Speech delay

Can anybody help me or offer advice ? my son will be 3 in 8 weeks time and his speech seems to be developing slowly, he only recently came out with his first 3 word sentence ' Catch the ball ' and has only said it once, the only other sentence's  he says is ' hello mummy ' or ' no mummy/daddy'..

He can count to ten with a little help and repeats some words when I show him pictures in books but only when he is in the mood, more often than not he tells me ' no mummy ' and finds his favourite pictures of cars and diggers instead or just chucks the book and finds another, and repeats this process until all his books are on the floor. He can say fish, sheep, dog, cat, ball etc when he see's them and will run in holding his cup and say juice when thirsty and ta when he's running off with his drink but I was hoping he'd be talking much more than he is by now.

He attends nursery twice a week and they report no interaction with other children there, however he does at home with his cousins and children he knows well. He is very shy around strangers so think it's probably more to do with that at nursery. They also tell me he dosen't say a word there to them or other kids. He  can at times totally ignore people, I can shout his name out and he'll just tune me out but if I say chocolate quietly he has no problem whipping his head around to see if I have any, so know it's not his hearing. His father does do this to me at times when I'm nagging and I wonder if he's copying is dad, he does ignore nursery staff too. They describe him as a free spirit and say he just does what he wants to do most of the time and tell me he's in his own world, however I feel this is more to do with his character than a problem.

We have just had twins and due to a fairly traumatic time i spent a lot of time in hospital due to pregnancy and twins being very poorly, we're only just getting back to normal now and I wonder if this has had a part to play. Has anyone any advice ? thanks ..!!

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

He is showing some developmental difficulties and the situation warrants evaluation. The most useful approach would be an assessment by a developmental pediatrician. This will ascertain his developmental status in the major domains: motor (gross & fine), cognitive, social and emotional.

[kyte91]

Thank you for your reply. His motor, cognitive, social and emotional developmental markers all seem fine, I'd say above average in fact, however i'm no expert. Will take your advice and ask for referral to peads.

[mindy544]

my 4 year also had a speech delay after speaking to her pediatrician she was put into a pediatric speech therapy session twice a week for 30 mins a day it has helped her so much she has completed her therapy and is now speaking in full sentences that we can actually understand speak to your pediatrician there is alot of local county hospitals that offers this pediatric therepy and they are wonderful with kids thats all they deal with is kids with problems in speech i hope this helps you