2 yr old and Speech

[Hazel30]

I have a 25 month old Son. Very smart, active and aware little boy.  Knows majority of ABCs and knows 3 colors already.  Associates 5 animals with their sounds and every single body part head to toe, even the hard ones. Sings songs and counts up to 3. BUT, I think he is delayed in his  speech.  When he was 23 months old I made an appoitnment for a speech evaluation because his vocab wasnt up to his age level.  Our appoitnment was in 1.5 months later which was last week.  Since he turned 2 his vocab boosted and knows many words now BUT my NEW problem with him is that he does not pronounce his words correctly.  Swallows sounds.  We saw a speech theropist last week for an evaluation but have not heard back from him yet.  He said from what he saw that he takes short cuts in his words.  Instead of dog says dow - or ball says baw - bag says bay - Love says lol - Plum says pum and it goes on and on.  Then he also has made up words for certain things such as long words (chocolate, garbage) that I, by now, have figured out.  The only two things he says correctly is his age and name.  He cant say certain letters either  (S F G J K W Z) I know some of them are hard.  He also  doesnt put sentenses together.  Except Hi Mommy and Hi Daddy.  This worries me a bit although the therapist said that he is almost on target on his speech and is advanced on his skill level.  Is this a serious problem?  Can this affect speech long term?  I know he may need some therapy but how serious is this?

[boosty]

oh my God, i think youre definately making a big deal out of this. at two years old, most kids bearly say much. thank God you have a very smart kid. mine is EXACTLY like yours and she is teh smartest thing. she does EXACT same stuff as yours. and up to the age of 3 or 4 , they will not pronounce things the exact right way. my daughter says alot of things wrong. i mean almost every word is funny to listen to. they are still learning at this age. and the fact that he is even saying daw for dog is a great thing. appraise him and dont take him to all these evaluations. i mean if he still talked like that when he was 3 or 4 , thats when you should take a step like that. enjoy him and allow him to be a kid when it comes to this. i know us mothers worry so much, but dont worry about him not speaking perfectly at the age of 2.

[Hazel30]

You know, your right.  I feel like that too but when I see all these 2yr olds talking, and maybe not sentences, but they talk so clear.  My nepheu is 23 months old says everything so clear and is even able to say two word sentence. But he doesnt nearly know as much as my Son does as far as skill level.  I guess its just me and part of being a mother.  Everyone around me tells me I worry too much and jump too far ahead.  I guess everything takes its time.  The speech therapist did say to try to exagerate words slowly to get him to listen to all the sounds.  We've been trying to do that but it sounds so funny that he starts loughing and us as well.

[Trialanderror]

Hazel, did he have a lot of ear infections? Since it is just the clarity of words that is lacking, it is very possible that he has heard or is hearing speech in a muffled way and would not be able to distinguish the consonants, thus pronouncing them wrong. I have come across 4 children by now with slurry speech - and it was all linked to ear infections. My son was always the lucky one who never had ear infections, probably thanks to immunization, and his words have been very clear so far. Maybe this is it - and once any lingering ear infections or liquid build-up are cured, the little guys very quickly catch up on correcting thier pronounciation.

[jd1419]

My two year old son says words funny also--it is just them learning how things sound--they may hear it one way but are unable to pronounce it that way--give him time--My four year old still has a hard time with certain letters when he talks and is excited about telling you a story--they grow fast as it is and will be in school soon--don't make these easy years hard on them--if he wasn't trying to talk then I would say you have a problem--but since he is just enjoy him.

[anxiousmomtobe?]

You are overreacting.....most speech therapists won't even see children under 3.

Do not compare your child to other children.  Each child is unique and develops at their own pace.  He sounds like he is very strong in other areas.  Speech may just take a little longer.


He is still a baby, try to avoid the "superkid" trap and let him be a happy little boy.

[Hazel30]

Hi there, No my Son has never had an ear infection and that was the first thing ruled out.  He actualy has never even been sick, except a little runny nose.  I guess Im just being a little too worried.  I'll see what the speech therapist will say.  I think he will just recommend some excersises that we can do with him at home.

