies to help guide him along as well.

Contact your nearest elementary school and they should be able to tell you who to contact. Some early intervention services are county based and others are school-system based.

Good luck.

In order for him to qualify for speech therapy he needs to be 33% delayed in one area or 25% delayed in two areas. If it's just his expressive vocabulary that it delayed (which from what you described it is delayed) it's hard because he will be looked at as just a late talker and his receptive language will bring up his score...making it hard to score a 33% delay in his overall communication skills. You can always have him evaluated because the SLP should give you tips and it's free. In the mean time make it harder for him to meet his wants and needs unless he uses his words and use lots and lots of positive reinforcement.

I am a special education teacher, but speech is not in my area of expertise. That is why I was concerned over my sons speech at 2. He had even less words than your son. However, he hit two and all of a sudden started talking up a storm. He did (and does) still have some delays at 2 1/2, so I went ahead and got him set up for a speech eval. (Being a special ed teacher, I knew all the steps to take and that everything was free and I saw many benefits in knowing where he was cognitively and what I could do to help him with his speech also, even if he didn't qualify for therapy). Last week the speech person and the psychologist at Circle of Friends came to evaluate Alex. He did wonderfully and showed all his speech delays. Even though I think he has a lot of delays, he showed to only be slightly delayed by their standards and did not qualify for services. What the speech therapist told me was that he exhibited a lot of errors in his speech, but that they still were normal at 2 1/2. By three, the patterns of speech that he is using should disappear and the sounds should start to emerge (the ones he doesn't have now like /g/ and /k/, among many others). Anyway, short story long, I would say that you are best off waiting until 3 to get him tested. I know that this seems late, and two weeks ago I would have told you to go ahead and get him tested because the younger you can get him, the better. After testing though, I would now say to wait (unless of course your pediatrician tells you to do otherwise based on their observations) until he is three and the measures are more difinitive. I am just going to have to have my son go through more testing in six or ten months if he exhibits the same delays. I hope that helps (sorry if that dragged on a bit or didn't make much sense, it is late, but I wanted to give you my experience. Email me personally if you have any questions on what I stumbled over trying to say!!!)

I have been through this experience as well and I would say to get him tested asap. Even if he is okay and is just a late speeker then at lease you know. If you wait until he is a 2 1/2 then he will only have 6 months with early entervention (age limit is 3) but if it is seen that he does need therapy and you qualify then he can be extended to 3 1/2.
There are a ton of agencies in nyc but I went through "All About Kids". The best way to start is to ask you ped to contact because they ask for medical records so it easier when your ped knows whats going on.
Hope this help.

get him evaluated ASAP...if you wait till 2 1/2 he wont get the services till he's almost 3

The only one I would trust to HELP make your decision would be a certified speech/language therapist. S/he would do a complete evaluation of your son's speech and language development and compare his results with the results of other children his age. Boys tend to develop speech later than girls (go figure!), but early therapy can help a delayed child catch-up. Delayed speech affects learning in many ways and it's best to catch problems before they multiply. A therapist may not recommend immediate therapy, but may just give you activities and ideas to help your son's develpment. In any case, it isn't something to be ignored. I have noted that moms are the first ones to notice when something is "not quite right" with their children, even when doctors and other professionals don't see it immediately. Go with your instincts; no one knows him better than you do. By the way, I worked as a speech therapist in NY's public schools for 8 years. Now I home school my 5 daughters. :)

not sure what the problem is> sounds like he is on target... i really don't think he would qualify... is he putting 2 words together?I think by 2 he should have about 50 words? but 2 is not the magic number... you got to give it 2-3 months extra... if he was 2 1/2 or 3.. i would be concerned.. wait a while and see. J.

I know it's hard not to compare kids, but try not to. My older son spoke 2-3 word SENTENCES at a year old (no kidding) and my youngest barely said more than 15 words (that only I could understand) at 24 mths. By 25 months, everything changed. The words were coming everyday and much clearer. Amazing what a month can do. If you're really concerened, speak to your dr. Otherwise just enjoy!

all children progress at different rates, even siblings. i think to worry about his speech at this age is unnecessary. if siblings were to learn and grow at the same rate, i would have been in trouble with my youngest son. give him time, let him learn at his own pace, he may suprise you and take off one day and advance to fast for you to keep up with.

My son didn't start talking until about 26 months, and he, too, had great cognition and could follow through with directions. He also was very good with physical dexterity. He could figure out how to push a stroller up a curb, could stack blocks, could figure out stuff. My theory is that kids develop one skill at a time, and speech simply wasn't important enough to him to develop. Meanwhile, my 2-year-old is lousy with push toys and balance, but can already speak a blue streak. Don't worry. If there are no concerns with hearing loss, he'll develop his vocabulary when he is good and ready. If you are still concerned, the Early Intervention program offers free help for kids under three.

I highly recommend having a free Early Intervention evaluation done (I'm assuming you live in New York). You can either ask your pediatrician for a referral or search under "Early Intervention Services" to find a site near you and start the eval. yourself. They can tell you if your son's speech delay is significant enough to warrant services. If they do recommend services, they will be provided at no cost to you either on site, in your home or in your son's preschool. Good luck!

"give time to time" do you know this old saying....why do you compare your children? More than the mistake of wanting to put a perfectly fine little 2 years old boy in speech therapy, you are making the most atrocious mistake of comparing your 2 boys...You are putting too much pressure on your child and on you....As we say, all children are different...it says what it says....they learn at different space and learn different things... at the end of the day your son will speak perfectly well, give him time he is only 2 years old!
so my advice: relax and enjoy your boys as they come!

K.

My daughter also a 2nd child did not speak a word until over two. If you don't feel there is anything wrong with him give him time. He probably doesn't need to speak because #1 is always talking. My daughter is ten now and can speak perfectly and profusely. Sometimes I even miss the old days. Try not to worry and enjoy your boys!

M.

go ahead and get your son tested for speech. It's free and it can't hurt. there are only 2 outcomes....he needs therapy and gets it or he doesn't, it's a win, win situation. my now 5 year old I tested before he turned 3 and he recieved services for 2 and 1/2 years and now he is in kindergarden and doesn't need services at all....my son who just turned 4, I had him tested at 2 and they denied services and I had him tested 6 months later and he qualified....go with your gut and if they say no and you feel he needs it either retest in 6 months(the older the child is the more they expect them to do, there is a big difference in a 2 and a 2and 1/2yr old...etc...) or check with your insurance company some pay for private therapy. Remember you are your childs best advocate....follow your mommy gut!

New York state offers free services up to age 3 through its Early Intervention Program. Have your son evaluated. If he qualifies, you will work with a local agency who will find a speech therapist for your son. Contact the NYC Dept of Health and Hygiene to request an evaluation or ask your pediatrician.

I read you e-mail, my son is undergoing speech therapy. He is 25 months and has had therapy for the last four months. I think you should have your son evaluated by a speech therapist. If he needs therapy, it's better for him to get it now. The more help he gets before beginning school the better.
Also does your son still use a bottle or pacificer? The first thing the speech therapist told me was to get rid of the pacificer and bottle. He now drinks from a sippy cup with a straw built in. I replace the built-in straws with disposable ones since the built-in ones are hard to clean.