talking

[brittanyshantel]

yeah i have a 2 year old son. we took my son to the doctor cuz he is 2 he should be talking more by now. i worked in a daycare for 2 years before i had him so i no a lil something ya no but he is not talking like he should be anyways i took him to the doctor and he sent us to a physical therapy person. she watched him play and everything and she said wow he is like a year smarter in everything but his talking and it looks like he is a year behind. she sent us home and said keep doing what i am doing for a few months and if he does not get any better then we will work with him. oh first off i told him all he needed help with was talking and she didnt have to keep us there for 3 hours to tell us something i already new. no i am reading and do everything and he is getting it but he is still saying like maybe 40 words i dont no what to do or how to show him how to do it help would be nice

[tiff78g]

My son is 22 mo and has been in speech therapy for about two months. He still only says maybe 15 words, and I am probably the only one that understands most of those words.  At speech therapy all  they really do is get down and play w/ him and reinforce different vowels and consanats.  I have been working w/ him and home and while he is getting better, he is still no where near he should be. GL w/ your son and I hope you get the answers you are looking for.

Tiffiny

[Candleman]

my son is the same as tiff78g's son.

he's 24 months, and knows only about 15-20 words but never uses most of them. he only copies what other people say. EG.. we say "fall down" and he will parrot..  but its never of his own accord

I dont want to alarm you two, but look into Autism, we suspect our son is autistic and a major part of autism is poor communication and anti-social behavior. We are seeing a secong GP next week who said she will refer him to a specialist as it does sound like ASD.

some signs of autism,
slow speach development
insensitive to others. Eg a crying sibling will recieve little comfort unless it is parroted by observing an adult doing it first.

lines toys up. does not plays with toys.
repeditive movement (hand flaping or rocking)
anti social,
aggressive towards others
biting themselves or banging their head on things ("self mutilation")
parroting what they hear
obsessions
resistance to change
tantrums
poor eye contact
loves rough play OR conversley is extreemley sensitive to light, sound (Eg. vacuum cleaners)

you only need to display a few of these to be autistic.

best of luck
I hope our kids are just slow, but it pays to get it checked out sooner rather than later.

I have heard vitamin B6 and Magnesium can help learning
I statred my son on multivitamins this week

[Candleman]

SORRY  not "the same as " didnt mean to imply anything there..  reading back it sounds bad.

[tdub321]

A great language model is the best way to foster language development, as I'm sure you know...

Point things out -- name and describe objects and actions
Talk to your son about what he's doing while he's doing it
Talk about what you're doing while you're doing it
Expand on what he does say  
Model conversations by taking turns when talking to him.  
Use simple language with good grammar
Read books!!  If he can't sit through all the actual words, just look at books and talk about the pictures, or modify the story so he's getting good language input to match to images.  

You can also give him incentive to talk by making it necessary to get what he wants -- say he wants a cookie.  If you know he has the word for "cookie" but is crying or grunting to get it, only give it to him once he uses words.  You can model the word and immediately reward him by giving him the cookie if he even tries to say it.  If he's not even requesting things with gestures, body language, or grunting, reward THOSE communicative behaviors and gradually work up to requiring words.  You can get creative with this.  You can close favorite toys inside see-through boxes or jars and make him ask you to open it (in whatever way he can) to get it out, or hide things on high shelves that he can see so he has to communicate with you to get it down, etc.  

If you're doing all these things already and he doesn't start developing over the next 6 months or so, I'd get him reevaluated by a licensed speech-language pathologist... but for now, I wouldn't be overly concerned.  A delay of "maybe a year" (as estimated by a physical therapist, not an SLP) doesn't indiciate that it's even a significant delay... kids have a wide range of what can still be "normal" even if it's at the upper or lower end of what you'd expect.  And it's especially a good sign if he seems to be bright or on target in other areas of development.  