Thanks much for everyones replies.  My next topic will probobly be potty training.

[RockRose]

My kids are almost grown,  so I have kind of a long perspective of time here.  All three of my boys spoke with adult clarity when they learned to speak - by the time they were 18 months,  any adult stranger could understand their speech,  they never needed  "interpreting" by a family member.  Who knows why.

My neice and nephew (sister's kids) started out talking in words that didn't bear any resemblence to what they were saying ("da" for nightgown comes to mind!) and by the time they were 4 or so they were doing great.  I have a friend whose little boy pronounced things in the weirdest way - bessert for dessert,  kadult for adult,  who knows . . .    he's now 14 and perfect.

I think you son is probably very bright,  and someday you'll look back on this and it will be  distant memory.  I have no real answer as to why some kids can pronounce words right and some can't,  but from what I've seen,  if everything else seems fine,  they'll quickly learn to pronounce well.

Best wishes!

[live4fitness]

my son had the same problems when i put him in a mdo his speech got much better. my daughter had no problems, the dr said some boys are just slower and not to worry, now he is 4 and doing good

[pixijal]

He would fall under the range of 'normal' at his age.  
He wouldn't be referred for services until the age of 3.
Right now, he must be able to communicate, and have vocab words of at least 200.  Articulation isn't usually an issue until around the age of 4.  YOUR  FINE.  

[boosty]

hi its me again. out of all the questions posted right now, yours is the one i am keeping my eye on because i really think that youre over worrying yourself. i can tell youre a great mother but think that if you learn to be more relaxed and carefree and not pressure your son and allow him to do things at his speed, youre learnign to support him better as he grows and goes through different stages too. your son sounds very bright. my daughter talks exactly like your son. somtimes she even says things backwards like for example chips is pich. cookie is ceeka. but some of her words are getting a bet better. she is very smart. she knows all the alphabets. and she even recognizes them written down. she does all your son does. if they were older and still had a speech problem, i would understand yoru worrry. it like asking a catupilar in a cacoon to fly already. make any sense? some kids walk at 9 months, some walk at 15 months. it means nothing. relax and enjoy your son while he is young cause those teenage years are right around the corner . time flies . enjoy the fact that hes sayign the words funny.

[Hazel30]

Hi boosty, thanks for the post.  Im not as worried as much any more especialy after reading all these reassuring posts here.  He's a great kid though and we are enjoying him and actualy cant believe he is 2 now.  So your right time flies, fast.  I took him to the therapist over a week ago.  He said he would call me in a few days with his thoughts I still havent heard from him so I guess its not that important.  Our new thing is potty training.  For so long now he's been refusing to wear his diapers and now its becoming a struggle.  He even began to tell me when he does num 1 or 2.  Very cute so tonight I sat him on the toilet and he went so we'll see how it goes.  He's a quick learner so I hope we'll get through this fast.

thanks again for posting.  How old is your little one.

[boosty]

i am very glad to hear all that. mine will turn two this monday. thats why i was saying they are exactly alike with all the stuff they do. and even though i heard girls are a bit more advance and quicker then boys, yours in doing pretty good knock on wood.

[boosty]

i am very glad to hear all that. mine will turn two this monday. thats why i was saying they are exactly alike with all the stuff they do. and even though i heard girls are a bit more advance and quicker then boys, yours in doing pretty good knock on wood.

[blondie72]

THIS IS SOOOOOOOOOOO NORMAL  -   I do the same thing though with my son who will be 30 months in a week or so. He is pretty understandable - I can understand about 95% of what he says - Now my DD who is 8 was speaking PERFECTLY clear at this age so I find myself comparing the two and getting frustrated at times but I now realize my DD was just VERY advanced and my DS is just normal LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Stop worrying - If he isn't that understandable by 3 1/2 or so then I would take him back to speech just to make sure it is ok.  

[question4y'all]

Our 2 year old is about the same as yours. Her pediatrician said that everytime she says something unclearly we should say it back to her clearly. don't make him repeat it. Just don't ever use baby talk with him. He should be fine by the time he is 3.