[mommyof3cuties]

My 3 year old daughter didn't start talking til after a year ago. I didn't know why she was not talking so i took her to her doctor and we found out that she needed to have tubes put in her ears and not wven 6 months later she was talking more and more. now she doesn't stop talking

[Laundryqueen]

I have 3 children, they are 5, 3, and 1. My oldest was talking nonstop at 2yrs old. My middle son never said a word until he was 2yrs old! My youngest will be 2 in August and he is only saying some single words. Remember they do not always develop according to the "text book". As a Mom I feel the language expectation is a little high for some little ones. My oldest is a girl who caught on to everything fast. My boys do not seem to catch on to things as fast. Our neighbors 2yr old son only says a couple of words. Kids like to do things at their own pace, not the doctors. They have tested our youngest for everything under the son (long story). Just when developmentally they become concerned he proves them wrong. He has mild cerebral atrophy of the brain (the front part of his brain is smaller than it should be). He has taught us patience and that text books and doctors can be proven wrong by little ones.
It is good to be concerned and paying attention, but do not get to excited about it yet.... I am not trying to sound passive, but I think sometimes all the child needs is time. I think as parents (me included) we want what is best for them so we are quick to jump the gun and run them to the doctor for a diagnosis. Give him some more time, you may see he is a normal, healthy, stubborn boy who will talk when he wants to.

[g8r grl]

My son will be 2 next Tuesday and says hi, ball, ma-ma, da-da, and approximates mine, more, and bubble. That's it! I'm a speech-language therapist and he's been seeing his own SLP for about a month. I have already seen improvements as far as approximating sounds and more jargon/babbling. I decided that he was Apraxic around March and his therapist told me today that she's starting to agree with me. He has some mild sensory issues and also sees an occupational therapist once per week. He is definitely not on the spectrum (of Autism) as he is very social, enjoys praise, makes eye contact, interacts with children and adults, shows emotions, plays with toys instead of "inspecting" them, etc.

They need to do these evaluations on your son and can't take your word for it as far as what the problem might be. I can't tell you how many parents are oblivious to characteristics that are obvious to therapists. I was so worried about my son's speech that the sensory thing didn't click with me until his SLP mentioned it, and then a giant lightbulb went off in my head and I thought "that's why he does that!" What state do you live in? It doesn't sound like FL by the way they're doing things.

This might sound silly, but the best thing you can do is teach yourself how to play with your son. I take it for granted that everyone knows these techniques, but I often forget that not everyone is in my field of work and has not been exposed to these things. For instance, if you're stacking blocks you would say "Up!" everytime you stacked one. So do 4 of them and say "up! up! up! up! NOW YOU TRY! Say UP!" and keep doing this over and over. Only work on simple words and repeat, repeat, repeat! Really pronounce the /P/ sound and try to get him to imitate you. Even if he gives you one sound out of the whole word (approximates) say YEA! Good job! Praise him and make him want more. Reward him for trying, not just doing. Trying is just as good!

Also--when you read to him, do you just look at the pictures and read the pages? I can make a board book last 25 minutes if I had to. You elaborate on EVERYTHING! You should talk about the pictures for more time than it takes to read the page. For example:

Tonight I read a Clifford the Big Red Dog book to my son and it sounded like this--
"Look! It's a book about Clifford! There he is! A BIG RED dog! He has ears (start pointing), here are his paws, and look! This is his collar! That's what dogs wear around their necks! He's so big! Look how small Emily Elizabeth looks standing next to him! Look at those funny socks she is wearing. They're striped! Black and pink stripes! Black, pink, black, pink, black, pink (I'm pointing to the colors). Emily is wearing a pink sweater that matches her black and pink socks. What's that in the sky up there? Those look like clouds. Uh-oh! They look like gray clouds...that means it's going to rain! Do you see the rain falling from the cloud? (then I sang the Barney song about raining lemon drops) Good thing Clifford has his yellow rain hat on? See his yellow rain hat? You have a hat too! But it's not yellow, it's blue. It's a blue hat. Let's turn the page and see what happens to Clifford and Emily!

Alright...that was just the cover of the book! My husband can't stand to hear me read to him...he's probably jealous. My mom is just as bad as me because she was a Kindergarten and Headstart teacher for 33 years. She tells him about the cover page and what everything means. But, it helps! This is what makes them smarter! My son will point out the picture because he knows that I talk about each one and elaborate on them. It's so cute how he looks to whatever I'm talking about. I have him point out things such as "can you point to Cliffords nose?" Now I've taught him what elephant "tusks" are and he can even point to those. Can't say a word, but darnit I'm going to make sure he's a smart cookie!

Good luck! Things will fall into place. Let me know if you have any questions...